September 21, 1999
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Copyright (c) 1998 Corey Thomas (corey@world.std.com)
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This file is the documentation for the Raylink Wireless LAN card driver for
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Linux. The Raylink wireless LAN card is a PCMCIA card which provides IEEE
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802.11 compatible wireless network connectivity at 1 and 2 megabits/second.
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See http://www.raytheon.com/micro/raylink/ for more information on the Raylink
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card. This driver is in early development and does have bugs. See the known
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bugs and limitations at the end of this document for more information.
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This driver also works with WebGear's Aviator 2.4 and Aviator Pro
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wireless LAN cards.
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As of kernel 2.3.18, the ray_cs driver is part of the Linux kernel
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source. My web page for the development of ray_cs is at
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http://web.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html
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and I can be emailed at corey@world.std.com
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The kernel driver is based on ray_cs-1.62.tgz
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The driver at my web page is intended to be used as an add on to
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David Hinds pcmcia package. All the command line parameters are
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available when compiled as a module. When built into the kernel, only
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the essid= string parameter is available via the kernel command line.
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This will change after the method of sorting out parameters for all
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the PCMCIA drivers is agreed upon. If you must have a built in driver
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with nondefault parameters, they can be edited in
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/usr/src/linux/drivers/net/pcmcia/ray_cs.c. Searching for module_param
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will find them all.
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Information on card services is available at:
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http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/
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Card services user programs are still required for PCMCIA devices.
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pcmcia-cs-3.1.1 or greater is required for the kernel version of
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the driver.
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Currently, ray_cs is not part of David Hinds card services package,
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so the following magic is required.
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At the end of the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts file, add the line:
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source ./ray_cs.opts
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This will make card services read the ray_cs.opts file
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when starting. Create the file /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts containing the
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following:
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#### start of /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts ###################
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# Configuration options for Raylink Wireless LAN PCMCIA card
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device "ray_cs"
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class "network" module "misc/ray_cs"
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card "RayLink PC Card WLAN Adapter"
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manfid 0x01a6, 0x0000
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bind "ray_cs"
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module "misc/ray_cs" opts ""
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#### end of /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts #####################
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To join an existing network with
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different parameters, contact the network administrator for the
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configuration information, and edit /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts.
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Add the parameters below between the empty quotes.
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Parameters for ray_cs driver which may be specified in ray_cs.opts:
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bc integer 0 = normal mode (802.11 timing)
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1 = slow down inter frame timing to allow
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operation with older breezecom access
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points.
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beacon_period integer beacon period in Kilo-microseconds
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legal values = must be integer multiple
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of hop dwell
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default = 256
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country integer 1 = USA (default)
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2 = Europe
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3 = Japan
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4 = Korea
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5 = Spain
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6 = France
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7 = Israel
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8 = Australia
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essid string ESS ID - network name to join
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string with maximum length of 32 chars
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default value = "ADHOC_ESSID"
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hop_dwell integer hop dwell time in Kilo-microseconds
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legal values = 16,32,64,128(default),256
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irq_mask integer linux standard 16 bit value 1bit/IRQ
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lsb is IRQ 0, bit 1 is IRQ 1 etc.
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Used to restrict choice of IRQ's to use.
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Recommended method for controlling
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interrupts is in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts
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net_type integer 0 (default) = adhoc network,
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1 = infrastructure
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phy_addr string string containing new MAC address in
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hex, must start with x eg
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x00008f123456
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psm integer 0 = continuously active
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1 = power save mode (not useful yet)
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pc_debug integer (0-5) larger values for more verbose
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logging. Replaces ray_debug.
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ray_debug integer Replaced with pc_debug
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ray_mem_speed integer defaults to 500
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sniffer integer 0 = not sniffer (default)
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1 = sniffer which can be used to record all
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network traffic using tcpdump or similar,
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but no normal network use is allowed.
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translate integer 0 = no translation (encapsulate frames)
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1 = translation (RFC1042/802.1)
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More on sniffer mode:
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tcpdump does not understand 802.11 headers, so it can't
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interpret the contents, but it can record to a file. This is only
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useful for debugging 802.11 lowlevel protocols that are not visible to
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linux. If you want to watch ftp xfers, or do similar things, you
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don't need to use sniffer mode. Also, some packet types are never
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sent up by the card, so you will never see them (ack, rts, cts, probe
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etc.) There is a simple program (showcap) included in the ray_cs
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package which parses the 802.11 headers.
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Known Problems and missing features
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Does not work with non x86
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Does not work with SMP
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Support for defragmenting frames is not yet debugged, and in
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fact is known to not work. I have never encountered a net set
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up to fragment, but still, it should be fixed.
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The ioctl support is incomplete. The hardware address cannot be set
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using ifconfig yet. If a different hardware address is needed, it may
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be set using the phy_addr parameter in ray_cs.opts. This requires
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a card insertion to take effect.
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