PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

A machine I want to set up as an AP has only PCI express slots free...

I've tried looking at the wiki, but I can't easily find an inexpensive
pci express card that will do AP mode. It's the usual problem: shops
don't say what the PCI ids of the device are, and the quoted
manufacturer isn't the manufacturer in the sense needed by the kernel.

I've seen adverts for the Abit WLP-01, and elsewhere on the net seen
implications that it's 168c:001c, which isn't listed at
<http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI>, but
<http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k> does list it and
says AP mode not working, but mentions
<http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/Compatibility/Abit>, which suggest AP
mode works with madwifi. What's the current status?

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a card?

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:02 AM, Jon
Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> A machine I want to set up as an AP has only PCI express slots free...

I'd recommend ath9k.

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

  Luis

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Pavel Roskin]

On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 09:02 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:

> I've seen adverts for the Abit WLP-01, and elsewhere on the net seen
> implications that it's 168c:001c, which isn't listed at
> <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI>, but
> <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k> does list it and
> says AP mode not working, but mentions
> <http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/Compatibility/Abit>, which suggest AP
> mode works with madwifi. What's the current status?

ath5k will support the AP mode in Linux 2.6.31.  It's already in Linux
2.6.31-rc3.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
writes:

> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:02 AM, Jon
> Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> A machine I want to set up as an AP has only PCI express slots free...
>
> I'd recommend ath9k.

> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

Thanks, but I've seen that page and "products with supported ath9k
cards" points to a page that lists "Laptops with ath9k cards" (I'm
looking for PCIe, not mini-PCIe) and "APs with ath9k cards", not "ath9k
cards". Before I can buy a card, I need to know what it is called in the
shops (on-line or otherwise), not what chipset it has.

I realise this is the manufacturer's fault, but this is a perennial
problem for Linux users who want to buy an new card for something: "OK,
I want something with such-and-such a chipset, but the on-line shops
just don't say what the chipset is.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html  (updated 2009-01-31)

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 9:39 AM, Jon
Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
> writes:
>
>> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:02 AM, Jon
>> Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> A machine I want to set up as an AP has only PCI express slots free...
>>
>> I'd recommend ath9k.
>
>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k
>
> Thanks, but I've seen that page and "products with supported ath9k
> cards" points to a page that lists "Laptops with ath9k cards" (I'm
> looking for PCIe, not mini-PCIe) and "APs with ath9k cards", not "ath9k
> cards". Before I can buy a card, I need to know what it is called in the
> shops (on-line or otherwise), not what chipset it has.

The page lists all products and the manufacturer names of the products.

But yeah, I am not aware of PCI-Express devices sold in the market
with separately. Adding Pen Li in case he is aware.

Pen, this e-mail is in a public mailing list.

  Luis

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org> writes:

> On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 09:02 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
>
>> I've seen adverts for the Abit WLP-01, and elsewhere on the net seen
>> implications that it's 168c:001c, which isn't listed at
>> <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI>, but
>> <http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k> does list it and
>> says AP mode not working, but mentions
>> <http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/Compatibility/Abit>, which suggest AP
>> mode works with madwifi. What's the current status?
>
> ath5k will support the AP mode in Linux 2.6.31.  It's already in Linux
> 2.6.31-rc3.

Ah, thanks for that. Three questions arise:

Are the pci ids quoted above recognised as needing ath5k?

Is the WLP-01 really ath5k/really have those ids?

The distro I'm using (fedora 11) has 2.6.29 -- will the relevant modules
build for that, or would I have to build a whole 2.6.31?

Thanks.
-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Gábor Stefanik]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Luis R. Rodriguez<mcgrof@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 9:39 AM, Jon
> Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>> "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
>> writes:
>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:02 AM, Jon
>>> Fairbairn<jon.fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> A machine I want to set up as an AP has only PCI express slots free...
>>>
>>> I'd recommend ath9k.
>>
>>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k
>>
>> Thanks, but I've seen that page and "products with supported ath9k
>> cards" points to a page that lists "Laptops with ath9k cards" (I'm
>> looking for PCIe, not mini-PCIe) and "APs with ath9k cards", not "ath9k
>> cards". Before I can buy a card, I need to know what it is called in the
>> shops (on-line or otherwise), not what chipset it has.
>
> The page lists all products and the manufacturer names of the products.
>
> But yeah, I am not aware of PCI-Express devices sold in the market
> with separately. Adding Pen Li in case he is aware.
>
> Pen, this e-mail is in a public mailing list.
>
>  Luis
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

A possible solution to the PCIE vs. MiniPCIE problem:
http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP2W.html
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=MP2W

-- 
Vista: [V]iruses, [I]ntruders, [S]pyware, [T]rojans and [A]dware. :-)

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Pavel Roskin]

On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 18:01 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:

> Ah, thanks for that. Three questions arise:
> 
> Are the pci ids quoted above recognised as needing ath5k?

