Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Christian Axelsson]

Whats the current status of the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 MiniPCI?
Some rumours says that its based upon the prisma 2.5 chip but I havent 
had any luck with those drivers. Intel stays passive it seems.

Regards

--
Christian Axelsson
smiler@lanil.mine.nu

Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Anders Karlsson]

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On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 10:10, Christian Axelsson wrote:
> Whats the current status of the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 MiniPCI?
> Some rumours says that its based upon the prisma 2.5 chip but I havent 
> had any luck with those drivers. Intel stays passive it seems.

It is not a Prism 2.5 chipset, it is an Intel chipset that currently is
unsupported. I have not had a response from Intel in my last mail to
them, but I guess there could be holiday time there.

For the time being those mini-PCI cards is dead weight in the laptop I
am afraid. I hope that either Intel suddenly sees sense (snowflake in
hell analogy coming on) or some bright spark reverse engineers the card
and writes an alpha driver that surpasses the functionality of the Intel
beta drivers they keep under lock and key internally.

I'll probably locate some Prism CardBus card in the meantime to use.

-- 
Anders Karlsson <anders@trudheim.com>
Trudheim Technology Limited

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Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Bas Mevissen]

Anders Karlsson wrote:

> On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 10:10, Christian Axelsson wrote:
> 

  (mini-PCI WLAN cards in notebooks)

> For the time being those mini-PCI cards is dead weight in the laptop I
> am afraid. I hope that either Intel suddenly sees sense (snowflake in
> hell analogy coming on) or some bright spark reverse engineers the card
> and writes an alpha driver that surpasses the functionality of the Intel
> beta drivers they keep under lock and key internally.
> 
> I'll probably locate some Prism CardBus card in the meantime to use.
> 

My dead weight was called Dell TrueMobile 1300 (with BroadCom chipset). 
What I did is buying a NetGear WG311 PCI card (802.11b/g). It contains a 
mini-pci card in a slot unders a metal cover and some small stuff on the 
PCI-shape PCB.

The cover is easy to remove (only 3 pins) and the antenna is not 
soldered, but connected with the same connector as in my notebook. I 
could only connect 1 (main) antenna, but the PCI card has only one 
antenna too. So you only loose antenna diversity.

The NetGear contains an Atheros chipset. There is some open source stuff 
available (URL forgotten) and a driver (mafwifi) with a binary-only 
hardware abstraction. Not really what you want, but at least a start. A 
combination of both may lead to a more desirable result. But for me it 
is fine to use. Only I can not issue bug reports when the driver has 
been loaded since the last boot.

Oh,
#include <stddisclaimer.h>
#include <donttryat.h>
#include <nowarrenty.h>

Regards,

Bas.

BTW. I have a PCI card with Broadcom chipset for sale now :-)

Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Mr. James W. Laferriere]

	Hello Bas ,  Do you (or anyone else) know which of the 'PCI' based
	cards are use the 'mini-pci' cards on a bridge card ?

	I'd really like more of a selection to choose from than just
	Netgear .  The Netgear card you spoke of below religously doesn't
	mention Linux in it's support sections .  But ,  (hopefully) it
	appears that you are using under linux , correct ?  Tia ,  JimL

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Bas Mevissen wrote:
> Anders Karlsson wrote:
> > On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 10:10, Christian Axelsson wrote:
>   (mini-PCI WLAN cards in notebooks)
> > For the time being those mini-PCI cards is dead weight in the laptop I
> > am afraid. I hope that either Intel suddenly sees sense (snowflake in
> > hell analogy coming on) or some bright spark reverse engineers the card
> > and writes an alpha driver that surpasses the functionality of the Intel
> > beta drivers they keep under lock and key internally.
> > I'll probably locate some Prism CardBus card in the meantime to use.
> My dead weight was called Dell TrueMobile 1300 (with BroadCom chipset).
> What I did is buying a NetGear WG311 PCI card (802.11b/g). It contains a
> mini-pci card in a slot unders a metal cover and some small stuff on the
> PCI-shape PCB.
> The cover is easy to remove (only 3 pins) and the antenna is not
> soldered, but connected with the same connector as in my notebook. I
> could only connect 1 (main) antenna, but the PCI card has only one
> antenna too. So you only loose antenna diversity.
> The NetGear contains an Atheros chipset. There is some open source stuff
> available (URL forgotten) and a driver (mafwifi) with a binary-only
> hardware abstraction. Not really what you want, but at least a start. A
> combination of both may lead to a more desirable result. But for me it
> is fine to use. Only I can not issue bug reports when the driver has
> been loaded since the last boot.
> BTW. I have a PCI card with Broadcom chipset for sale now :-)
-- 
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+
       | James   W.   Laferriere | System    Techniques | Give me VMS     |
       | Network        Engineer |     P.O. Box 854     |  Give me Linux  |
       | babydr@baby-dragons.com | Coudersport PA 16915 |   only  on  AXP |
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+

Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Bas Mevissen]

Mr. James W. Laferriere wrote:
> 	Hello Bas ,  Do you (or anyone else) know which of the 'PCI' based
> 	cards are use the 'mini-pci' cards on a bridge card ?
> 

Probably all PCI-cards that have a huge metal casing. PCI WLAN cards are 
not so common (desktop and wireless is a bit silly :-))and hence the 
development costs for a "real" PCI WLAN card might be too high compared 
to the extra cost of using a Mini-PCI and a bridge. Actually, "bridge" 
is too much honour for the remaining card. Slot converter is more 
appropriate.

