How to configure the Linux kernel/drivers/net/wireless

Howto configure the Linux kernel / drivers / net / wireless


 * Wireless LAN device configuration
 * Wireless LAN device configuration

Wireless LAN (non-hamradio)

 * depends on NETDEVICES


 * Option: NET_RADIO
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off) Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions
 * Support for wireless LANs and everything having to do with radio, but not with amateur radio or FM broadcasting.
 * Saying Y here also enables the Wireless Extensions (creates /proc/net/wireless and enables iwconfig access). The Wireless Extension is a generic API allowing a driver to expose to the user space configuration and statistics specific to common Wireless LANs. The beauty of it is that a single set of tool can support all the variations of Wireless LANs, regardless of their type (as long as the driver supports Wireless Extension). Another advantage is that these parameters may be changed on the fly without restarting the driver (or Linux). If you wish to use Wireless Extensions with wireless PCMCIA (PC-) cards, you need to say Y here; you can fetch the tools from .
 * Some user-level drivers for scarab devices which don't require special kernel support are available from .


 * Note : the cards are obsolete (can't buy them anymore), but the drivers
 * are not, as people are still using them...

"Obsolete Wireless cards support (pre-802.11)"
 * depends on NET_RADIO && (INET || ISA || PCMCIA)


 * Option: STRIP
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) STRIP (Metricom starmode radio IP)
 * depends on NET_RADIO && INET
 * Say Y if you have a Metricom radio and intend to use Starmode Radio IP. STRIP is a radio protocol developed for the MosquitoNet project (on the WWW at ) to send Internet traffic using Metricom radios. Metricom radios are small, battery powered, 100kbit/sec packet radio transceivers, about the size and weight of a cellular telephone. (You may also have heard them called Metricom modems but we avoid the term modem because it misleads many people into thinking that you can plug a Metricom modem into a phone line and use it as a modem.)
 * You can use STRIP on any Linux machine with a serial port, although it is obviously most useful for people with laptop computers. If you think you might get a Metricom radio in the future, there is no harm in saying Y to STRIP now, except that it makes the kernel a bit bigger.
 * To compile this as a module, choose M here: the module will be called strip.


 * Option: ARLAN
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Aironet Arlan 655 & IC2200 DS support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && ISA && !64BIT
 * Aironet makes Arlan, a class of wireless LAN adapters. These use the www.Telxon.com chip, which is also used on several similar cards. This driver is tested on the 655 and IC2200 series cards. Look at  for the latest information.
 * The driver is built as two modules, arlan and arlan-proc. The latter is the /proc interface and is not needed most of time.
 * On some computers the card ends up in non-valid state after some time. Use a ping-reset script to clear it.


 * Option: WAVELAN
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) AT&T/Lucent old WaveLAN & DEC RoamAbout DS ISA support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && ISA
 * The Lucent WaveLAN (formerly NCR and AT&T; or DEC RoamAbout DS) is a Radio LAN (wireless Ethernet-like Local Area Network) using the radio frequencies 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz.
 * This driver support the ISA version of the WaveLAN card. A separate driver for the PCMCIA (PC-card) hardware is available in David Hinds' pcmcia-cs package (see the file  for location).
 * If you want to use an ISA WaveLAN card under Linux, say Y and read the Ethernet-HOWTO, available from . Some more specific information is contained in  and in the source code .
 * You will also need the wireless tools package available from . Please read the man pages contained therein.
 * To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be called wavelan.


 * Option: PCMCIA_WAVELAN
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) AT&T/Lucent old WaveLAN Pcmcia wireless support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA
 * Say Y here if you intend to attach an AT&T/Lucent Wavelan PCMCIA (PC-card) wireless Ethernet networking card to your computer. This driver is for the non-IEEE-802.11 Wavelan cards.
 * To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be called wavelan_cs. If unsure, say N.


 * Option: PCMCIA_NETWAVE
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Xircom Netwave AirSurfer Pcmcia wireless support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA
 * Say Y here if you intend to attach this type of PCMCIA (PC-card) wireless Ethernet networking card to your computer.
 * To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be called netwave_cs. If unsure, say N.

"Wireless 802.11 Frequency Hopping cards support"
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA


 * Option: PCMCIA_RAYCS
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Aviator/Raytheon 2.4 MHz wireless support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA
 * Say Y here if you intend to attach an Aviator/Raytheon PCMCIA (PC-card) wireless Ethernet networking card to your computer. Please read the file  for details.
 * To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be called ray_cs. If unsure, say N.

