[Airo-linux-gen80211] Aironet 340 series - HELP! [desperate]

[Wojciech O. <ow...@ow...>]

Hello everyone,

I'm doing my best to get my CISCO AIR-LMC342 PCMCIA to work, and I must
admit I'm getting really pi##ed over that. I'm working on a apple
powerbook g3 laptop, with a TI pcmcia controller (yenta_socket does it),
and I have almost lost all hope now.

Now I'm going to pass as much  info as I can.

First of all, the same problem I get both on 2.6 and 2.4 kernels.

The card doesn't search for AP, it just stays in 

eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"tsunami"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.442 GHz  Access Point:
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF             Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm  
Sensitivity=0/65535            Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment
thr:off          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/32  Signal level=-107 dBm  Noise level=-107 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

(the second device wifi0 looks the same)

I did that iwconfig in a place with no wifi available, but that
doesn't matter cause I get tge same when some AP is around (despite the
fact that I get some numbers of packets received/sent)

I know tsunami is cisco's default ssid, yeah. But setting iwconfig [int]
ap auto, or essid any, or any attempts of reconfiguring it via /proc
don't give any results.

Also, iwlist scan gives:

eth1      Failed to read scan data : No data available

wifi0     Failed to read scan data : No data available

when I straced iwlist I got there:

read(4, "0    0    0     0       0       "..., 1024) = 160
ioctl(3, SIOCGIWRANGE, 0xbfffed40)      = 0
ioctl(3, SIOCSIWSCAN, 0xbffff200)       = 0
select(0, [], NULL, NULL, {0, 250000})  = 0 (Timeout)
ioctl(3, SIOCGIWSCAN, 0xbffff200)       = -1 EAGAIN (Resource
temporarily unavailable) select(0, [], NULL, NULL, {0, 100000})  = 0
(Timeout) ioctl(3, SIOCGIWSCAN, 0xbffff200)       = -1 EAGAIN (Resource
temporarily unavailable)
[etc, etc]

Manually setting ap (bsid) and essid etc usually also doesn't help.

The only way I managed to force the card to do anything was running
kismet. Kismet doesn't use wireless-tools for controlling the adapters,
apparently raw ioctls for that. 

So when I run kismet_server, it starts detecting ssids around and
switches the card to the first ssid found. (all ok, ap detected, ssid
set). Then I have to kill (or ^c)  kismet_server, turn the transmitter
on (somehow after a kismet run txpower is set to 0), and finally pass 
Mode: ESS to /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Config

People this is sick!

I can't use Cisco ACU as they only provide x86 binaries, and this is ppc
here.

This situation makes it impossible to use any GUI utils, cause they all
use wireless tools. 

I haven't tried original cisco drivers for kernel 2.4
yet. Originally my card had 3.something firmware version, but with the
help of Windows I flashed it with 4.25.30 - the firmware known to work
with linux. I heard somewhere that the version 5.00.3 works with
wireless tools, but then I found out that 5.00.3 is available only for
adapters on minipci, and for 350 series. 

I also heard that the 350s are the same whar 340s are, but with max tx
power 100mW not 30mW, is that correct? So can I use the 5.00.3 firmware
on my card?

Do you have any ideas? Cause I'm considering throwing this card out
 the window and buying some shitty usb dongle (guess what, I
can't use ndiswrapper on ppc either)
Maybe I should downgrade wireless tools? Maybe I should use some magical
airo_cs module parameters?

Cause for now I'm starting to study kismet and watch how it does it all,
maybe this will result in my wireless-tools patch. Or some other
utility. Just if I don't hang myself over this before that

And please, please please don't ask me questions like "did you insert
the card properly", or "did you start cardmgr".

Thanks in advance,

owczi


Here goes the other data:

kernel 2.6.11, compiled by me and borrowed from debian,
but I had the same situation with kernel 2.4.30 installed from my
distro's rpms [PLD-linux.org].


[root@opium root]$ iwconfig --version
iwconfig  Wireless-Tools version 28
          Compatible with Wireless Extension v11 to v18.

Kernel    Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v17.

eth1      Recommend Wireless Extension v12 or later,
          Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v17.

wifi0     Recommend Wireless Extension v12 or later,
          Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v17.

Same thing with v27.





Dmesg on inserting card:

airo:  Probing for PCI adapters
airo:  Finished probing for PCI adapters
airo: cmd= 111
airo: status= 7f11
airo: Rsp0= 2
airo: Rsp1= 0
airo: Rsp2= 0
airo: Doing fast bap_reads
airo: MAC enabled eth1 0:40:96:42:c3:a3
eth1: index 0x05: Vcc 5.0, Vpp 5.0, irq 58, io 0x0100-0x013f

/proc/..aironet/../Status:

[root@opium root]$ cat /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Status 
Status: CFG ACT WEP 
Mode: 20f
Signal Strength: 0
Signal Quality: 32
SSID: tsunami
AP: 
Freq: 0
BitRate: 11mbs
Driver Version: airo.c 0.6 (Ben Reed & Javier Achirica)
Device: 340 Series
Manufacturer: Cisco Systems
Firmware Version: 4.25.30
Radio type: 2
Country: 0
Hardware Version: 20
Software Version: 425
Software Subversion: 1e
Boot block version: 143

/proc/.../aironet/../Config:

Mode: ESS
Radio: on
NodeName:                 
PowerMode: CAM
DataRates: 2 4 11 22 0 0 0 0
Channel: 6
XmitPower: 30
LongRetryLimit: 16
ShortRetryLimit: 16
RTSThreshold: 2312
TXMSDULifetime: 5000
RXMSDULifetime: 10000
TXDiversity: both
RXDiversity: both
FragThreshold: 2312
WEP: open
Modulation: cck
Preamble: short






-- 
   [x]--Wojciech---owczi---Owczarek--WO111-RIPE--[_][+]
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