W200 - Linux

[Martijn Dekkers]

Hi all,

Is anybody aware on if/when the W200 will be supported in Linux? It looks so nice and cool on the lid of my laptop, but my laptop is Linux only (and will remain that way), so support would be appreciated.

[Ron Kinner]

Doesn't appear to be anything from Compaq/HP but there are many successful Linux installations with WL200s


http://www.core.org.au/mystuff/WL200AccessPoints.html

http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/wireless/2002-November/002070.html

http://lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-user/2001-February/000488.html


http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/

Ron

[Martijn Dekkers]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, the W200 and the WL200 seem to be different products - the W200 - the MultiPort Wireless module on for the Evo - now turns out to be unsupported - this particular piece of kit does not have the PRISM chipset, but seems to have a hacked-up USB/Lucent kind of chipset.

When I was looking at getting the W200, I was under the impression that it would have linux support, since i read many howto's. however, since it has a different chipset (i think there is a difference between the European and US versions, hence the mixup) it looks like I am going to be dissapointed.

[Martijn Dekkers]

Hmm - my previous reply didn't come out the way I intended - sorry, it's still early morning....

The W200 requires the orinoco.o module, since it uses the Agere chipset, coupled with a USB interface (for the multiport bit). The W(l)100 *was* based on the PRISM chipset, and there are some speculations that there actually *are* a couple of Prism-based W200's out there. However, the WLAN-ng group have actually included W200 support some time ago, only to back it out again a few weeks later, since it wasn't a PRISM chipset.

As far as I have been able to piece together, Compaq has opted for a particularly poor combination of chipsets and interfaces in the W200, apperantly going through great lengths to ensure that this particular piece of kit will only be supported on Windows.

As an aside, that strikes me as odd, since it seems that there are plenty of USB/WLAN combinations out there that in fact do work in different operating environments, without affecting the design one way or the other.

So, I guess that in the end, I bought a lemon. I still have the requirement for WLAN connectivity in Linux, so I guess I will have to buy it from a vendor that supports Linux.

[Ron Kinner]

Sorry about that. Wasn't paying attention I guess. I poked around on Orinoco's site and found a link to Dave Komacke's website:

http://www.komacke.com/distribution.html

It's possible that his Drivers for Proxim's RangeLAN2, Symphony, and Harmony products might work for you.

Ron

[stefano argiro]

Hi,
I had the same bad experience
with the W200. It looked like it
was supported, but then the chipset was changed without changing the product Id, generating a lot of confusion.

Komacke's drivers do not support
USB, and the W200 is USB.

It would be nice if Compaq put some pressure on Orinoco to release Linux drivers for
their USB chipset.
I think this should be trivial,
since the drivers for PCMCIA and
PCI are well consolidated

[Hans Friedrich]

you mean compaq "we only support OS delivered with the product = m$"...I don't think so!!!
I'm very disappointed with the support from Compaq/HP. I mean I didnt' buy a OS...I bought just a notebook!!

[Tormod T Gjestland]

What chipset am I likly to find inside a W200 purcased in Europa? I have a Evo 1020 and I'am thinking about geting myself a W200 to use under Linux.

Does anyone recommend this card? Or whould rather get myself a PCMCIA card that I know works under Linux?

[stefano argiro]

You are likely
to get one that does not work under Linux, I would say.

Go for the PCMCIA

[Hans Friedrich]

>What chipset am I likly to >find inside a W200 purcased >in Europa?
definitely not prism2 based card.
I think it's a usb orionco/agere chip which is not supported under linux.
go for a prism2 based PCMCIA card if you want to be sure

[Kaj Gr]

If somebody has W200 working with linux (RH 8.0), please inform us.. I know that there are some persons whose W100 works ok, but there seems to be a driver-issue with this newer version.. So if this works, I would love to get some info, or else please HP help to get it some support in Linux!

[Hugo Haas]

I asked Agere Systems about Linux support a couple of weeks ago. They answered that only Windows drivers were provided, and didn't answer my question about future plans.

I keep an up-to-date log of my investigations at:

http://larve.net/people/hugo/2002/12/evo410

I would encourage people to bug Agere Systems and Compaq about it, because it would sure be nice to have the W200 work under Linux.

Regards,

Hugo

[Kaj Gr]

Thanks Hugo, for me the linux support is very important, and I would definitely want some support from hp/compaq to W200.

Getting wlan with multiport would be great, but because it doesn't work I may go with Dell notebook.. Too bad, but without workin multiport/w200 Compaq is not so competitive..