"Wireless 802.11b ISA/PCI cards support"
 * depends on NET_RADIO && (ISA || PCI || PPC_PMAC || PCMCIA)


 * Option: IPW2100
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCI && IEEE80211
 * select FW_LOADER
 * A driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection 802.11b wireless network adapter.
 * See  for information on        the capabilities currently enabled in this driver and for tips         for debugging issues and problems.
 * In order to use this driver, you will need a firmware image for it.        You can obtain the firmware from .  Once you have the firmware image, you  will need to place it in /etc/firmware.
 * You will also very likely need the Wireless Tools in order to        configure your card:
 * .        If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be         inserted in and remvoed from the running kernel whenever you want),         say M here and read .  The module         will be called ipw2100.ko.


 * Option: IPW2100_MONITOR
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...      bool Enable promiscuous mode       depends on IPW2100       ---help--- Enables promiscuous/monitor mode support for the ipw2100 driver. With this feature compiled into the driver, you can switch to  promiscuous mode via the Wireless Tool's Monitor mode.  While in this mode, no packets can be sent.


 * Option: IPW_DEBUG
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off) Enable full debugging output in IPW2100 module.
 * depends on IPW2100
 * This option will enable debug tracing output for the IPW2100.
 * This will result in the kernel module being ~60k larger. You can  control which debug output is sent to the kernel log by setting the  value in
 * /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2100/debug_level
 * This entry will only exist if this option is enabled.
 * If you are not trying to debug or develop the IPW2100 driver, you most likely want to say N here.


 * Option: IPW2200
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection
 * depends on IEEE80211 && PCI
 * select FW_LOADER
 * A driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection adapters.
 * See  for information on the capabilities currently enabled in this  driver and for tips for debugging issues and problems.
 * In order to use this driver, you will need a firmware image for it.        You can obtain the firmware from .  See the above referenced README.ipw2200  for information on where to install the firmare images.
 * You will also very likely need the Wireless Tools in order to        configure your card:
 * <http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html>.        If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be         inserted in and remvoed from the running kernel whenever you want),         say M here and read <file:Documentation/modules.txt>.  The module         will be called ipw2200.ko.


 * Option: IPW_DEBUG
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off) Enable full debugging output in IPW2200 module.
 * depends on IPW2200
 * This option will enable debug tracing output for the IPW2200.
 * This will result in the kernel module being ~100k larger. You can  control which debug output is sent to the kernel log by setting the  value in
 * /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/debug_level
 * This entry will only exist if this option is enabled.
 * To set a value, simply echo an 8-byte hex value to the same file:
 * % echo 0x00000FFO > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/debug_level
 * You can find the list of debug mask values in drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200.h
 * If you are not trying to debug or develop the IPW2200 driver, you most likely want to say N here.


 * Option: AIRO
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Cisco/Aironet 34X/35X/4500/4800 ISA and PCI cards
 * depends on NET_RADIO && ISA_DMA_API && (PCI || BROKEN)
 * This is the standard Linux driver to support Cisco/Aironet ISA and PCI 802.11 wireless cards. It supports the new 802.11b cards from Cisco (Cisco 34X, Cisco 35X - with or without encryption) as well as card before the Cisco acquisition (Aironet 4500, Aironet 4800, Aironet 4800B).
 * This driver support both the standard Linux Wireless Extensions and Cisco proprietary API, so both the Linux Wireless Tools and the Cisco Linux utilities can be used to configure the card.
 * The driver can be compiled as a module and will be named "airo".


 * Option: HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Hermes chipset 802.11b support (Orinoco/Prism2/Symbol)
 * depends on NET_RADIO && (PPC_PMAC || PCI || PCMCIA)
 * A driver for 802.11b wireless cards based based on the "Hermes" or Intersil HFA384x (Prism 2) MAC controller. This includes the vast majority of the PCMCIA 802.11b cards (which are nearly all rebadges) - except for the Cisco/Aironet cards.  Cards supported include the Apple Airport (not a PCMCIA card), WavelanIEEE/Orinoco, Cabletron/EnteraSys Roamabout, ELSA AirLancer, MELCO Buffalo, Avaya, IBM High Rate Wireless, Farralon Syyline, Samsung MagicLAN, Netgear MA401, LinkSys WPC-11, D-Link DWL-650, 3Com AirConnect, Intel PRO/Wireless, and Symbol Spectrum24 High Rate amongst others.
 * This option includes the guts of the driver, but in order to actually use a card you will also need to enable support for PCMCIA Hermes cards, PLX9052 based PCI adaptors or the Apple Airport below.
 * You will also very likely also need the Wireless Tools in order to configure your card and that /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts works : <http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html>


