NDC 2M Wireless LAN Download Readme first

Preface:

The source code of ndcisa26.tgz was successfully compiled under
the following environment:

* Red Hat Linux release 6.0 + CLE v0.8
* kernel 2.2.5-15CLE
* gcc version egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux(egcs-1.1.2 release)

Install the source code into Linux:

1.In order to build the program, you must install the source
code of NDC's InstantWave ISA linux driver first by
the following commands.

tar -zxf ndcisa26.tgz
cd linux-ndcdrv-isa-2.6.r

2.And then, using the command to compile the driver.

make all

(If compile successfully, it will generate three files in the
linux-ndcdrv-isa-2.6.r directory which name is load_program,
chardev.o, and ndcdrv.o, respectively. The chardev.o is a char
module used for downloading the firmware code and INI file to
the wireless LAN card by the program load_program. The other
program ndcdrv.o is the network module for packet transmission
and reception.)

INSTALL THE LINUX DRIVER:

Before inserting the modules, you can edit the file
wlpktisa.ini which is the INI file for configuring the wireless LAN
card. The configuration contains the parameters of the wireless LAN
card and the parameters that will be referred by driver in
initialization.

By default, the content of the wlpktisa.ini is as follows:

sHI_DesiredESSID Wireless
u16PowerSavingControlMode 0
boInfrastructure 0
boRoam 1
u16RoamRxBeaconPercent 40
u8CurrentRegDomain 16
sPreferBSSID 00606f980002

Options you may modify are as follows:

(1). sHI_DesiredESSID

This option means the wireless domain name (ESSID). Please note
that it is case-sensitive.

(2). boInfrastructure

This option means the mode of your wireless network structure.
0=AD-HOC mode(not via AP) ; 1=INFRASTRUCTURE mode (via AP)

(3). boRoam

This option means whether the roaming mode is enabled.
1=enabled ; 0=disabled.

(4). u8CurrentRegDomain

This option means the carrier set.
USA (FCC) = 16
Canada (IC) = 32
Europe (ETSI) = 48
Spain = 49
France = 50
Japan (MKK) = 64

The NDC wireless LAN card is a PnP card, therefore you need to
detect the IRQ and IOBASE of your card.

First of all, it's probably best to turn PnP on in your BIOS.
Next, you need to run pnpdump to detect your devices:

pnpdump > /tmp/isapnp.conf

(Inspect this file, and one of your card should read
something as below:)

# Card 1: (serial identifier 71 c6 fa 03 c4 03 03 83 38)
# Vendor Id NDC0303, Serial Number 3338273732, checksum 0x71.
# Version 1.0, Vendor version 0.1
# ANSI string -->ISA PnP Wireless LAN Adapter<--
...
# (IO 0 (SIZE 16) (BASE 0x0240) (CHECK))
...
# (INT 0 (IRQ 5 (MODE +E)))
(NAME "NDC0303/3338273732[0]{ISA PnP Wireless LAN Adapter}")
# (ACT Y)

You can see this card can run at IRQ 5 and IO address 0x240.
So, comment out those last 4 lines, and put this file in
/etc/isapnp.conf, and activate it (normally your boot process
will do this if it finds a /etc/isapnp.conf file):

isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf

(And you should see no problems with this install. If you do,
make sure you don't have IRQ and/or IO conflict, by
inspecting /proc/interrupts and /proc/ioports)

Now insert the modules, using the IRQ and IOBASE derived from the
previous step:

1.First at all, you should insert the char module chardev.o in
order to download the firmware code and INI file to the wireless
LAN card by the program load_program.

insmod chardev.o iobase=0x240

2.After inserting the module, the module would return a major
device number. For example, the message will be printed

Registeration is a success. The major device number is 254.

3.And then, use the major device number 254 to make character
special files. Such as:

mknod chardev c 254 0

(where "chardev" is the character special files, "254" is the
major number, and "0" is the minor number.)

4.After ensuring that the three files load_program, wlan.dwn
(firmware code), and wlpktisa.ini (INI file) are in the directory
linux-ndcdrv-isa-2.6.r with the character special files chardev,
you can execute the program load_program to download the firmware
code and INI file to the wireless LAN card. If the process is
successful, the following messages may be shown:

Download Code Successfully

sHI_DesiredESSID: Wireless
u16PowerSavingControlMode: 0 (0x0) (0=CAM, 1=PS)
boInfrastructure: 0 (0x0) (0=AD-HOC, 1=INFRASTRUCTURE)
boRoam: 1 (0x1) (True if roaming is enabled)
u16RoamRxBeaconPercent: 40 (0x28)
u8CurrentRegDomain: 50 (0x32) (FCC=0x10, IC=0x20, ETSI=0x30,
MKK=0x40, SPAIN=0x31, FRANCE=0x32)
sPreferBSSID: 00,60,6f,98,00,02
Finish Downloading the INIfile

5.Next, the network module would be inserted with the IRQ and IOBASE
derived from the previous step.

insmod ndcdrv.o iobase=0x240 irq=5

If the network module is installed successfully, the following
message would be printed. When you used the Ad Hoc network mode,
the message would be shown:

Enable MAC Successfully

Else if the infrastructure mode is used, the message would be
shown:

Enable MAC Successfully
Searching for Wireless LAN Access Point... Please Wait.
Connect Successfully

6.After finishing these installation procedures, the wireless LAN
network driver has been installed successfully.

THE DIAGNOSIS PROCEDURE:

After installing the network driver, you can use the following
example to verify whether your wireless LAN card is connected to the
wireless LAN or not. The Steps are as below:

1.execute "linuxconf" program.
2.configure "Basic host information":
2.1 go into "Config"->"Networking"->"Client tasks"->
"Basic host information",then setup one adapter's
"Net device" name as "ndc" ,and choose the
"Config mode" that you want ,and enable the "enable"
option.Then tab to "Accept" and press it.
2.2 configure the "Name server specification (DNS)"
2.3 configure the "Routing and gateways"
3.After configuring the above 3 items,In the main menu,tab
to "act/changes" and press it .There will be another
screen shown ,then highlight "activat the changes" and
press it. After a few seconds, the main menu will show
again.
4.Then tab to "quit" and press it,there will be another
screen shown that the system is not sync with the
configuration that you have made ,please highlight
"activat the changes" and press it to let the wireless LAN
card work. After a few seconds, the screen will turn back
to linux text mode.
5.now, the card is working and you can execute "ifconfig"
to see the card's ip,netmask,etc. You can use "ping"
command to check whether the wireless LAN card is
working by pinging the AP. You can also ping another
wireless LAN station, an ethernet station or a remote
Internet host.

During the install procedures, some error messages may be shown
to let users verify their un-correct conditions:

1.The first error message may be shown is during the installation
of char module. The message is as follows.

Not success in reading the card
The iobase number may be wrong

(which means that the assigned iobase number may be wrong.
You should check the iobase number of the wireless LAN card.)

2.The second message is shown during executing the program
load_program, the following messages may be shown.

Can not open the character special file: chardev
or
Can not open the firmware code file: wlan.dwn
or
Can not open the INIFile: wlpktisa.ini

(Therefore, you need to check whether you lose one of these
three files or not.)

3.The final error message may be shown during the inserting network
module process.

The iobase number may be wrong
or
HardwareInterrupt Install Fail

(which means that the iobase number and irq number are
wrong, respectively.)