trying to configure a DWL-500

[Roberto De Leo]

Hi,
I spent a whole day trying to configure correctly my DWL-500 card under 
Linux (Slackware 9.1) but still something is not working, is someone out 
there using this card succesfully?

After long google searches I've managed to let the PCMCIA card detected 
by setting the right memory ranges for the Ricoh RL5c475 cardbus bridge 
in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts; I tried all modules I knew of and the only 
drivers that get me the double high beep are the hostap ones (I also 
tried the orinoco_cs one from the pcmcia-cs package 3.2.7 and the one 
from the linux-wlan project [I tried versions 0.2.0, 0.2.1pre19 and 
0.2.1pre21] but I always get the wrong beeps and no wifi device afterwards).
When the hostap modules are loaded I can see the card:

# cardctl info
PRODID_1="D"
PRODID_2="Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Card"
PRODID_3="Version 01.02"
PRODID_4=""
MANFID=0156,0002
FUNCID=6

# iwconfig wifi0
wifi0     IEEE 802.11-DS  Mode:Ad-Hoc
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

But if I try to configure its IP number with ifconfig then something 
goes wrong:

# ifconfig wifi0 up
# iwconfig wifi0
wifi0     no wireless extensions.

These are the relative error msgs I get from dmesg:

wifi0: hfa384x_cmd_issue: cmd reg was busy for 5000 usec
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd_issue - timeout - reg=0xffff
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=c5bb6d40, type=0, res=-1)
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: interrupted; err=-110
wifi0: MAC port 0 enabling failed
wifi0: could not enable MAC port
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd_issue: cmd reg was busy for 5000 usec
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd_issue - timeout - reg=0xffff
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=c5bb6d40, type=0, res=-1)
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: interrupted; err=-110
hostap_cs: Shutdown failed

The fact that something was wrong was already clear from /var/log/messages:

May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: Linux PCMCIA Card Services 3.2.7
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel:   kernel build: 2.4.26 #1 SMP Mon May 17 
13:51:43 UTC 2004
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel:   options:  [pci] [cardbus] [apm]
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: Intel ISA/PCI/CardBus PCIC probe:
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel:   Ricoh RL5C475 rev 80 PCI-to-CardBus at 
slot 02:08, mem 0xf1001000
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel:     host opts [0]: [pci only] [io 3/6/1] 
[mem 3/6/1] [pci irq 19] [lat 32/176] [bus 3/6]
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel:     PCI card interrupts, polling interval 
= 1000 ms
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon cardmgr[10534]: watching 1 socket
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: memory probe 0xf1001000-0xf1ffffff: 
excluding 0xf1001000-0xf10fefff 0xf17f1000-0xf18eefff
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: socket 0: D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps 
WLAN Card
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: hostap_cs: 0.2.1 - 2004-05-06 (Jouni 
Malinen <jkmaline at cc.hut.fi>)
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x03e0-0x04cf: clean.
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x04d8-0x04ff: clean.
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x1000-0x17ff: clean.
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wifi0
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: hostap_cs: index 0x01: Vcc 3.3, irq 19, 
io 0x0400-0x043f
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: hostap_cs: first command failed - 
assuming card does not have primary firmware
May 17 17:37:41 nehwon kernel: hostap_cs: first command failed - 
assuming card does not have primary firmware
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: executing: './network start wifi0 
2>&1'
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: + /usr/local/sbin/iwconfig wifi0 
mode Ad-Hoc
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: + Error for wireless request "Set 
Mode" (8B06) :
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: +     SET failed on device wifi0 
; Operation not supported.
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: + /usr/local/sbin/iwconfig wifi0 
essid "pippo"
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: + Error for wireless request "Set 
ESSID" (8B1A) :
May 17 17:37:42 nehwon cardmgr[10535]: +     SET failed on device wifi0 
; Invalid argument.

I could find no hint on the net on how to fix this problem and I'm about 
to give up, any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
 Roberto De Leo