 * Option: APPLE_AIRPORT
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Apple Airport support (built-in)
 * depends on PPC_PMAC && HERMES
 * Say Y here to support the Airport 802.11b wireless Ethernet hardware built into the Macintosh iBook and other recent PowerPC-based Macintosh machines. This is essentially a Lucent Orinoco card with a non-standard interface


 * Option: PLX_HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Hermes in PLX9052 based PCI adaptor support (Netgear MA301 etc.)
 * depends on PCI && HERMES
 * Enable support for PCMCIA cards supported by the "Hermes" (aka orinoco) driver when used in PLX9052 based PCI adaptors. These adaptors are not a full PCMCIA controller but act as a more limited PCI <-> PCMCIA bridge.  Several vendors sell such adaptors so that 802.11b PCMCIA cards can be used in desktop machines.  The Netgear MA301 is such an adaptor.


 * Option: TMD_HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Hermes in TMD7160 based PCI adaptor support
 * depends on PCI && HERMES
 * Enable support for PCMCIA cards supported by the "Hermes" (aka orinoco) driver when used in TMD7160 based PCI adaptors. These adaptors are not a full PCMCIA controller but act as a more limited PCI <-> PCMCIA bridge.  Several vendors sell such adaptors so that 802.11b PCMCIA cards can be used in desktop machines.


 * Option: NORTEL_HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Nortel emobility PCI adaptor support
 * depends on PCI && HERMES
 * Enable support for PCMCIA cards supported by the "Hermes" (aka orinoco) driver when used in Nortel emobility PCI adaptors. These adaptors are not full PCMCIA controllers, but act as a more limited PCI <-> PCMCIA bridge.


 * Option: PCI_HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Prism 2.5 PCI 802.11b adaptor support
 * depends on PCI && HERMES
 * Enable support for PCI and mini-PCI 802.11b wireless NICs based on the Prism 2.5 chipset. These are true PCI cards, not the 802.11b PCMCIA cards bundled with PCI<->PCMCIA adaptors which are also common.  Some of the built-in wireless adaptors in laptops are of this variety.


 * Option: ATMEL
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...    tristate Atmel at76c50x chipset  802.11b support     depends on NET_RADIO     select FW_LOADER     select CRC32      ---help---       A driver 802.11b wireless cards based on the Atmel fast-vnet       chips. This driver supports standard Linux wireless extensions.        Many  cards based on this chipset do not have flash memory       and need their firmware loaded at start-up. If yours is        one of these, you will need to provide a firmware image       to be loaded into the card by the driver. The Atmel       firmware package can be downloaded from       <http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/atmel>


 * Option: PCI_ATMEL
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...    tristate Atmel at76c506 PCI cards     depends on ATMEL && PCI      ---help---       Enable support for PCI and mini-PCI cards containing the       Atmel at76c506 chip.


 * If Pcmcia is compiled in, offer Pcmcia cards...

"Wireless 802.11b Pcmcia/Cardbus cards support"
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA


 * Option: PCMCIA_HERMES
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Hermes PCMCIA card support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA && HERMES
 * A driver for "Hermes" chipset based PCMCIA wireless adaptors, such as the Lucent WavelanIEEE/Orinoco cards and their OEM (Cabletron/ EnteraSys RoamAbout 802.11, ELSA Airlancer, Melco Buffalo and others). It should also be usable on various Prism II based cards such as the Linksys, D-Link and Farallon Skyline.  It should also work on Symbol cards such as the 3Com AirConnect and Ericsson WLAN.
 * To use your PC-cards, you will need supporting software from David Hinds' pcmcia-cs package (see the file <file:Documentation/Changes> for location). You also want to check out the PCMCIA-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>.
 * You will also very likely also need the Wireless Tools in order to configure your card and that /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts works: <http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html>.


