RE: Is there a PCI based 802.11b device driver for ppc linux?

If Liu plans to use a mini-PCI 802.11b radio, and that radio is based on
Prism 2.5, and it uses the ISL3874 MAC/BBP (which interfaces directly to the
PCI Bus), then there is no Linux driver yet (that I'm aware of).

On the other hand, if his mini PCI radio is Prism II, or Prism 2.5 but using
the ISL3873 MAC/BBP, then that radio contains a PCI to PCMCIA bridge and the
existing Linux drivers will work.

I don't know about Linux drivers for Agere/Lucent Orinoco/WaveLAN mini-PCI
radio.

If Liu's question had nothing to do with mini-PCI radios then, in the
immortal words of E. Litella, "Never mind".


PJD

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Locke [mailto:mlocke@mvista.com]
Sent: Friday, 17 August, 2001 4:45 PM
To: Tom Rini
Cc: Liu HongXun-a16975; linuxppc-embedded@lists.linuxppc.org
Subject: Re: Is there a PCI based 802.11b device driver for ppc linux?



Tom Rini wrote:

quoted

On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 11:11:28AM +0800, Liu HongXun-a16975 wrote:

quoted

Hi, all,
Our customized ppc based board only has PCI interface. I

wonder if there is a PCI based 802.11b device driver for ppc linux?

quoted

Well, it depends on the chipset.  And is it a PCI one or a

pcmcia one in a

quoted

pcmcia pci card.  I think some of the prism II and whatnot

based cards work.

quoted

Take a look in drivers/net/wireless.

Both the prism II and Cisco PCI cards have device drivers.

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Philip Decker writes:
 >
 > If Liu plans to use a mini-PCI 802.11b radio, and that radio is based on
 > Prism 2.5, and it uses the ISL3874 MAC/BBP (which interfaces directly to the
 > PCI Bus), then there is no Linux driver yet (that I'm aware of).

Working on it.  (Yes, on PowerPC.)

 > On the other hand, if his mini PCI radio is Prism II, or Prism 2.5 but using
 > the ISL3873 MAC/BBP, then that radio contains a PCI to PCMCIA bridge and the
 > existing Linux drivers will work.
 >
 > I don't know about Linux drivers for Agere/Lucent Orinoco/WaveLAN mini-PCI
 > radio.
 >
 > If Liu's question had nothing to do with mini-PCI radios then, in the
 > immortal words of E. Litella, "Never mind".

(non-mini) PCI Prism 2.5 cards exist too.  :-)

Jim

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On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 05:53:39PM -0400, Philip Decker wrote:

If Liu plans to use a mini-PCI 802.11b radio, and that radio is based on
Prism 2.5, and it uses the ISL3874 MAC/BBP (which interfaces directly to the
PCI Bus), then there is no Linux driver yet (that I'm aware of).

On the other hand, if his mini PCI radio is Prism II, or Prism 2.5 but using
the ISL3873 MAC/BBP, then that radio contains a PCI to PCMCIA bridge and the
existing Linux drivers will work.

Assuming the kernel has drivers for the PCI to PCMCIA bridge in
question.  Many such bridges are not well supported at the moment,
particularly with the in-kernel PCMCIA subsystem rather than the David
Hinds' pcmcia-cs package.

I don't know about Linux drivers for Agere/Lucent Orinoco/WaveLAN mini-PCI
radio.

I've heard rumours that someone has successfully adapted the orinoco
driver to work on the Mini-PCI cards, but I have no details.  I wish I
could find out because I'd like to merge the changes into the standard
orinoco driver.

Actually for a Prism II or Agere/Lucent based PCI card (actually the
same chipset with somewhat different firmware) it should be quite easy
to add support.  The orinoco driver already has the initialisation
code abstracted out from the driver core and supports both PCMCIA
cards and the Apple Airport (AFAIK basically PCI plus some custom
Apple power control stuff).  It should be quite easy to add a PCI
"front-end" to the driver.

--
David Gibson			| Microsoft: Making the easy things hard
david@gibson.dropbear.id.au	| and the hard things buggy
http://www.ozlabs.org/people/dgibson


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ISL3874 mini-PCI support is in testing and will be released in
linux-wlan-ng later this week.  We're not currently testing on PPC but the
existing code does run on PPC.  Hopefully the mini-PCI support won't break
anything.

-Mark

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, Jim Thompson wrote:

Philip Decker writes:
 >
 > If Liu plans to use a mini-PCI 802.11b radio, and that radio is based on
 > Prism 2.5, and it uses the ISL3874 MAC/BBP (which interfaces directly to the
 > PCI Bus), then there is no Linux driver yet (that I'm aware of).

Working on it.  (Yes, on PowerPC.)

 > On the other hand, if his mini PCI radio is Prism II, or Prism 2.5 but using
 > the ISL3873 MAC/BBP, then that radio contains a PCI to PCMCIA bridge and the
 > existing Linux drivers will work.
 >
 > I don't know about Linux drivers for Agere/Lucent Orinoco/WaveLAN mini-PCI
 > radio.
 >
 > If Liu's question had nothing to do with mini-PCI radios then, in the
 > immortal words of E. Litella, "Never mind".

(non-mini) PCI Prism 2.5 cards exist too.  :-)

Jim

--

Mark S. Mathews

AbsoluteValue Systems      Web:    http://www.linux-wlan.com
715-D North Drive          e-mail: mark@linux-wlan.com
Melbourne, FL 32934        Phone:  321.259.0737
USA                        Fax:    321.259.0286


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