Wireless Card on Compaq Evo n800c

Schnacki · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 105

Thanks to the tips by "otaci" I just got my W200 loading, too. Can't test it right now, but at least the LED is on now.

To sum up his steps:

IMPORTANT:
- go to the directory where your running kernel-sources are installed (/usr/src/linux for me)
- Run "make menuconfig".
- Go to "Device Drivers --->".
- Go to "Generic Driver Options --->".
- Add "Select only drivers that don't need compile-time external firmware".
- Add "Hotplug firmware loading support" (either as module or compiled in).
- Save your kernel-config.
- Compile and install your kernel. For this I mount "/boot", run
  
  Code:
  
  Make all modules_install install
  
  and make sure I have sections for the new and old symlinks (added by make install) in my grub.conf.
- reboot!!!
download the orinoco from cvs from http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/orinoco/
change into the new directory
run make
copy the ".ko"-files to your kernel-directory ("/lib/modules/2.6.8-gentoo/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/" in my case)
go to http://orinoco-usb.alioth.debian.org/ to download the old "orinoco-usb" drivers version 0.2.2. You can find them directly at http://alioth.debian.org/download.php/356/orinoco-usb-0.2.2.tar.bz2
unpack the file and change into the new directory
you'll find several subdirectories
change into the "firmware"-directory
run "make" (you _need_ webaccess for this)
create the directory "/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware" (if it's not present already)
run "cp orinoco_ezusb_fw /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/"
activate the W200 by pressing Fn-F2 until the LED turns on (wait a few seconds after each press, the driver needs a moment)

Now the WLAN-card is running. Try to figure out how to configure it yourself.

I still have to do that myself.

I really think this could/should be a HowTo. Took me quite a while to find this thread.

[edit] added info to compile the kernel correctly[/edit]

spazegun · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

I also have an Evo with the orinoco wireless card. I tried all of the downloading and installing, and this still happens

Schnacki · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 105

Hi

spazegun · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

spazegun · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

ok, i enabled all the kernel options that were in the former posts. And i still have the same problem. Also when i make the orinoco module, they are fine. If i reboot, the prism_usb.ko is gone. I have to remake it.

thanks

Schnacki · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 105

Hi

spazegun · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

well, i though i had the prism chipset because mine says wireless lan on the side and not W200. Also Even if both modules are loaded, (or either one for that matter) i still get that incompatable firmware error.

Schnacki · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Feb 2003 Posts: 105

daktak · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:22 am Post subject:

I had heaps of troubles till i realised that /usr/lib/hotplug/firware is now /lib/firmware!

greatguru · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 6

Thanks to the steps outlined by Schnacki (and by extension otaci), I just got mine working. I have a Compaq Evo N610c with the W200 and its working fabulously. However, a note: I followed the steps outlined above, but when I would turn on the card (with Fn-F2), in dmesg it would say:

usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-3: khubd timed out on ep0in
usb 2-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110

I tried a few things without luck, including switching the firmware loader to /lib/firmware as the poster above me pointed out. This had no effect. I then rebooted my laptop and added 'acpi=off' to the kernel params and loaded it up. Then, when I hit Fn-F2, it started up correctly, putting in an interface eth1!!

I was excited because I had hence narrowed this down to a acpi problem, but upon rebooting normally (with acpi enabled), it worked again! It's been working fine since, even after a few reboots, so that might have just done the trick...

On a side note, for anyone considering this laptop or who owns one, the overheating problems are horrendous. Booting with acpi=off is especially dangerous as this laptop doesn't know how to turn the fan on unless you update the DSDT (which is another project I've recently completed, see a post on these forums about common acpi problems). I have got this laptop in July of '03 to start college with, and I have sent it in twice to be repaired since then, which I believe has been directly related to overheating issues (both times they replaced the main board under warranty). Just a note...

Good luck to the rest of you! If you have any questions, email me b/c I don't check these forums much unless I'm looking for help...

bmschell_AT_benschell.dyndns.org

rdcapasso · n00b Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Madison, WI

I have a Compaq N600c and I am having the same problem that spazegum is having

. orinoco_usb loads fine on boot but tail shows this in /var/log/messages when I hit fn-f2:

vtowel · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:36 pm Post subject:

I also have a Compaq N600c, and this behaviour is exactly the same here. So I'm led to believe that our card is NOT a W200 card. When I do "lsusb" with the card activated, the device is listed as:

Hypnos · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:04 pm Post subject:

appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

So, I'm not really sure if anyone is still working on this, but I was recently trying to get it to work with no luck. I have a N800c with a W200 card, but I'm not sure if it's the new or the old one. I'm 99% sure I have everything enabled in my kernel.

First off, I always get the following message in my dmesg when I hit FN-F2 (even before I tried to set up the wireless card):

appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

So, I'm a retard and was using the wrong kernel (the un-configured one) when I posted that last post, hence why all the error messages were different than how I remembered them. Here's what happens on my dmesg when I'm using the right kernel and hit Fn-F2:

Hypnos · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 7:00 am Post subject:

I'm not sure about your particular bug, but I can confirm that the latest CVS orinoco_usb code works well with vanilla kernel 2.6.13 for W200.
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appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

Hmmm...so that's just emerge vanilla-sources and the configure the kernel like usual, right? I might have to try that.

appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

I tried the 2.6.12.5 and the 2.6.13 vanilla kernels. I didn't get the kernel error from above, but it still didn't work. dmesg after Fn-F2:

Hypnos · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:44 am Post subject:

The device ID for my USB W200 is 049f:0076

What's yours? (Use "lsusb")
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appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

lsusb output:

Hypnos · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:01 am Post subject:

I think you have a W100. I could only get my old 0033 to work using linux-wlan-ng; orinoco is for Prism 2.x chipsets, such as in the W200.
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appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

Hypnos · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:39 am Post subject:

The version in Portage is a recent release, and should Just Work (tm). Play it by ear, I guess ...
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appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

appleshampoo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 116

Hokay, so after all the BS above, it seems I am getting somewhere. Now when I toggle the wireless with Fn-F2, I see a "wlan0" device that appears in the output of iwconfig. I really have no idea where I'm going from here, so if anyone has any pointers, it would be much appreciated. Right now if I try to do /etc/init.d/wlan, I get some errors: