ELSA MC-2 Linux Driver

• Requirements
• Downloads
• Firmware Versions
• Sniffing the Air
• News
• CVS Tar Balls
• More Info
• Closed Network Mode
• Contact, Feedback and Support

This is an open source linux driver for the ELSA MC-2 PCMCIA WLAN card and the Siemens I-Gate M2, which is a re-labelled MC-2. As this card is very similar to the ZCOM WL2430 chances are that this driver works with it, too, or might be adapted in the future.

You need a Linux kernel 2.2.x or 2.4.x and a recent pcmcia-cs package (3.1.x should be sufficient). If you use kernel PCMCIA instead, you must manually copy the sources and adapt the make files.

The latest version is Version 1.52 Check the News for known bugs.

The latest official firmware version is 2.06. Currently the linux driver does not support firmware updates, you must update the firmware with an (I)L-2 or under Win9x or NT4 using these programs.

• download the firmware and rename it giving it a .bin extension.
• download either AirLancer_MC-2_FWupdate9X.EXE (Win9x), AirLancer_MC-2_FWupdateNT4.ZIP (NT 4) or AirLancer_MC-2_W2K.ZIP (W2K), unpack it if necessary and execute AirLancer_MC-2_FWupdate9X.EXE or WLU.EXE, while the MC-2 is inserted.
• click on Upgrade Firmware.
• choose the correct firmware file downloaded in the first step
• click on UPGRADE. The firmware is loaded into the card.
• choose EXIT

If the MC2 doesn't work in your environment or has a bad throughput and you have double checked your settings, the syslog messages and routing tables, a trace of the packets in the air could help a lot in analysing your problem. Please check legal restrictions, which may forbid scanning air traffic in your country!

You need:

• A recent version of ethereal, which supports IEEE802.11 and Prism packet formats.
• A Prism2 based PC Card or USB adapter and the Linux wlan-ng driver (version 0.1.15 worked for me) - go here for both a device list and the driver. The device table on this page is outdated, check the driver source if in doubt. Alternatively a Orinoco PCMCIA card with orinoco_cs.o is usable, but may require a patch for the driver and does not, AFAIK, provide Prism header information.

Install ethereal and the device driver on the computer which shall trace the traffic. Set the WLAN device into monitor mode, e.g. for wlan-ng (where X is the channel number of the access point or the adhoc station):

wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_wlansniff enable=true channel=X prismheader=true keepwepflags=true

Now ethereal shall be able to record all packets, including management packets on this interface.

News

• 16.02.2003: 1.53beta2: fixed a bug in adhoc mode when the MC-2 started the IBSS. In this case all data packets (arp, ping) were dropped by some peers (e.g. ATMEL AT76c503 USB adapter with firmware 0.100.x), because the MC2 used a BSSID of all zeros in address3 field. This bug was present since version 1.51 (incl.).
• 04.02.2003: fixed two bugs with WEP flags:
  • when encryption in restricted mode was shut off, unencrypted packets were still ignored
  • encrypted packets were excepted even if no encryption was configured
• 02.02.2003: Version 1.52 released (see our CVS):
• 25.01.2003: fixed compiler errors with kernel 2.2.13
• 11.01.2003: added conf entry for the Siemens I-Gate M2
• 05.01.2003:
  • added support for sharing interrupts
  • added debug output of module parameters at startup
  • iwconfig will be able to set rate auto
• 10.12.2002: fixed bug in leaky bucket handling (forgot to stop the netif leading to MdCfm with status 1).
leaky bucket does not count MdCfm with status 2 (Fail)
• 07.12.2002: added re-assembling of fragments on RX, fixed bug in initialization of leaky buffer counter for failed MdCfm, increased this threshold
• 26.11.2002: driver did not use WEP if the access point (Agere) was configured for optional WEP - fixed (use cvs tar ball)
• 06.11.2002: version 1.51 still doesn't work with Agere access points. If you encounter problems in joining APs in closed network mode, try the latest cvs tar ball.
• 04.11.2002: Version 1.51 (see our CVS):
  • merged 1.43 and 1.50
  • WEP support was added in 1.50 (firmware >= 2.06 needed !)
  • supports Belkin access points in closed network mode
  • supports Agere access points in closed network mode if firmware >= 2.10 is used
• 28.10.2002: Version 1.43 (see our CVS):
  • first public release

If you want to use one of the cvs tar balls you should call make -f wl24n_cs.mk dist in the mc2 directory and unpack the resulting tgz file into the pcmcia-cs root directory as described in the README.wl24n file.

• Project summary at BerliOS
• CVS repository
• Look into the file README.wl24n of the latest release or in the cvs repository for more specific information.

Just use the following mailing-lists:

• user support
• announcements

Links

• Wireless LAN resources under Linux
• Access Point under Linux with Prism2/2.5/3 PCMCIA cards (not the MC-2)
• AT76C503 Driver for many USB WLAN adapters.
• ethereal, a powerful network sniffer supporting IEEE802.11 and Prism headers.
• Linux wlan-ng driver for Prism2 based PC Card and USB devices.
• Jason's table of AT76C503 based USB WLAN adapter.
• a comprehensive list of WLAN adapters from AVS. Be aware that some vendors silently change chipsets, but keep the old product names! Better check the FCC-ID, USB ids or PCMCIA CIS value before purchasing any product.

Tested Configurations

to be filled (in which configurations does it work)