Yes, 168c:001c is served by ath5k.

> Is the WLP-01 really ath5k/really have those ids?

The Abit site had only one driver for WLP-01. There are references that
some WLP-01 devices use Atheros chipset.  Thus we conclude that all
WLP-01 use Atheros chipset, or there would be more that one driver.

The Atheros PCI ID is 168c.  Search on Google for "WLP-01 168c" without
quotes finds 001c everywhere.  So it should work with ath5k.

I cannot guarantee anything, but I think chances are very high.

> The distro I'm using (fedora 11) has 2.6.29 -- will the relevant modules
> build for that, or would I have to build a whole 2.6.31?

You can build compat-wireless, which includes the latest ath5k driver
backported from the wireless-testing kernel.  Alternatively, you can
build madwifi (be sure to use the trunk snapshot).

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jouni Malinen]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 05:39:47PM +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
> "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
> writes:
> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

> Thanks, but I've seen that page and "products with supported ath9k
> cards" points to a page that lists "Laptops with ath9k cards" (I'm
> looking for PCIe, not mini-PCIe) and "APs with ath9k cards", not "ath9k
> cards". Before I can buy a card, I need to know what it is called in the
> shops (on-line or otherwise), not what chipset it has.

I don't know how the product list ended up being split that way, but the
"laptops" page does actually include number of D-Link adapters,
including a PCIe desktop adapter (D-Link DWA-556) that seems to match
the request. I saw it at Fry's last week and it does indeed look like a
PCIe card. It is not exactly the least expensive option and is not the
latest 11n MAC revision, but at least it is available and I would expect
it to work with ath9k in AP mode.

> I realise this is the manufacturer's fault, but this is a perennial
> problem for Linux users who want to buy an new card for something: "OK,
> I want something with such-and-such a chipset, but the on-line shops
> just don't say what the chipset is.

Combination of model number (and revision in some cases! urgh) and
driver download and/or FCCID lookup can help with that, but yes, this is
quite painful in many cases. However, I've also seen some cards that
have the box actually listing both the chipset vendor (even both MAC and
PHY model number) and Linux support, so there is some hope in figuring
this out even at a store without having to do an internet lookup..

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Jouni Malinen<j@w1.fi> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 05:39:47PM +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
>> "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
>> writes:
>> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k
>
>> Thanks, but I've seen that page and "products with supported ath9k
>> cards" points to a page that lists "Laptops with ath9k cards" (I'm
>> looking for PCIe, not mini-PCIe) and "APs with ath9k cards", not "ath9k
>> cards". Before I can buy a card, I need to know what it is called in the
>> shops (on-line or otherwise), not what chipset it has.
>
> I don't know how the product list ended up being split that way, but the
> "laptops" page does actually include number of D-Link adapters,
> including a PCIe desktop adapter (D-Link DWA-556) that seems to match
> the request. I saw it at Fry's last week and it does indeed look like a
> PCIe card.

Sorry that was my doing, I forgot there were a few external cards
available, I've updated the wiki to reflect this and added a new
external cards page:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k/products/external

 Luis

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
writes:

> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Jouni Malinen<j@w1.fi> wrote:
>> I don't know how the product list ended up being split that way, but the
>> "laptops" page does actually include number of D-Link adapters,
>> including a PCIe desktop adapter (D-Link DWA-556) that seems to match
>> the request. I saw it at Fry's last week and it does indeed look like a
>> PCIe card.
>
> Sorry that was my doing, I forgot there were a few external cards
> available, I've updated the wiki to reflect this and added a new
> external cards page:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k/products/external

Thanks for that it's much clearer. I've gone through the manufacturers
websites and added what detail I could find about card types. I didn't
use the codes on the page as I couldn't be certain of the details...
maybe should be table format, and probably should either add the codes
or remove the code key.

