Wireless driver packages for Puppy2

What works, and doesn't, for you. Be specific, and please include Puppy version.
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tempestuous
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Wireless driver packages for Puppy2

#1 Post by tempestuous »

These Linux wifi drivers are for Puppy 2.0, 2.01 and the remastered "2.02-regression".
They are not compatible with the standard Puppy 2.02

Update Aug 2006: The download location has changed slightly - http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/

A dedicated driver is one written specifically for Linux, as opposed to ndiswrapper (and the commercial Linuxant DriverLoader) which "wraps" a Windows driver.
Dedicated Linux drivers are the optimal solution, but usually involve extra effort. I have not provided a fancy wizard, you need to read the relevant README to use these drivers.

ndiswrapper has its place. It's a less complicated solution (you don't even need to know what chipset you have) and it's your only option when there's no Linux driver available.
This download site also has wifi-1.0.4-beta-2.pup (originally packaged by Bladehunter) which automates and configures ndiswrapper. It contains many popular Windows drivers ready-to-go.

So to the new drivers. With Puppy2's 2.6.16 kernel there's some bad news:
- atmelwlandriver won't compile, but there is a standard kernel driver for Atmel PCI & PCMCIA devices which should be fine.

EDIT July 20 2006, the BerliOS at76c503a driver for Atmel USB devices is now compatible.

- linux-wlan-ng (for Prism2/3) - the PCMCIA versions won't compile, but that's no problem, the HostAP driver will substitute. Fortunately the linux-wlan-ng USB driver is OK.

- Lucent-Agere Hermes1&2 (proprietary) - won't compile, but there's a standard kernel driver which should be just as good.

The good news is that there are now 4 previously unavailable wifi drivers:

Broadcom bcm43xx - I have provided the "softmac" version which is considered more developed and stable, plus the "devicescape" version which supports full (not just PSK) WPA encryption. Both versions contain additional wifi network modules, which, in the case of the softmac version are designed to overwrite Puppy2's existing wifi modules.

NOTE: Several of these driver packages here contain optimised/modified wifi network modules. Don't try to "mix-and-match" these modules. The Linux wifi network stack is undergoing change aimed at new features, but several different versions of the stack exist in the meantime.

Prism54 usb/softmac - this is the "islsm" version which supports USB adaptors with Prism54 softmac chips, and PCI/PCMCIA softmac versions.

Marvell - "mrv8k" driver for Marvell Libertas chipsets.

ipw3945 - for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG.

EDIT June 26/July 9 2006 - The "new code" rt2x00 Ralink drivers are not stable.
So the old code versions are here, too, which I have called "Ralink-legacy" and this package includes the recent rt61 and rt73 drivers.

Plus there are updated versions of drivers I earlier provided for Puppy 1.0.4-1.0.9 at http://mymirrors.homelinux.org/puppy/wireless/
- acx (TexasInstruments), adm8211, Hostap (Prism2/3), HostAP Daemon, ipw2100, ipw2200, linux-wlan-ng (Prism2/3 USB), MADWiFi (Atheros), Orinoco-with-rfmon-patch, Prism54, ralink-legacy, rt2x00 (Ralink), rtl8180-sa2400 (Realtek), zd1211 (Zydas), and wpa_supplicant.

I have also included "Aircrack-ng" at kirk's suggestion, for wifi network packet collection.

edit June 26 2006 - kirk's "Kismet" dotpup is now here, too. Kismet is an older wifi sniffer than Aircrack-ng. It's much larger, but has a simple gui, and will work with a larger range range of wifi adaptors.
The patched version of the orinoco drivers is now here, too, which adds support for Kismet.
Last edited by tempestuous on Sun 20 Aug 2006, 02:40, edited 7 times in total.

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Lobster
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#2 Post by Lobster »

Good job :)

Wi-fi is the future no doubt. Which would you say is the best Puppy wifi card for people upgrading? At the moment I am hard wired through a router modem combo. Others will be very pleased with this . . .

Well done. Reports and testers needed?
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

tempestuous
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#3 Post by tempestuous »

I have a Prism2-based USB adaptor myself (by D-Link) with the linux-wlan-ng driver. This works rock-solid, but it's an old b-mode device.

From what I've heard, Ralink-based devices are good. I can say that I'm impressed by the "trim" nature of its driver, the rt2x00. For models containing this chip see here http://ralink.rapla.net/

Atheros chips are well regarded, but there's no driver for Atheros USB models.
PrismGT chips are well regarded, but the latest PrismGT chips are "softmac" and the driver for this is very new.

