[Orinoco-users] Monitor Mode with Agere Firmware 7.xx and 8.xx

Discussion:

Eric Pretorious

2007-04-21 01:48:07 UTC

A long time ago I used to use my YDI Diamond card...

product info: "Lucent Technologies", "WaveLAN/IEEE", "Version 01.01", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
function: 6 (network)

...with Kismet. I applied the Orinoco Monitor Mode Patch to the Orinoco sources, compiled, and - Viola! - everything worked. But now that the Orinoco Driver includes the patch, I can't use my YDI Diamond card.

* Monitor mode support (except Agere firmware 7.xx and 8.xx).
pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia0.0
eth2: Hardware identity 0001:0001:0004:0002
eth2: Station identity 001f:0001:0008:0034
eth2: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 8.52
eth2: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth2: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth2: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth2: MAC address 00:02:2D:B5:8A:E0
eth2: Station name "HERMES I"
eth2: ready
eth2: orinoco_cs at 0.0, irq 3, io 0x5100-0x513f
eth2: Monitor mode support is buggy in this firmware, not enabling
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready
eth2: New link status: Connected (0001)
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth2: link becomes ready
eth2: Monitor mode support is buggy in this firmware, not enabling
eth2: no IPv6 routers present
eth2: Monitor mode support is buggy in this firmware, not enabling

Eric Pretorious

2007-04-24 00:22:49 UTC

Permalink

FWIW:

The YDI Diamond is just a re-branded Orinoco Classic Silver.
Proxim acquired Orinco in 2002. (http://www.wifinetnews.com/archives/001265.html)
I checked the manufacturer's web site (http://www.ydi.com == http://www.proxim.com) and, apparently, the most current release of the firmware is version 8.72. (As far as I can tell, the Classic Gold/Silver has been EOL'd.) I suppose that I should just start looking for a non-Orinoco PCMCIA card with external antenna connector.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

product info: "Lucent Technologies", "WaveLAN/IEEE", "Version 01.01", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
function: 6 (network)

(Neither of the other two distro's reported the card's firmware. Why?)

How can I get back to mapping networks?

1. I can compile from source (if I REALLY have to) - Is there some way to revert to the old patch? i.e., The one that supported my YDI Diamond card?
2. I could just buy a different card with the newer firmware - Is there a list of Orinoco cards that have the newer firmware?
3. I could just buy a different card with a different chipset - Is there a list of PCMCIA cards with external antenna connectors that support monitor mode?

Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

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Eric Pretorious

2007-04-24 00:44:45 UTC

Permalink

Jeez - I just checked the version history of the Orinoco/Agere Station Firmware (http://proximtechnicalservice.com/support/orinoco/sr02-01/readme/firmware.txt) and learned that the first release of Version 7.x (Version 7.28) was released in Spring of 2001.

This begs the question: If Version 0.15 of the Linux Orinoco Driver doesn't support Agere Firmware 7.xx and 8.xx, what *does* it support?!

Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

Eric Pretorious <***@yahoo.com> wrote: FWIW:

The YDI Diamond is just a re-branded Orinoco Classic Silver.
Proxim acquired Orinco in 2002. (http://www.wifinetnews.com/archives/001265.html)
I checked the manufacturer's web site (http://www.ydi.com == http://www.proxim.com) and, apparently, the most current release of the firmware is version 8.72. (As far as I can tell, the Classic Gold/Silver has been EOL'd.) I suppose that I should just start looking for a non-Orinoco PCMCIA card with external antenna connector.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

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Pavel Roskin

2007-04-24 05:57:11 UTC

Permalink

Post by Eric Pretorious
Jeez - I just checked the version history of the Orinoco/Agere Station
Firmware

(http://proximtechnicalservice.com/support/orinoco/sr02-01/readme/firmware.txt)

Post by Eric Pretorious
and learned that the first release of Version 7.x (Version 7.28) was released
in Spring of 2001.
This begs the question: If Version 0.15 of the Linux Orinoco Driver doesn't
support Agere Firmware 7.xx and 8.xx, what *does* it support?!

