Can't get D-Link DWL-520 Rev. E1 working

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3nCrypt
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue 30 Jan 2007, 21:53

Can't get D-Link DWL-520 Rev. E1 working

#1 Post by 3nCrypt »

Google my card and you'll see nightmare posts up the wazzoo, but true gurus of Linux have been able to get it working. For testing purposes I also enabled SSID broadcast, and disabled my 128-bit WEP. I am running Puppy Linux v2.13 and here's what I've been able to do so far:

- The card is not detected by default.

- Menu\Setup\Network Wizard >> Load driver\hostap_pci

- "Module hostap_pci loaded successfully" message appears

- "wlan0" now appears under Network Setup's INTERFACES

- "Test wlan0" reports 'Unable to connect to a wireless network'

- "Auto DHCP" reports 'NETWORK CONFIG of wlan0 UNSUCCESSFUL!'

So it seems Puppy can now see my pci wifi card, but having lots of connectivity issues. Btw, I knew it had to use HostAP because it's the only known way of getting this card to run under Linux. I've seen zero reports of ndiswrapper ever working.

3nCrypt
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue 30 Jan 2007, 21:53

#2 Post by 3nCrypt »

Since the card has no onboard firmware, do I need to also download/install the firmware files to run w/ HostAP?

John Doe
Posts: 1681
Joined: Mon 01 Aug 2005, 04:46
Location: Michigan, US

#3 Post by John Doe »

I have a D-Link DWL-520 Rev. A2 and it worked with 2.13.

Mine used Prism54 driver and loaded automatically. You might have to do it manually.

This makes it look like yours should work ok:

http://www.compatdb.org/ubbthreads.php/ ... 033/page/1

01:01.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01)
Subsystem: D-Link System Inc DWL-520 Wireless PCI Adapter, Rev E1
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at e6aff000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#4 Post by tempestuous »

DWL-520 Rev E1 = Prism3 SSF chipset
DWL-520 Rev A2 = PrismGT chipset

these are different chipsets requiring different drivers.
3nCrypt wrote:Since the card has no onboard firmware, do I need to also download/install the firmware files to run w/ HostAP?
Yes. Install this dotpet -
http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... rmware.pet
(temporary link)
Last edited by tempestuous on Wed 28 Feb 2007, 01:28, edited 1 time in total.

3nCrypt
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue 30 Jan 2007, 21:53

#5 Post by 3nCrypt »

@tempestuous: THANK U VERY MUCH MY FRIEND!!!

I did 'modprobe hostap_pci' first. Then using the Network Wizard I removed the already-loaded orinoco_pci module to ensure zero driver conflicts. Next, I edited the '/usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load' script to point to the firmwares from your dotpup that were in 'etc/firmwares'. I then loaded the script which flashed the firmware and I tested the internet both unsecured and secured with 128-bit WEP. They both worked great!!

I have two small questions now...
1) Do I need to modify any file within Puppy now if I want these settings to stick after I do a hard drive install?
2) My wireless connection is showing up as both wlan0 and wifi0. I even have two internet icons in the Pup system tray. How can I rid of the wifi0?

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#6 Post by tempestuous »

Add these commands to the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local -

rmmod orinoco_cs
modprobe hostap_cs
/usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up

This should give you a working interface at each boot up.
You could add additional commands to connect to your wifi access point, but it might be neater to configure your connection via the Network Wizard, or Rutilt.
3nCrypt wrote:How can I rid of the wifi0?
I don't know. You're correct to ignore it, it's a "placeholder" or "virtual interface".

3nCrypt
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue 30 Jan 2007, 21:53

#7 Post by 3nCrypt »

tempestuous wrote:Add these commands to the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local -

rmmod orinoco_pci
modprobe hostap_pci
/usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up

This should give you a working interface at each boot up.
You could add additional commands to connect to your wifi access point, but it might be neater to configure your connection via the Network Wizard, or Rutilt.
That worked very well. However, when rebooting Puppy stops now after executing the rc.local file, and I have to manually type 'startx' to bring up the window manager. Is that normal? Is there a fix/workaround?

If anyone know how I can blacklist anything wifi0 from showing up that would be great! I don't need to have 2 network status icons in the Pup systray hehe.

3nCrypt
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue 30 Jan 2007, 21:53

#8 Post by 3nCrypt »

So, is the rc.local file the sole and only file in Puppy that handles the config params for the wireless connections?

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#9 Post by tempestuous »

Your commands in rc.local might conflict with configuration files saved by the Network Wizard. See here for details http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 5332#95332

I think you may need to delete this config file -

/etc/ethernetmodules

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