Intel PRO/Wireless chips are not well regarded.
I know someone who has a Marvell-based device which has very poor range.

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#4 Post by Lobster »

Many thanks - here is a wi-fi code that might be useful for city dwellers with lap dogs
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-939546.html
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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BlackAdder
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#5 Post by BlackAdder »

Sorry to report that the rt2x00 driver does not work for me. The wireless adapter is an MSI PC54G2 which has an RT2500 chipset.
The modules 80211, rate_control and rt2500 get loaded at bootup without any intervention by me. iwconfig then shows wmaster0 and wlan0 (but not ra0). But wlan0 will not accept a WEP key and/or associate with an access point.
The same adapter works fine with ndiswrapper and the MSI Windows XP drivers.
The test was done using the Seamonkey version of Puppy 2.00.
Will try a couple of other adapters in the next day or two.

tempestuous
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#6 Post by tempestuous »

Sorry to hear. A few suggestions -

Run dmesg to see if there are any clues.

Bring down the interface (obviously "wlan0" has replaced "ra0"), unload the modules, and start again.
Turn off encryption at the access point while testing.
And use a static IP address.

ifconfig wlan0 down
rmmod rt2500pci # there is no module called "rt2500"
rmmod rate_control
rmmod 80211

modprobe 80211
modprobe rate_control
modprobe rt2500pci
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid MY_ESSID key none mode managed
## modify /etc/resolv.conf to include your nameservers
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.xx broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0 # or whatever your router's IP is

Also, do you have a "hardware button" on your PCI card? The source README says this -

"Hardware button
When the pci card contains a hardware button for the Wireless device, and the pci modules have been build with hardware button capabilities enabled (Which is the default build option, and can't be disabled), the card will send out the ACPI event ACPI_BUTTON_NOTIFY_STATUS for ACPI device <modulename> with class <modulename>_button.
When 1 is reported the button has been enabled.
When 0 is reported the button has been disabled."

If all else fails, try pressing the button!

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cplater
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Good results report.

#7 Post by cplater »

Just want to report some good results. I have a Devon IT thin client that originally came with Puppy 1.0.4. Just upgraded to 2.0 on a larger 512 MB flash card. In the single slot I have a Dlink 510 PCI wireless card that has the atheros chip set. Downloaded the new mad-wifi package and installed it. Everything is running smoothly now and is talking WEP with a Zyxel mimo router. Excellent work. Bravo! :D

raffy
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A list of wi-fi cards

#8 Post by raffy »

Thank you very much, tempestuous, for looking after wi-fi in Puppy.

Maybe we can put up later a list of cards that are easily used in Puppy2. Am glad Marvell has a few cards ready, as it is the brand that will be used in OLPC because of its innovations. (Eureka: it is the Marvell 88W8388 build).

Devon IT is quite enthusiastic about using Puppy2 in their thin clients, so it is good that cplater has already tested one card in it.

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BlackAdder
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rt2500 driver

#9 Post by BlackAdder »

tempestuous,
Have been through the steps that you outlined; without success I am afraid.
There were no errors showing in dmesg, but ACPI had apparently played with the interrupt when the modules loaded, so tried with acpi=off. No change to behaviour.
Of course you are correct that there is no rt2500 module in the new driver set - old Puppy 1xx habits die hard. :oops:
Cannot get to the point where ifconfig will work.
Absolutely no sign of a hardware button on the card.
This message coming to you courtesy of Puppy 109CE and the Puppy 1xx rt2500 module.
Perhaps someone else with an rt2500-based card could test also.

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BlackAdder
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Wifi, Puppy2Seamonkey and rtl8180

#10 Post by BlackAdder »

Tested the laptop with a Spirit 802.11b wifi card from Dick Smith - has the rtl8180 chipset. Was remaindered by DSE about a year ago. Really cheap, like me.
Here's what worked for me:

Code: Select all

modprobe r8180
#also loads the ieee80211-r8180 and ieee80211_crypt_r8180 modules
modprobe ieee80211_crypt_wep-r8180
#also loads the arc4 module
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "my essid" channel "my channel" mode managed key "my key" rate auto
rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
#definitely creates the .pid file
# in a script can use 
# if [ -e /etc/dhcpc/*.pid ]; then rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid; fi
dhcpcd -t 5 -d wlan0
Now using the adapter to post. Thanks tempestuous.

tempestuous
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#11 Post by tempestuous »

Thanks for testing BlackAdder.
I just browsed the rt2x00 forums, and it seems that the new ralink drivers are still very much at beta stage ... although I thought the rt2500pci should be OK.
So I have compiled the old code version, now attached. It contains the "RaConfig2500" setup utility, found in /root/my-applications/bin/
It would be great if you could try this. You will need the qt3 Pupget.

