Re: ipw2100: firmware problem

Jiri Benc
2005-06-08T15:23:57Z

On Wed, 8 Jun 2005 09:05:27 -0600, Alejandro Bonilla wrote:
> I might be lost here but... How is the firmware loaded when using the
> ipw2100-1.0.0/patches Kernel patch?

It is loaded by request_firmware() during initialization of the adapter.
That doesn't work, as at that time no hotplug binary can be executed (we
are talking about ipw2100 built in the kernel, not built as a module).

> Currently, when we install the driver, it associates to any open network on
> boot. This is good, cause we don't want to be typing the commands all the
> time just to associate. It works this way now and is pretty nice.

It sounds very dangerous to me.

> So, to scan a network, I would have to do ifconfig eth1 up ; iwlist eth1
> scan?

No. Driver should request the firmware when it is told to perform a scan.

> When moving from modes with the firmwares, would I have to do ifconfig eth1
> up ; iwconfig eth1 mode monitor? or would the firmware be loaded with
> iwconfig? Does it have that function?

Firmware can be loaded automatically by the driver when there is some
request from userspace and the firmware has not been loaded yet.

--
Jiri Benc
SUSE Labs