Since the DWA-556 is about four times the price of the Abit Airpace, it
looks like I'll have to go with the bleeding edge version of ath5k
rather than ath9k.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org> writes:

> On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 18:01 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
>
> I cannot guarantee anything, but I think chances are very high.

OK, fair enough.

>> The distro I'm using (fedora 11) has 2.6.29 -- will the relevant modules
>> build for that, or would I have to build a whole 2.6.31?
>
> You can build compat-wireless, which includes the latest ath5k driver
> backported from the wireless-testing kernel.  Alternatively, you can
> build madwifi (be sure to use the trunk snapshot).

Many thanks.  I'll go ahead and order one.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org> writes:

> On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 18:01 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
>> The distro I'm using (fedora 11) has 2.6.29 -- will the relevant modules
>> build for that, or would I have to build a whole 2.6.31?
>
> You can build compat-wireless, which includes the latest ath5k driver
> backported from the wireless-testing kernel.  Alternatively, you can
> build madwifi (be sure to use the trunk snapshot).

OK! I bought one and with compat-wireless-2009-07-20 + hostapd 0.6.9 it
seems to work. I haven't done much testing yet, but I can certainly
connect to it from an eee pc 901 and from a Macbook Air (and from my IBM
X30 so long as I don't use WPA).

For reference: The box says "abit airpace wifi", "pci-e wi-fi card",
"WLP01WCG121095 V0.0B" (on a sticker; this is the only place on the
outside of the box that mentions WPL01), "EAN 4 710933 354359", "UPC 8
43323 00028 5"

lspci -nn says
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x
           802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)

Does that want to go on the wiki? (I can't access it right now:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices * Connection to 83.246.72.84
Failed )

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Pavel Roskin]

On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 08:39 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:

> lspci -nn says
> 04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x
>            802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)

Great!

> Does that want to go on the wiki? (I can't access it right now:
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices * Connection to 83.246.72.84
> Failed )

Yes, it was down, but now it's working.  I've added your device:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI

I assume the subvendor/subsystem ID is 147b:1033, as reported elsewhere
and as "lspci -vnn" would show.

I tried to add a link for PCI Express devices, but I don't have
permissions to reorganize the Wiki to have a separate table.  From the
users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
be listed separately.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Johannes Berg]

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[ah, sorry about the private mail, only saw this now]

On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 11:23 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:

> I tried to add a link for PCI Express devices, but I don't have
> permissions to reorganize the Wiki to have a separate table.  

It needs some extra code.

> From the
> users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
> be listed separately.

I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.

johannes

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Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org> writes:
> I assume the subvendor/subsystem ID is 147b:1033, as reported elsewhere
> and as "lspci -vnn" would show.

Ah, sorry, yes:

lspci -vnn -s 04:00.0
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: \
         Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x \
         802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: ABIT Computer Corp. AirPace Wi-Fi [147b:1033]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Memory at fbff0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ath5k
	Kernel modules: ath5k

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> writes:

> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 11:23 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
>
>> I tried to add a link for PCI Express devices, but I don't have
>> permissions to reorganize the Wiki to have a separate table.  
>
>> From the users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses
>> and should be listed separately.
>
> I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
> distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
> with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.

Speaking as a user, I do want to distinguish them: PCIe fits into a
physically different slot from PCI, so having only PCIe slots free, I
really did want to select by socket type. Similarly someone with a PCI
only motherboard would be looking for PCI and not PCIe.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 16:43 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:

> Speaking as a user, I do want to distinguish them: PCIe fits into a
> physically different slot from PCI, so having only PCIe slots free, I
> really did want to select by socket type. Similarly someone with a PCI
> only motherboard would be looking for PCI and not PCIe.

Right, but that just means we should have a 'form factor' part of the
listing. I don't think a PCI-E listing would have helped you if it also
listed mini-pci-e or expresscard.

I think it would be smarter to group them all under PCI, but have a
form-factor there. While not exactly correct technically, it would be
easier to use.

johannes

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Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Pavel Roskin]

On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:29 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:

> > From the
> > users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
> > be listed separately.
> 
> I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
> distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
> with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.