Edit June 27 2006 - removed rt2500.pup.
Use ralink-legacy.pup from http://www.dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/wireless-drivers/

I have noted your report that the dhcpcd pid file still needs to be removed. I will amend all the README's shortly. There is sure to be more changes needed.
Last edited by tempestuous on Tue 27 Jun 2006, 02:50, edited 1 time in total.

tempestuous
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#12 Post by tempestuous »

Darn, I have just read about quite a few more problems with the rt2x00 (new code) drivers.
So I will shortly provide the old code versions, which I will call "ralink-legacy". These, too, are sourced from rt2x00.serialmonkey.com. They're enhancements of the official Ralink drivers.

In the meantime, anyone trying the "new code" rt61pci or rt73usb drivers, you should first run "modprobe firmware_class" before any of the other modules listed in the README.

... and it would be good if someone could tell me if the RaConfig2500 utility is worth keeping in the package.

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pakt
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#13 Post by pakt »

I finally had a chance to test two cards that have rt2500 chipsets: ASUS WL-107G and Gigabyte GN-WMKG. Neither worked with rt2x00-20060508.pup, even when I ran "modprobe firmware_class" first.

Fortunately rt2500.pup worked. I used these commands:

modprobe rt2500
iwconfig ra0 essid <my AP>
ifconfig ra0 up <-- was needed
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d ra0

An interesting observation: with the Windows driver, the Tx-Power was 20dBm. With rt2500.pup, the Tx-Power was -3dBm. 'Link Quality' reflects those settings. Is there any way to set the 'Tx-Power' level, or should I use the Windows driver to get best range?

With rt2500.pup:

Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:-3 dBm
Link Quality=88/100 Signal level=-48 dBm Noise level:-193 dBm

With ndiswrapper:

Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=-109 dBm
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-37 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

These tests where done using the 'standard' Puppy2 kernel. I'll test with my speedstep kernel as soon as I can and report back.

Oh yes, I didn't have qt installed so I couldn't test the RaConfig2500 utility. I try to do that too.

Thanks, Tempestuous, for making the drivers available. :D

Paul
Last edited by pakt on Tue 13 Jun 2006, 06:38, edited 2 times in total.

tempestuous
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#14 Post by tempestuous »

Most wifi device settings are accessed with iwconfig or iwpriv. I searched for "Tx-Power" on the rt2x00 forum and found this http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/v ... 25&start=0
As you can see, the subject is rather complex. From what I can tell, it used to be the case that "iwconfig ra0 txpower 0" would set the highest Tx-Power that the device is capable of. But it seems that the developers have changed that regime as of May 15 2006. My rt2500 compilation was from the June 9 2006 CVS snapshot, so should have the new system.
So you will just have to experiment with "iwconfig ra0 txpower xxx"

And apart from range, Linux wifi drivers are supposed to achieve better throughput. Try downloading the same file from a reliable server using the different drivers and see if one is faster than the other.

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pakt
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#15 Post by pakt »

Thanks for the info, tempestuous.
tempestuous wrote: So you will just have to experiment with "iwconfig ra0 txpower xxx"
Ok, I'll try it and report back.
tempestuous wrote: And apart from range, Linux wifi drivers are supposed to achieve better throughput. Try downloading the same file from a reliable server using the different drivers and see if one is faster than the other.
Yes, I see what you mean - do a throughput test. That would be interesting.
Paul

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BlackAdder
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#16 Post by BlackAdder »

tempestuous,
The rt2500 dot pup works fine for me too. It did not seem to need the qt3 pup get either. Once installed, the module gets loaded automagically during the boot sequence. Must find out how.
Did a crude speed comparison by downloading from Mark's dot pup site. The file was 3.3MB. Results:

Code: Select all

rt2500 linux driver
test 1     48 secs
test 2     57 secs
ndiswrapper
test 1     45 secs
test 2     57 secs
There was a reboot betwen tests. I have no idea why the speeds were slower on the second test of each config. The speed would not have been gated by the link speed (ADSL 512Kbps) - should have really done an ethernet download for comparison.
edit 14June - The above comment was totally wide of the mark. Must get my head together some time. Of course the line speed would be the constraining factor. Will try again using local machine to machine transfer some time soon.
Last edited by BlackAdder on Wed 14 Jun 2006, 01:10, edited 1 time in total.

