Trying to compile 2200BG driver for 2.4.26 Kernel

Forum: Networking
Topic: Trying to compile 2200BG driver for 2.4.26 Kernel
started by: ccshortfuse

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 12 2006,15:15

Hi all,
I figured, after reading through all the posts about wireless drivers, that I'd give compiling the driver a go.
Well, it seems the source code, has spurious ^M characters littered through the source, causing multiple headaches when I'm trying to compile.

Now be gentle, I'm dusting off my Linux knowledge which has been on ice for 10 or so years. (and I REALLY like DSL).

My question is this......
Is there a way to clear the ^M out of the source, globally?? Or do i have to do this by hand, on a per error basis??

Also, any tips/tricks on compiling would be appreciated.

Thanks

/Fuse

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 12 2006,18:01

UMMMMMMMMMM
Nevermind, I had an epiphany and gave my hunch a look see.

Evidently, you don't want to expand any tarball using a windbloze box, because I copied the tarball into DSL and expanded it from there and NO ^M characters.

My apologies. Guess some of the dust is clearing.

I'd still like to have any pointers though.

thanks

/Fuse

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 12 2006,18:33

Heh, 7zip could work for your compression needs.

You'll typically need one of the gcc* with the kernelsource extensions available in myDSL.

Also, I'd suggest grabbing gcc 2.95 (from apt if no one has packaged it yet) since the kernel was built with that version.

When you go around to testing your newly built module, I'd suggest for you to use insmod first, before you go around packaging/remastering.

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 12 2006,19:05

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not thinking quite that far with regards to packaging etc etc...

I'm going to try to get it to work 1st, then I'll worry about that type of stuff. I don't know whether I have to compile the ieee80211 source before the 2200 stuff because I'm sure there is some form of dependency lurking about.
I have gcc from the DSL systems page. Perhaps 2.95 would help as well.

I'm going from the stance of 'If you've never tried something, and are unwilling to try. Then you'll NEVER have done it.' Kind of a learn as you go deal.

I've got the kernelsource.dsl package, but when I tried a compile, just using that source, it complained about no Rules.make file (??) So I grabbed the source from Kernel.org.

Again, thanks for the pointers and should you think of anything else. Chime in. I'm all for as much knowledge as you are willing to give.

/Fuse

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 12 2006,19:37

Please don't use the source from kernel.org - it's not the same as DSL's and can cause problems.

There should be a .config file you can use in that package though.

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 12 2006,20:53

Thanks again

Thats the type of stuff I need to know. I'll read make's help file to see how to direct it to the .config file rather than require Rules.make.

I appreciate all of your pointers. Now I know what the bounds are.
And it's time to plug away at it.

Thanks again

/Fuse

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 18 2006,17:27

Here I am again.

Soooooo, I've been trying different approaches.

I read Clacker's HOWTO and it seemed so cut and dry, (perhaps it is). Regardless, my approach 'make' seems to always fall into errors regarding paths and 'file not found' etc etc etc.

approach #1 was to compile the ieee80211 module and then the ipw2200 module. All attempts to compile the iee80211 were met with 'no rules to make target modules'.

Approach #2 was to compile ipw2200 and rely on it's dependencies to iee80211. This one didn't go well either.

My question(s) is:

Do the Makefiles have to be editted because DSL is a hybrid kernel ??

Am I just completely missing something obvious??

Any suggestions

?

Thanks

/Fuse

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 18 2006,20:18

What do you mean by a hybrid kernel?
What did you exactly do? (i.e. your exact commands & errors)

Did you configure anything before you tried to build them?