We can have "form factors": PCI, CardBus, MiniPCI, PCIe and PCI
ExpressCard.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 11:52 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:29 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> 
> > > From the
> > > users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
> > > be listed separately.
> > 
> > I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
> > distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
> > with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.
> 
> We can have "form factors": PCI, CardBus, MiniPCI, PCIe and PCI
> ExpressCard.

I've done that and adjusted a few of the b43 entries, go check it out :)

johannes

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Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Pavel Roskin]

On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:59 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 11:52 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:29 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> > 
> > > > From the
> > > > users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
> > > > be listed separately.
> > > 
> > > I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
> > > distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
> > > with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.
> > 
> > We can have "form factors": PCI, CardBus, MiniPCI, PCIe and PCI
> > ExpressCard.
> 
> I've done that and adjusted a few of the b43 entries, go check it out :)

Thanks!  I'll update what I know.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Larry Finger]

Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:29 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> 
>>> From the
>>> users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
>>> be listed separately.
>> I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
>> distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
>> with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.
> 
> We can have "form factors": PCI, CardBus, MiniPCI, PCIe and PCI
> ExpressCard.

I endorse the "form factor" idea; however, I think you also need a
mini-PCIe category. BTW, I prefer mini-PCI to MiniPCI.

Larry

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 12:04 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:59 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 11:52 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:29 +0200, Johannes Berg wrote:
> > > 
> > > > > From the
> > > > > users' perspective, PCI and PCI Express are different busses and should
> > > > > be listed separately.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not sure. The ID spaces are the same really, and users really don't
> > > > distinguish that much, for them PCI-E is just the new PCI technology
> > > > with a different form factor. Kinda like mini-pci vs. pci.
> > > 
> > > We can have "form factors": PCI, CardBus, MiniPCI, PCIe and PCI
> > > ExpressCard.
> > 
> > I've done that and adjusted a few of the b43 entries, go check it out :)
> 
> Thanks!  I'll update what I know.

I also added a short overview over the form factors on the page:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI.

FWIW, I've spelt it "Mini-PCI", and it would be good for the filter if
we used a consistent spelling.

johannes

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Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> writes:
> I also added a short overview over the form factors on the page:
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI.

That's really good!

(In the "asking for the moon on a stick" department, it would be handy
to have a table somewhere with "supported features" and "form factor"
dropdowns, so that I could have selected "AP" and "PCIe" and get the
card I now have ;-)

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk

Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:16 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
> Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> writes:
> > I also added a short overview over the form factors on the page:
> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/PCI.
> 
> That's really good!

And quick too, thanks Pavel!

> (In the "asking for the moon on a stick" department, it would be handy
> to have a table somewhere with "supported features" and "form factor"
> dropdowns, so that I could have selected "AP" and "PCIe" and get the
> card I now have ;-)

I wondered about that, but the list really gets too wide, and it's
really a driver rather than device property whether it supports AP or
not.

Then of course, there's also band/11n streams/... information that you
might want.

I'm starting to think we should remove all the numbers (pci vendor,
product, subvendor, subsystem) in favour of more interesting information
like that.

However, as far as AP is concerned, how about we just add a little help
text that explains that you should look on the Drivers page to see
whether it supports what you need, and then select by driver? We could
make the driver table better to allow filtering.

johannes

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Re: PCI express card that does AP mode? (abit wlp-01?)

[Jon Fairbairn]

Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> writes:

> On Fri, 2009-07-24 at 17:16 +0100, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
>> (In the "asking for the moon on a stick" department, it would be handy
>> to have a table somewhere with "supported features" and "form factor"
>> dropdowns, so that I could have selected "AP" and "PCIe" and get the
>> card I now have ;-)

[...]

> I'm starting to think we should remove all the numbers (pci vendor,
> product, subvendor, subsystem) in favour of more interesting information
> like that.

That would be good -- I suspect that the number of people who understand
the purpose of the ids is rather smaller than the number of people who
just want wireless of some description (though the numeric stuff needs
to be somewhere).

> However, as far as AP is concerned, how about we just add a little help
> text that explains that you should look on the Drivers page to see
> whether it supports what you need, and then select by driver? We could
> make the driver table better to allow filtering.

That would be a help.  Mind you, I'm now a satisfied customer hoping he
won't have to look for AP information for a while...

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn@cl.cam.ac.uk