Installing Linksys WPC54G version 2 on Fedora Core 3 System: O/S: Dell Latitude C600 (BIOS Rev A23) Fedora Core 3 (2.6.10-1.760_FC3.stk16 kernel)
1) Download and upgrade Fedora Core 3 kernel for stack size 16K Most Windows drivers require stack sizes of at least 12K. The Fedora Core kernels have stack sizes of 4K and need to be upgraded. The easiest and most common method of doing this is going to one of the links below and downloading the appropriate replacement kernel for your version. These replacement kernels have 16K stacks. For i586: http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads-fc3-kernel-i586.php For i686: http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads-fc3-kernel-i686.php To find out what your kernel architecture is: rpm -q --qf '%{ARCH}\n' kernel To find out what kernel version you have: uname r Once you have downloaded the appropriate RPM, just unzip and rpm Uvh filename as root and the kernel will be installed. You will need to reboot after the kernel upgrade. 2) Download latest stable version of Ndiswrapper (1.0) http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/ 3) Download latest version of Windows XP drivers for Linksys card http://www.linksys.com/download/default.asp 4) Extract contents of ndiswrapper download tar xvzf ~/download/ndiswrapper-1.0.tar.gz 5) Extract contents of Linksys driver download unzip ~/download/wpc54gv2_driver_utility_v2.02.zip 6) Build and install ndiswrapper cd ~/download/ndiswrapper-1.0 make make install
7) Install XP driver using Ndiswrapper First, we must fix the cases of target filenames in LSTINDS.INF. There are 3 files that the INF file refers to in the incorrect case. While this is a non-issue in Windows, Linux will throw a fit if you try to install the driver without making these changes. Files as they look in filesystem: tnet1130.sys tnet1130x.sys Lstinds4.sys
The problem is that LSTINDS.INF refers to them as: TNET1130.sys TNET1130x.sys LSTINDS4.sys So either change the target filenames in the INF file or change the filenames in directory. Now, we can install the driver ndiswrapper -i ~/download/WPC54Gv2_40826/LSTINDS.INF (Note that the WPC54Gv1 uses lsbcmnds.inf and does not need these modifications) 8) Check to see if driver installed correctly ndiswrapper -l 9) Create new network interface file in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts Create file 'ifcfg-wlan0' MODE=Managed ESSID=AP SSID in double quotes KEY=<64-bit or 128-bit WEP key> DEVICE=wlan0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=dhcp USERCTL=no PEERDNS=no TYPE=Wireless The above config is just a basic WEP setup with DHCP. You can make changes to it either manually in the file or in Gnome if you go to Applications -> System Settings > Network (I believe there is a way to get WPA-PSK working with the card but I haven't investigated that yet) 10) Change order of startup services so that PCMCIA initializes before the network and nfslock /etc/init.d/pcmcia Change chkconfig line to '#chkconfig: 96' /etc/init.d/network
Change chkconfig line to '#chkconfig: 96' /etc/init.d/nfslock Change chkconfig line to '#chkconfig: 86' 11) Insert card if you haven't already and check its status cardctl status Sample output shows that the card is in socket 1 and ready: Socket 0: no card Socket 1: 3.3V CardBus card function 0: [ready] 12) Install ndiswrapper module in kernel modprobe ndiswrapper 13) Verify that ndiswrapper module was added modprobe -l ndiswrapper You should see output similar to this: /lib/modules/2.6.10-1.760_FC3.stk16/misc/ndiswrapper.ko 14) Create alias for wlan0 in module configuration file ndiswrapper -m This just adds the line 'alias wlan0 ndiswrapper' to modprobe.conf so that the ndiswrapper kernel module is loaded automatically when this interface is used. 15) Reboot 16) Check wireless interface configuration iwconfig If you don't see wlan0 in the output, then the wlan0 interface has not initialized. You can try to activate it through the terminal by typing ifup wlan0. To scan access points, you can type iwlist wlan0 scan

802.11G First Impressions

Cliff Skolnick, BAWUG

802.11G
Speed Compatibility Price Adoption
AP configuration Airport Extreme Basestation Linksys G AP Client configuration Apple 800Mhz Tibook Linksys WPC54G
G only mode 20Mb/s Mixed Mode (B/G) 16Mb/s

Compatability

OpenAP WEP issues

Price (AP)

Airport Extreme $249 modem/external antenna $199 no extras Linksys WRT54G $129 Amazon $129/$149 Frys

Price (Client)

Linksys WPC54G $79 Apple airport extreme $99

Deployment

802.11b antennas 802.11b amps may work

Adoption

G is good B only price will fall A only, rare A/G or G only