Agere firmware 7.xx and 8.xx is supported. Only the monitor mode is disabled by
default because it's unstable. There is a module parameter that can be used to
enable the monitor mode.

Older firmwares are supported, but they may have other issues unrelated to the
monitor mode.

As far as I know, newer firmware (9.xx) is RAM-loadable, and it's not supported
due to lack of firmware download support in the driver.

--
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Eric Pretorious

2007-04-30 03:38:25 UTC

Permalink

Thanks, Pavel.

Is this the section of the code that I want to change (in /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco.c) to enable monitor mode for my Agere/Lucent/Orinoco/Proxim PCMCIA card?

static int force_monitor; /* = 0 */
module_param(force_monitor, int, 0644);
MODULE_PARM_DESC(force_monitor, "Allow monitor mode for all firmware versions");

Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

Pavel Roskin <***@gnu.org> wrote:Agere firmware 7.xx and 8.xx is supported. Only the monitor mode is disabled by default because it's unstable. There is a module parameter that can be used to enable the monitor mode.

Older firmwares are supported, but they may have other issues unrelated to the monitor mode.

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Pavel Roskin

2007-04-30 03:45:41 UTC

Permalink

Post by Eric Pretorious
Thanks, Pavel.
Is this the section of the code that I want to change (in
/usr/src/linux/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco.c) to enable monitor mode for my
Agere/Lucent/Orinoco/Proxim PCMCIA card?

static int force_monitor; /* = 0 */
module_param(force_monitor, int, 0644);
MODULE_PARM_DESC(force_monitor, "Allow monitor mode for all firmware

versions");

Eric Pretorious

2007-04-30 05:26:04 UTC

Permalink

static int force_monitor; /* = 0 */
module_param(force_monitor, int, 0644);
MODULE_PARM_DESC(force_monitor, "Allow monitor mode for all

firmware versions");

Why would you need to change the code? The whole point of that code is to allow overriding the default behavior by the module parameter. Have you tried passing the parameter on the modprobe command line?
Oh - Now I understand what you meant when you said...

Pavel Roskin <***@gnu.org> wrote: Only the monitor mode is disabled by default because it's unstable. There is a module parameter that can be used to enable the monitor mode. I assume that the parameter can be discovered/manuipulated by using the iwpriv command. (I don't have my Orinoco card with me today. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)

TIA,
Eric Pretorious
Sunnyvale, CA

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Pavel Roskin

2007-04-30 16:16:23 UTC

Permalink

Post by Eric Pretorious
Only the monitor mode is disabled by default because it's
unstable. There is a module parameter that can be used to
enable the monitor mode.
I assume that the parameter can be discovered/manuipulated by using
the iwpriv command. (I don't have my Orinoco card with me today.
Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)

iwpriv is an interface to private ioctls, which are specific to wireless
drivers. Module parameters are not specific to wireless drivers and
cannot be accessed by iwpriv.

The module parameters can be specified on the modprobe command line or
in modprobe configuration file (usually any file under /etc/modprobe.d
will be used).

Use "modinfo orinoco" to find which parameters that module accepts.
Parameters of the loaded modules can be found under /sys/module

If you want to manipulate a module parameter at the runtime, you can use
sysfs, e.g.

echo -n 1 >/sys/module/orinoco/parameters/force_monitor

--
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Eric Pretorious

2007-04-30 18:03:52 UTC

Permalink

Thanks, Pavel.

------Original Message------
From: Pavel Roskin <***@gnu.org>
To: "Eric Pretorious" <***@yahoo.com>
Cc: <orinoco-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Date: Mon, Apr 30, 2007 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Orinoco-users] Monitor Mode with Agere Firmware 7.xx and 8.xx

--
Regards,
Pavel Roskin