Cannot complete the last step - host ap and card work fine, but linux pcmcia subsystem does not recognize card from hostap_cs.conf

[Neal Cariello]

Hi,

Jeez, I feel like a doober getting stuck at this point.  Anyway, here's
the story.

I am running Debian 3.1 with a custom-compiled 2.6.8 kernel with the
patches to enable RFMON for Orinoco cards.  HostAP-driver-0.3.9 compiled
and installed just dandy.  The PCMCIA card is a Prism2-based SMC2532W-B.

How do I know the card and driver are OK ?  I can run Kismet using the
following line in the kismet.conf file:
    source=hostap,wlan0,myhostap

Also I can configure the interface with iwconfig.  Either (i) the pcmcia
subsystem is not recognizing the card from
the /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf file or (ii) I am not using iwconfig to
set up the card properly.  

I am just trying to get the card working like a "regular" card in
managed mode at this point (just trying to use Firefox, for example).

Here's the result of 'cardctl ident':
  product info: "SMC", "SMC2532W-B EliteConnect Wireless Adapter", "",
""
  manfid: 0xd601, 0x0005
  function: 6 (network)
  
Here's the head and tail of the /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf file:

-------- begin head of hostap_cs.conf ----------
device "hostap_cs"
   class "network" module "hostap", "hostap_cs"
-------- end head of hostap_cs.conf ----------

-------- begin tail of hostap_cs.conf ----------
card "SMC2532W-B EliteConnect Wireless Adapter"
  version "SMC", "SMC2532W-B EliteConnect Wireless Adapter"
  manfid 0xd601, 0x0005
  bind "hostap_cs"   

module "hostap_cs" opts "channel=3 iw_mode=3 essid=test
ignore_cis_vcc=0"         
----------- end of tail of hostap_cs.conf -----------------

I have tried a few permutations, like commenting out either the line
that begins with "version" or the line that begins with "manfid". 

iwconfig at this point produces this:

Warning: Driver for device wifi0 recommend version 18 of Wireless
Extension,
but has been compiled with version 16, therefore some driver features
may not be available...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"test"
          Mode:Master  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00   Bit Rate:11
Mb/s
          Sensitivity=1/3
          Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management: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

  
Now I enter this:

iwconfig wlan0 essid neal freq 2.412G enc 70397FFEF9 mode managed
ifconfig wlan0 up

and iwconfig has picked up my AP and all looks nice:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"neal"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point:
00:12:17:27:49:76
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Sensitivity=1/3
          Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:7039-7FFE-F9   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=59/70  Signal level=-27 dBm  Noise level=-87 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
  
I can ping myself if I enter:
  ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.1
  ping 192.168.1.1
  
But I cannot ping Google for instance nor does Firefox work.

I have also tested my neighbor's AP, which is not encrypted, thinking
something may be amiss with WEP, but it's the same story.

Well, this is getting to be a long post, so I'll cork it here.

- Dr Bop (not a real doctor)