Linux and the AmbiCom WL1100C WireLess LAN CF-Card

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The AmbiCom WL1100C-CF WireLess LAN IEEE802.11b CF-Card (Type I) (MAC 00:10:7A:..:..:..) works for some Linux environments, but not for others. If the card doesn't work it may help sometimes to add an entry to /etc/pcmcia/config (or better to a separate .conf file, which bind the driver to the card by using the identification string instead of the manufacturer ID.

product info: "AmbiCom", "WL1100C 802.11b CF-Card", "2.2"
manfid: 0xd601, 0x0002
function: 6 (network)

AmbiCom WL1100C-CF in a Laptop x86

The card works. Here is the (slightly modified) output of dmesg:

orinoco 0.15rc2 (David Gibson <hermes_at_gibson.dropbear.id.au>, Pavel Roskin <proski_at_gnu.org>, et al)
ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
orinoco_cs 0.15rc2 (David Gibson <hermes_at_gibson.dropbear.id.au>, Pavel Roskin <proski_at_gnu.org>, et al)
hostap_cs: 0.4.4-kernel (Jouni Malinen <jkmaline_at_cc.hut.fi>)
eth2: Hardware identity 800c:0000:0001:0000
eth2: Station identity  001f:0009:0001:0004
eth2: Firmware determined as Intersil 1.4.9
eth2: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth2: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth2: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth2: MAC address 00:10:7A:..:..:..
eth2: Station name "Prism  I"
eth2: ready
eth2: index 0x01: Vcc 3.3, irq 3, io 0x4100-0x413f

AmbiCom WL1100C-CF in a Sharp Zaurus 5600 (Poodle)

To cut it short: it does not work.

OpenZaurus 3.5.4RC

infrastructure (driver hostap)

• spots AP and associates
• DHCP does not work
• configuring static IP address yields an occasional ping coming through, but no real traffic goes on air

infrastructure (driver orinoco)

• spots AP and associates
• DHCP does not work
• configuring static IP address does not even yield a single ping coming through

adhoc (driver hostap)

• spots peer and associates
• configuring static IP address does not even yield a single ping coming through

Sharp ROM 1.32

infrastructure

• is not able to associate with AccessPoint

adhoc

• see OpenZaurus

AmbiCom WL1100C-CF in a Sharp Zaurus 5000D

Kirk M. Schafer wrote: "It is worth noting that I decided to purchase this card for a Zaurus 5000D (after a considerable amount of research) and it functioned flawlessly upon insertion. My system configuration is presently:

• Zaurus: 5000D
• Opie: 1.2.0 (Apr 8 2005)
• Linux: 2.4.18-rmk7-pxa3-embedix-3.5.3
• OpenZaurus: 3.5.3

AmbiCom WL1100C-CF in a Sharp Zaurus 5500 (Collie)

S. Yoder stated that this CF-Card works:

• Associates with open AP
• Associates with WEP AP 56bit & 128bit (156bit not tested)
• WPA-PSK association successful only after flashing station firmware to 1.7.4 in ram (newer versions not tested), but you may have to ifdown/ifup a couple of times to get a stable association (not sure if this is hardware, software or configuration issue).
• DHCP not tested in any of the above.
• WPA association appears to only allow pings to work if it associated with a bit rate of 11Mb/s initially. Cannot set iwconfig wlan0 rate ... once station firmware flash to RAM has occurred. Have not attempted to permanently flash card with newer primary and station firmware.

System info:

• Sharp Zaurus 5500 (collie)
• OpenZaurus hentges 3.5.4.1 (zImage-collie-64-0-20060620045455)
• Opie 1.2.1 (hentges-opie-image-collie_T1)
• CardFS (cardfs-opie-collie-openzaurus_oz3.5.4.1-rc4-opie1.2.1-T1)

Software/driver info:

• kernel - 2.4.18-rmk7-pxa3-embedix-r23
• hostap-conf - 1.0-r7
• hostap-modules-2.4.18-rmk7-pxa3-embedix - 0.4.7-r5
• hostap-modules-cs-2.4.18-rmk7-pxa3-embedix - 0.4.7-r5
• hostap-utils - 0.4.7-r3
• wpa-supplicant - 0.4.8-r8

Working card info:

# hostap_diag wlan0 (before flash):
  NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) PCMCIA (SST parallel flash))
  PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.0
  STA: id=0x1f v1.4.9 (station firmware)

# hostap_diag wlan0 (after flash to ram):
  NICID: id=0x800c v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) PCMCIA (SST parallel flash))
  PRIID: id=0x0015 v1.1.0
  STAID: id=0x001f v1.7.4 (station firmware)

Card that did not work at all, even with a station firmware flash to ram:

# hostap_diag wlan0 (before flash):
  NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) PCMCIA (SST parallel flash))
  PRI: id=0x15 v1.0.7
  STA: id=0x1f v1.3.6 (station firmware)

Note: cardctl ident for non-working card same as for working card.

Sample /etc/network/interfaces for open AP:

iface wlan0 inet static
  down changedns -r  192.168.1.1
  up changedns -a  192.168.1.1
  gateway 192.168.1.1
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  address 192.168.1.15
  wireless_ap [station_bssid]
  wireless_essid [station_sid]
  wireless_mode Managed

Sample /etc/network/interfaces using wpa_supplicant:

iface wlan0 inet static
  down changedns -r  192.168.1.1
  up changedns -a  192.168.1.1
  gateway 192.168.1.1
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  address 192.168.1.15
  wireless_ap [station_bssid]
  wireless_essid [station_ssid]
  wireless_mode Managed
  pre-up prism2_srec -r wlan0 /[path_to]/rf010704.hex
  pre-up modprobe hostap_crypt_tkip
  pre-up modprobe hostap_crypt_ccmp
  pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
  post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant
  post-down rmmod hostap_crypt_tkip
  post-down rmmod hostap_crypt_ccmp