Re: [Madwifi-users] Documentation

[Richard S. <ma...@ri...>]

Hi,


falconcy wrote:

>There is a lack of documentation. Since installing drivers under Linux is
>not always a simple process for non-advanced users, 
>

in this case it actually (sort of) is.

>could someone please
>provide a concise step by step guide to installing these drivers under
>linux.
>

I will try, very unofficial but hopefully enough to get you up and running.

First of all you need all the build tools required to build a kernel. 
Check the kernel building howto, in case you are not sure, what you 
need. Then of course you need a kernel source tree. Some distributions 
have kernel source archives, install them. You need a configured kernel 
source tree matching your running kernel. If you run your own kernel 
anyways, you have all that's necessary. If this sounds like complete 
nonsense to you, please ask again and I'll be more specific. I',m just 
to lazy to write down things you already know. :-)

*extract the archive
*enter the directory madwifi-<version>
*open Makefile.inc with your favourite editor and look for the line 
containing

VERSION=        2.4.20

modify this to the version you use. If you use plain vanilla sources, 
this will be 2.4.20 or 2.4.21 etc.. If you use distribution kernels or 
patched kernels this might be something similar to 2.4.20-gentoo-xyz. 
Note the additional version modifier behind the 2.4.20. You can find out 
your version by typing "uname -a".

* I usually change this line:
KERNEL_PATH=    ${DEPTH}/../linux-${VERSION}

to

KERNEL_PATH= /usr/src/linux

since I have a symlink. /usr/src/linux pointing to 
/usr/src/linux/<my_kernel_version>

* build by running "make" as root

* if building worked run "make install" as root.


* If that worked without errors, that should be it. If you have a kernel 
that supports hotplugging (most newer desktop distributions do that), 
the driver will be loaded the next time you boot. If you use pcmcia, 
hotplugging and automatic configuration of the device might not work 
completely because the scripts don't know about the driver. The modules 
should be loaded though.

Without rebooting you can now run as root:

modprobe wlan
modprobe ath_hal
modprobe ath_pci

or if that doesn't work

insmod wlan/wlan.o
insmod ath_hal/ath_hal.o
insmod driver/ath_pci.o


* running lsmod should now list wlan, ath_hal and ath_pci.

If you have an access point, just type

ifconfig ath0 up

and the device should start scanning for it. More information about how 
to configure card specific things can be found in the linux wlan howto.

Hope that helped a little,

Richard