[Al Stone]

Howdy.

I work in one of the HP Linux Labs and have an Evo laptop running Debian. I've got the W100 and it works fine (except for encryption). I don't know if I can help with the W200 (I haven't been able to get my hands on one) but perhaps I can pass off the concerns to one of the folks that can do something about it -- I don't know if they will, but I can make sure they know it's a problem.

So, a couple of things would help me do this: (1) what distro are you running? (2) what kernel are you using? and (3) could you please send me as much hardware info as you can (e.g., like lspci and lsusb info, plus details on which device you actually have in your laptop)? While I'm trying to get some sort of response, perhaps we can take a look at the drivers and figure out what's up.

Thanks in advance.

[Hugo Haas]

I am running Debian with a vanilla 2.4.20 kernel.

I have a Evo N410c with a W200 in it.

Here are the output of lspci and lsusb:

http://larve.net/people/hugo/2003/02/lspci-vv

http://larve.net/people/hugo/2003/02/lsusb-vv

Let me know if you want to know anything else or if you need a guinea pig for any experiment.

Regards,

Hugo

[Al Stone]

Thanks, Hugo. Very helpful. I'm still waiting for some specifics on the hardware from some internal sources. In the meantime, as far as I know, the stock Debian kernels do not include the linux-wlan-ng drivers by default; I think you'll need to go to http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan and get the drivers from taht package installed first. Best I can tell from your PCI/LSB info is that (a) the device is showing up (always a good sign :), and (b) it is a USB device. According to some other docs, it looks like a USB2.0 device, on top of that. So, when building the linux-wlan drivers, see if you can get prism2 (or prism3) USB modules to work. I'll try to verify what module the W200 should respond to in the meantime.

Hope that helps...

[Hugo Haas]

Hi Al.

First, thanks a lot for your help.

So, I did try linux-wlan-ng a few months ago when I first got the machine and it didn't work. The problem AFAICT is that linux-wlan-ng is for cards with Prism chips, and the W200 has an Orinoco chip. I gathered this from several posts and my own experience seeing that the linux-wlan-ng does not see the W200 IIRC, and that running strings on the Windows driver shows "ORiNOCO".

Again, from what I have read on the Web, the USB Orinoco chipset has no support under Linux, and I think that this is where the problem lies.

Regards,

Hugo

[stefano argiro]

Hi Al,

great that you help us !
From what I got, the device has
the WLan radio chipset and a
CYPRESS EZ-USB FX chip for
the USB interface.

Hugo is right, there is no support
for this combination yet ... but it should be trivial to write a driver,
if only programming specs for
the USB interface and its firmware
was made available.
Best regards
Stefano

[Hugo Haas]

I found an interesting page today with a success story for the W200:

http://www.psychosis.net/evo-linux/

This person has flashed his W200 with a firmware from another vendor and apparently got it to work!

I am hesitating to try this though, but am interested to hear reports if somebody tries.

Regards,

Hugo

[Hugo Haas]

Actually, rereading his page, he seems to be using a Prism chipset.

[Michael Hogeveen]

Hi, i have the same problem with my evo n1005v with W200 module. Since i bought this (hard to get) thing in holland this must be Orinoco based. prism2 doesnt work for me, dont ever see a light show up. I hope there will be a solution for this. Im using Suse 8.2 pro, and it runs so much faster then WindowsXP.

I have already contacted Compaq/HP about this, but i dont have a mail back yet. I know what answer i get already (no support for linux, its designed for WindowsXP, but the more people mail them, the faster they wil realize that they have to take Linux serious.

I wonder if anyone saw this page:

I')>http://ranty.ddts.net/~ranty/orinoco/

I hope someone with a W200 in europe can figure out if this is a solution.

[Thomas Vollmer]

I can confirm that the drivers from http://ranty.ddts.net/~ranty/orinoco/ work for me with a Evo N800w and a W200. Its still in its primary stages, but it works. The mailing list is also helpful.

[Michael Hogeveen]

Seems that the page cant be reached. Finally i found something, and now i cant use it! argh!
Maybe someone saved the page?

[Michael Hogeveen]

Yesterday when i found that page it was late at night, and i didnt had time to play with it. Now when i have the time its not reachable!
Maybe someone have saved the page or links or whatever?

[Michael Leodolter]

Hi!
As http://ranty.ddts.net/~ranty/orinoco/
does not work, can you send me the link/page you found ?

Thanks,

Michael