Posted by Juanito on Sep. 19 2006,05:08

I think you will need the following - you might not need all of them, but this way you'll be sure:

dsl-dpkg.dsl
gcc1.dsl
gnu-utils.dsl
kernelsource.dsl
linux-kernel-headers.dsl
linux-2.4.26.tar.gz
gcc-2.95

Then to get set up, load the dsl extensions and:

mkdir /usr/src
chown dsl /usr/src
cd /usr/src
cp /path/linux-2.4.26.tar.gz /usr/src/
gunzip linux-2.4.26.tar.gz
tar -xf linux-2.4.26.tar
patch -p1 -d linux-2.4.26 < knoppix-kernel.patch
apt-get install gcc-2.95

After this you'll be ready to apply your patch, create your module or whatever. After that:

cd /usr/src/linux
make mrproper
make oldconfig [I think the .config file from kernelsources is OK]
make dep
make bzImage [maybe?]
make modules
make modules-install

But after that, for a live CD or USB boot, I don't know what to do next...

'Hope this helps

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 21 2006,22:14

hats.
I only referred to DSL's kernel as being a hybrid in the sense that it wasn't built using the 2.4.26 kernel source from kernel.org. Or did I miss understand you ( which is highly likely, I might add ).

I've tried ./configure and then make for both ieee80211 and ipw2200 and they seem to be looking for paths that don't exist

BTW is there a preferred way to configure the kernel in DSL?? Similar to 'make menuconfig' ??

Thanks
/Fuse

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 22 2006,04:25

Okay, just never heard of it being referred to as hybrid ;)

What's the exact errors on those paths?

To use menuconfig you'll need libncurses
I think you could use the given .config by using oldconfig

Posted by roberts on Sep. 22 2006,05:14

DSL does not use a hybrid kernel.
It uses a stock 2.4.26 kernel with only the standard Knoppix patch applied. The .config and the Knoppix patch are supplied in the kernelsource.dsl

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 22 2006,14:15

The term 'hybrid' as related to DSL has been removed from my vocabulary

My apologies for my terminology.

Guess I'll be reading a bit more

/Fuse

Posted by sml on Sep. 25 2006,06:13

How is the progress with the ipw2200 dsl?

Unfortuntately even in DSL-N which has the 2.6.X kernel that was compiled with ipw2200 support ... nobody is able to apply the firmware successfully.

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 25 2006,13:13

Well,

I'm still fighting with it. I've read through the INSTALL docs, and there's mention of that the ieee80211 subsystem has to be installed. I've got the latest ieee80211-1.2.15 stuff but I think I may have to backtrack a bit to get something compatible with the 2.4.26 kernel. 'make' seems to go, but 'make install' seems to error out. I banging away at it, and I don't give up easy

I may take a run at DSL-N and see if I can figure things out from there and then go back to DSL. This is kind of uncharted territory for me, but if you don't try.........................

/Fuse

Posted by sml on Sep. 25 2006,13:18

You should take a go at DSL-N. It is frustratingly close to working perfectly! All I think it needs is the firmware dropped into the correct folder, but I couldn't get it load successfully.

I have had the same error in other distros and fixed the problem easily - but this DSL-N error seems to be tricky for some reason.

Check out my posts with a simple summary of the problem and reasons. Some of the others got way off track to the problem.

Posted by sml on Sep. 25 2006,13:19

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 25 2006,14:41

Searched on posts you started and didn't see it. Is it in the DSL-N forum ??

/Fuse

Posted by sml on Sep. 25 2006,22:54

Try this one ....

< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/f/viewtopic/150.html >

Posted by ccshortfuse on Sep. 26 2006,14:15

SML.

Thanks, I'll try DSL-N on my laptop that has the 2200bg. I'm trying to compile the drivers and such for DSL on a dev machine I have. I'll DSL-N, check it out and see if I get the same problem. I'm using a DELL D600.

I'll let you know ..

/Fuse

Posted by ccshortfuse on Oct. 05 2006,21:02

It's me again,

Still plugging away. A few questions.

Within the INSTALL document for the IPW2200 it says the ieee80211 sub-system has to be setup (configured).
Can I add the required configuration values into the .config file by hand ??

For example

#define CONFIG_IEEE80211_MODULE

?

Thanks

/Fuse

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Oct. 06 2006,18:48

Make sure it's not already there, but yes you should be able to (assuming the kernel version is supported)

but are you sure that line goes in the .config? Doesn't look like the right format.