> 	I'd really like more of a selection to choose from than just
> 	Netgear .  The Netgear card you spoke of below religously doesn't
> 	mention Linux in it's support sections .  But ,  (hopefully) it
> 	appears that you are using under linux , correct ?  Tia ,  JimL
> 

We all like that. Actually, I wanted to have an 802.11a/b/g from a 
supplier that has real open source drivers. But it was all I could get 
on a short term.

I use it with Linux. Actually, I did not more than a few tests. But I 
know it works and I verified it with the XP install that came with the 
notebook. I just had to install the PCI-card drivers there.

(general remark) Note that this kind of use of mini-pci modules is all 
on your own risk and responsibility. Maybe I better had not told this on 
LKML. But now that has happened, I advise people to think twice before 
doing it and ask me for details in private if they feel uncertain about it.

Regards,

Bas.

Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Christian Axelsson]

Bas Mevissen wrote:
> Mr. James W. Laferriere wrote:
> 
>>     Hello Bas ,  Do you (or anyone else) know which of the 'PCI' based
>>     cards are use the 'mini-pci' cards on a bridge card ?
>>
> 
> Probably all PCI-cards that have a huge metal casing. PCI WLAN cards are 
> not so common (desktop and wireless is a bit silly :-))and hence the 
> development costs for a "real" PCI WLAN card might be too high compared 
> to the extra cost of using a Mini-PCI and a bridge. Actually, "bridge" 
> is too much honour for the remaining card. Slot converter is more 
> appropriate.
> 
>>     I'd really like more of a selection to choose from than just
>>     Netgear .  The Netgear card you spoke of below religously doesn't
>>     mention Linux in it's support sections .  But ,  (hopefully) it
>>     appears that you are using under linux , correct ?  Tia ,  JimL
>>
> 
> We all like that. Actually, I wanted to have an 802.11a/b/g from a 
> supplier that has real open source drivers. But it was all I could get 
> on a short term.
> 
> I use it with Linux. Actually, I did not more than a few tests. But I 
> know it works and I verified it with the XP install that came with the 
> notebook. I just had to install the PCI-card drivers there.
> 
> (general remark) Note that this kind of use of mini-pci modules is all 
> on your own risk and responsibility. Maybe I better had not told this on 
> LKML. But now that has happened, I advise people to think twice before 
> doing it and ask me for details in private if they feel uncertain about it.

Yep I was just gonna ask you for pictures (photos) showing all 
connectors and stuff so I know how it will fit into my acer laptop :)

-- 
Christan Axelsson
smiler@lanil.mine.nu

Re: Current status of Intel PRO/Wireless 2100

[Mr. James W. Laferriere]

	Hello Bas ,

On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, Bas Mevissen wrote:
> Mr. James W. Laferriere wrote:
> > 	Hello Bas ,  Do you (or anyone else) know which of the 'PCI' based
> > 	cards are use the 'mini-pci' cards on a bridge card ?
> Probably all PCI-cards that have a huge metal casing. PCI WLAN cards are
> not so common (desktop and wireless is a bit silly :-))and hence the
> development costs for a "real" PCI WLAN card might be too high compared
> to the extra cost of using a Mini-PCI and a bridge. Actually, "bridge"
> is too much honour for the remaining card. Slot converter is more
> appropriate.
	There are also the pci-[cardbus|pcmcia] devices .  And in most of
	the usual closeup's you get of those things the picture is so
	smeared that there is very little way to tell the differances
	from looking at those pictures .  I did find Jean Tourrilhes site
	& documents on wireless for linux & am now using the information
	there to try to find 802.11g mini-pci versions that are supported
	by linux .

> > 	I'd really like more of a selection to choose from than just
> > 	Netgear .  The Netgear card you spoke of below religously doesn't
> > 	mention Linux in it's support sections .  But ,  (hopefully) it
> > 	appears that you are using under linux , correct ?  Tia ,  JimL
> We all like that. Actually, I wanted to have an 802.11a/b/g from a
> supplier that has real open source drivers. But it was all I could get
> on a short term.
> I use it with Linux. Actually, I did not more than a few tests. But I
> know it works and I verified it with the XP install that came with the
> notebook. I just had to install the PCI-card drivers there.
	Thank you for the confirmation .  If I should decide to pick up
	the netgear card I'll report back with success &/or horror
	reports .

> (general remark) Note that this kind of use of mini-pci modules is all
> on your own risk and responsibility. Maybe I better had not told this on
> LKML. But now that has happened, I advise people to think twice before
> doing it and ask me for details in private if they feel uncertain about it.
	I fully understand ,  It is not supported by the laptop
	manufacturers & if it breaks you tell me I get to keep all the
	pieces ;-) .  Tnx Again ,  JimL
-- 
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+
       | James   W.   Laferriere | System    Techniques | Give me VMS     |
       | Network        Engineer |     P.O. Box 854     |  Give me Linux  |
       | babydr@baby-dragons.com | Coudersport PA 16915 |   only  on  AXP |
       +------------------------------------------------------------------+