====== Driver possibilities ======

 This is starting to be functionnal code. With a naked access point (no wpa, no wep), you're likely to be able to connect to the outside for USB. dhcp is not tested, there may be issues with it related to the madwifi stack ; assigning the ip statically is a sure bet. Also, the leds won't work. This is expected. Maybe someone should make them blink...

====== Supported hardware ======

===== prism-based USB devices =====

==== netchip 2280 + prism PCI chip ====

Two months ago, all 802.11g wifi dongles were prism54-based, and covered by the development that happens here. Those were based on the following combo :

    * a netchip 2280, configured as a USB <-> PCI bridge
    * a PCI prism chip : ISL3877, ISL3880, ISL3890, ISL3890 (fullmac-capable), ISL3886 (only softmac capable)

Although some of those PCI chips are fullmac-capable, it appears that the firmware loaded into all instances of this combo are softmac firmwares (that additionally include some code to interact with the net2280)

The communication protocol of those devices includes many idiosyncrasies meant to take care of the net2280.

Those are the devices the current driver focuses on.

==== newer prism54 dongle ====
Those devices got rid of the net2280 with a new generation of chips directly integrating the usb communication part (ISL3887, as the XH8196 driver seems to indicate).

They have a different firmware and the communication protocol is somewhat different (the core communication protocol is the same, though). Basically, the protocol is simpler, less verbose.

Basic support for them is lagging behind only by a little bit, due to my not having one. If you can spare one, please send it over ! If you can test and improve the support yourself, that's even be
tter :)

===== prism-based PCI devices =====

All of these are supported. I'm actually doing the development on fullmac cards, and own no real softmac device.
 h
mm

Is there a list of make and model numbers of cards supported by the prism54 driver that ships as part of current 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels?  The driver code itself references the URL: http://prism54.org/supported_cards.php, but that url is broken.  Saying that all Itersil 38xx chip sets are supported is not really useful, since manufactuers don't list the chip set on the box -- one has to plunk down cash, open box and insert into a computer to find out what chip is in the card.  

====== Driver requirements ======

===== Kernel =====

The basic requirements are the same as for the prism54 main driver, that is : hotplug. Additionally, only kernel 2.6 is supported at the moment. I personally work with 2.6.10, under which i'm sure the driver compiles fine. Compile fixes for other kernel versions are very welcome.

===== Firmware =====

First you'll need a firmware from the Firmware directory.

If you have a first-generation device, one of the old sort for now (version <= 2.4.6.0), and copy it to ''/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890usb''.

If you have a second-generation device, please use this firmware: 2.5.8.0 firmware with x2 header and copy it to ''/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3887usb''.

If you have a PCI softmac card, please use this firmware: XH8196 driver firmware and copy it to ''/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3886''.

If you're not sure, copy all of them, the code will hopefully choose the right one.

====== Driver download and compilation ======

I use GNU Arch for development. The mirror archive is at [[http://jbnote.free.fr/{archives}]].
You can browse this archive with [[http://migo.sixbit.org/software/archzoom/|ArchZoom]] at [[http://gxaafoot.homelinux.org/cgi-bin/archzoom.cgi/jean-baptiste.note@m4x.org--libre/prism54-usb--devo--0.0|Archzoom@gxaafoot]].

The prism54-project--mainline contains configs for the building of the experimental module, so with Tom Lord's Arch installed you'd do :

<code>
~$ tla register-archive jean-baptiste.note@m4x.org--libre http://jbnote.free.fr/\{archives\}/libre
~$ tla get jean-baptiste.note@m4x.org--libre/prism54-project--mainline prism54-project
~$ cd prism54-project
~$ make tla-import
~$ make tla-update
~$ make
</code>

This will build and modprobe the madwifi stack and the prism softmac driver. Remove the debug=0 option to insmod in build-devo.sh if you want to see something (basically, you'll want to do this when helping with development).