dlink dwl 520 revision e

[davidbuchanan]

im stumped. im running debian etch and im trying to get my dlink dwl 520 r.e to work. earlier we tried using an old buffalo wireless bridge and decided it was crap. i have the d link inside my computer and im trying to get that card to work with the network in our house and to give me wireless internet through my dad's linksys broadband router. any help would be much appriciated

[Dapper Dan]

We first need to know what the exact chipset is of your device. Chipsets can change from version to version on many cards with the same model number. Open a terminal and do:

/sbin/lspci

...and

/sbin/lspci -n

If you don't have wired access from Debian, copy the results of the two commands, paste them into an editor, save it as a .txt file to a usb stick or even floppy, open Windows and post it here.

[davidbuchanan]

davidsbox:~# /sbin/lspci
bash: /sbin/lspci: No such file or directory
davidsbox:~# /sbin/lspci -n
bash: /sbin/lspci: No such file or directory
davidsbox:~#
I put in what you said and this is the response I got from My terminal. Any other things you could success. I really don't want to break down and just by a new card but it is begining to look as iff that is what i am going to have to do. But thank you for your idea. I'll keep trying for a couple more days, so any other ideas you may have are more than welcome.

David

[Dapper Dan]

Silly me. Different distros run lspci in different ways. In Debian I forgot it's:

lspci

lspci -n

Sorry.

[davidbuchanan]

Ok that worked. At the first code I put it in and got:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8361 [KLE133] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8361 [KLE133] AGP Bridge
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0a.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1

Then i put in the second one and I got:

00:00.0 0600: 1106:3112
00:01.0 0604: 1106:b112
00:07.0 0601: 1106:0686 (rev 40)
00:07.1 0101: 1106:0571 (rev 06)
00:07.2 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 1a)
00:07.3 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 1a)
00:07.4 0680: 1106:3057 (rev 40)
00:07.5 0401: 1106:3058 (rev 50)
00:09.0 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)
00:0a.0 0280: 1260:3873 (rev 01)
01:00.0 0300: 1023:8500

I THINK you said you needed the exact chipset and I'm not for sure but I think it is Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01). My dad says the computer sees it as a prism card and it let's you try and activate it but it probably is the wrong chipset or something. He also said that he has heard it is a problem child and it isn't really a prism chipset. He said that he hasn't found anyone to make it work with Linux. I'm going to go to the Dlink site and double check what the chipset is and then I'll repost it.

Thanks, David

[davidbuchanan]

Okay, Here's the problem. I went to the site and in the description it says "With its quick and easy installation along with driver support for Windows XP, 2000, Me and 98SE...". So apparently I will have to get a net gear card. Oh well, guess I'll just have to leave the computer in the back room for now. Well thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

David

[Dapper Dan]

I believe your card is supposed to work with the wlan-ng driver. If connected by wire, you might be able to get it by:

apt-get install linux-wlan-ng

If not, you can get it here. Once installed or compiled...

modprobe prism2_pci

..and see if it shows up when doing:

iwconfig

[davidbuchanan]

Thanks, I'm giving that a shot right now.

[davidbuchanan]

Okay I put in the first one and it fetched the file and it installed that. But then I got this message here next.

davidsbox:~# modprobe prism2_pci
FATAL: Module prism2_pci not found.

I went ahead and tried the second one you said to do and this is what I got.

davidsbox:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 IEEE 802.11-DS Mode:Managed
Encryption key:off

wlan0 IEEE 802.11-DS Mode:Managed
Encryption key:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions

So now I'm guessing it must be really outdated or something. I guess I could try and find a way to configure though. Any suggestions there?

[Dapper Dan]

Hmmm... Let's see if the module really isn't there... It should be though. As su:

updatedb

Then:

locate prism

See if prism2_pci shows up in anywhere? Prism2 is already present in my Ubuntu which as you know is Debian based...

/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2
/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2/prism2_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2/prism2_plx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2/prism2_usb.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2/p80211
/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/wireless/prism2/p80211/p80211.ko

...but that doesn't necessarily mean it's already included in straight Debian. But you installed linux-wlan-ng so it should be in your /lib/modules somewhere.

You've got a configuration in iwconfig for wlan0. I wonder if the module was already present and loaded, or if it got loaded with the wrong module which often happens. You might have to "blacklist" that wrong module getting loaded if that's what's happening. Let's also see the output of:

lsmod

Here is the README for compiling the drivers. You might want to look over it and pay special attention to the configuration instructions for prism2_pci. It looks confusing because it has instructions for other modules as well, but it really isn't if you just focus in on prism2_pci.

Also, please keep in mind that I've never run a wireless card with the prism2 chipset and have only run orinoco_cs on a Debian system. I'm mainly just telling you how I would approach it if I did. I hope I don't steer you wrong...