 * Option: PCMCIA_SPECTRUM
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Symbol Spectrum24 Trilogy PCMCIA card support
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA && HERMES
 * This is a driver for 802.11b cards using RAM-loadable Symbol firmware, such as Symbol Wireless Networker LA4100, CompactFlash cards by Socket Communications and Intel PRO/Wireless 2011B.
 * This driver requires firmware download on startup. Utilities for downloading Symbol firmware are available at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/orinoco/>
 * This driver requires firmware download on startup. Utilities for downloading Symbol firmware are available at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/orinoco/>


 * Option: AIRO_CS
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Cisco/Aironet 34X/35X/4500/4800 PCMCIA cards
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCMCIA && (BROKEN || !M32R)
 * This is the standard Linux driver to support Cisco/Aironet PCMCIA 802.11 wireless cards. This driver is the same as the Aironet driver part of the Linux Pcmcia package. It supports the new 802.11b cards from Cisco (Cisco 34X, Cisco 35X - with or without encryption) as well as card before the Cisco acquisition (Aironet 4500, Aironet 4800, Aironet 4800B). It also supports OEM of Cisco such as the DELL TrueMobile 4800 and Xircom 802.11b cards.
 * This driver support both the standard Linux Wireless Extensions and Cisco proprietary API, so both the Linux Wireless Tools and the Cisco Linux utilities can be used to configure the card.
 * To use your PC-cards, you will need supporting software from David Hinds' pcmcia-cs package (see the file <file:Documentation/Changes> for location). You also want to check out the PCMCIA-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>.


 * Option: PCMCIA_ATMEL
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) Atmel at76c502/at76c504 PCMCIA cards
 * depends on NET_RADIO && ATMEL && PCMCIA
 * select FW_LOADER
 * select CRC32
 * Enable support for PCMCIA cards containing the Atmel at76c502 and at76c504 chips.


 * Option: PCMCIA_WL3501
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...    tristate Planet WL3501 PCMCIA cards     depends on NET_RADIO && EXPERIMENTAL && PCMCIA      ---help---        A driver for WL3501 PCMCIA 802.11 wireless cards made by Planet.It has basic support for Linux wireless extensions and initialmicro support for ethtool.

"Prism GT/Duette 802.11(a/b/g) PCI/Cardbus support"
 * depends on NET_RADIO && PCI


 * Option: PRISM54
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off/module) 'Intersil Prism GT/Duette/Indigo PCI/Cardbus'
 * depends on PCI && NET_RADIO && EXPERIMENTAL
 * select FW_LOADER
 * Enable PCI and Cardbus support for the following chipset based cards:
 * ISL3880 - Prism GT           802.11 b/g ISL3877 - Prism Indigo        802.11 a ISL3890 - Prism Duette        802.11 a/b/g  For a complete list of supported cards visit <http://prism54.org>. Here is the latest confirmed list of supported cards:
 * 3com OfficeConnect 11g Cardbus Card aka 3CRWE154G72 (version 1) Allnet ALL0271 PCI Card Compex WL54G Cardbus Card Corega CG-WLCB54GT Cardbus Card D-Link Air Plus Xtreme G A1 Cardbus Card aka DWL-g650 I-O Data WN-G54/CB Cardbus Card Kobishi XG-300 aka Z-Com Cardbus Card Netgear WG511 Cardbus Card Ovislink WL-5400PCI PCI Card Peabird WLG-PCI PCI Card Sitecom WL-100i Cardbus Card Sitecom WL-110i PCI Card SMC2802W -   EZ Connect g 2.4 GHz 54 Mbit/s Wireless PCI Card SMC2835W -    EZ Connect g 2.4 GHz 54 Mbit/s Wireless Cardbus Card SMC2835W-V2 - EZ Connect g 2.4 GHz 54 Mbit/s Wireless Cardbus Card Z-Com XG-900 PCI Card Zyxel G-100 Cardbus Card
 * If you enable this you will need a firmware file as well. You will need to copy this to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890. You can get this non-GPL'd firmware file from the Prism54 project page: <http://prism54.org> You will also need the /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent script from a current hotplug package.
 * Note: You need a motherboard with DMA support to use any of these cards  If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want), say M here and read <file:Documentation/modules.txt>.  The module will be called prism54.ko.


 * Option: Howto configure the Linux kernel/drivers/net/wireless/hostap


 * yes, this works even when no drivers are selected


 * Option: NET_WIRELESS
 * Kernel Versions: 2.6.15.6 ...
 * (on/off)
 * depends on NET_RADIO && (ISA || PCI || PPC_PMAC || PCMCIA)
 * default y

Linux Kernel Configuration