TuxMobil: Linux and the AmbiCom WL1100C WireLess LAN CF-Card

<-- Back to Linux PCMCIA/CardBus/CF-Card Survey.

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