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BlackAdder
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#17 Post by BlackAdder »

Raffy,
The wifi dot pup contains listings of adapters known to be supported by the included drivers. The listings are part of the HowTo.
The list below (extracted from the HowTo) would also relate to tempestuous' rt2500 dot pup that was recently posted. The lists were constructed from an examination of the .inf files, the ndiswrapper wiki and whatever other sources yielded useful stuff.
Driver file: rt2500

VID:PID 1814:0201

Ralink RT2500 Wireless LAN Card
ASUS 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Card
ZPlus-G361 802.11g WLAN PCI Adapter
ZPlus-G360 802.11g WLAN mini-PCI Adapter
ZPlus-G160 802.11g WLAN CardBus Adapter.
AT&T Plug&Share 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter
AT&T Plug&Share 54 Mbps Wireless Cardbus Adapter
AMIT 802.11 g Wireless LAN PC Card
AMIT MINI 802.11 g Wireless LAN PC Card
AMIT PCI 802.11 g Wireless LAN PC Card
CastleNet WP1280 802.11 g Wireless LAN Card
Edimax EW-7108 Series 802.11g Wireless LAN PC Card
Edimax EW-7128 Series 802.11g Wireless LAN PCI Card
Hawking HWC54GR Hi-Speed Wireless-G CardBus Card
Hawking HWP54GR Hi-Speed Wireless-G PCI Card
Gigabyte WIKG mini PCI WLAN Card
Gigabyte WMKG Cardbus WLAN Card
Billionton 802.11 b/g Wireless LAN Card
Also 802.11 b/g Wireless LAN Cards from ASUS, AMIGO, QCOM, WLAN
Obviously, not all adapters have been tested as working with Puppy.
There is a list of working adapters (Puppy1) on the wiki. In many cases the identification of adapters is somewhat vague because the maker gives very little information.
How do you think we might consolidate and extend the lists and make them easily accessible?

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pakt
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#18 Post by pakt »

pakt wrote: I finally had a chance to test two cards that have rt2500 chipsets: ASUS WL-107G and Gigabyte GN-WMKG.
<text removed>
These tests where done using the 'standard' Puppy2 kernel. I'll test with my speedstep kernel as soon as I can and report back.
I re-ran the tests using my Puppy2 speedstep-kernel. The cards worked as before. I also tested with the wlan card in the bottom PCMCIA slot and a USB2 adapter card in the upper slot of an IBM Thinkpad T20. The wlan card was almost hidden under the USB card...

Results: Both cards worked fine. I had booted Puppy2 from a USB pen plugged into the USB2 adapter (fast and versatile :) ). Connection quality went down to 87/100 from 88/100 ;)

Btw, as I am on dial-up, my modem is THE bottleneck and so a throughput test would seem to be meaningless :(
Paul

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BlackAdder
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acx100 driver

#19 Post by BlackAdder »

Tested the acx100 driver witha D-Link DWL-650+ PCMCIA adapter.
Process was as follows:
  • copied the firmware to /lib/firmware and renamed the .bin files as recommended.
    modprobe acx
    this loaded without errors and the card light flashed - presumably as the result of the firmware being downloaded.
    iwconfig .....
    adapter shows as wlan0. as expected
    dhcpcd .....
no association with the router, and the following error message in dmesg:

Code: Select all

wlan0: association FAILED: peer sent response code 18 (Assoc denied: requesting STA doesnt support all data rates in basic set)
get_mask 0x00000000, set_mask 0x00000000 - after update
acx_set_status(0):STOPPED
closed device
Google showed others with the same problem. A similar recent report was found on the Linux Format site.
Close, but no cigar yet....sorry. Any suggestions?
ndiswrapper works okay, but there was a user complaint about peaks of high procesor usage. Not seeing that myself.

smog
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Joined: Tue 13 Jun 2006, 12:52

ipw3945

#20 Post by smog »

I installed the ipw3945 dot.pup and eth0 was created but I am not able to configure the device using ifconfig or iwconfig because when I use these commands for setting essid and the key it says the operation is not allowed.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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