Wireless Trouble with SMC2602W

[Warren Togami]

I just wasted 12 hours in the last two days trying to get the SMC2602W PCI
adapter working with very little success.

Hardware
----------
SMC2602W PCI Card (PLX PCIC bridge for PCMCIA)
Containing SMC2632W PCMCIA card that reportedly works well under Linux when
you have a working PCMCIA subsystem.

Stuff I tried
------------
kernel 2.4.17-0.1 Red Hat
kernel 2.4.17 official
kernel 2.4.18-pre3 official
PCMCIA-CS-3.1.27
PCMCIA-CS-3.1.31
linux-wlan-ng-1.1.8-pre13 (from SMC)
linux-wlan-ng-1.1.13-pre1 official

The linux-wlan-ng method of using the SMC2632W card is to use the
prism2_cs.o module, that can only be loaded if PCMCIA works.  The PCI card
has a PLX chip onboard that acts as a bridge to the PCMCIA as described
here.
http://lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-user/2002-January/003570.ht
ml

Unfortunately it refuses to load any PCIC drivers like i82365.o.  I doubt
the accuracy of this guy's statement.  Linux PCMCIA can't be brought online.

I also tried this Prism2 Host AP driver without success.  It requires a
working PCMCIA subsystem too.
http://people.ssh.com/jkm/Prism2/

That's okay, linux-wlan-ng also contains prism2_plx.o, a native driver using
only PCI and avoiding the PCMCIA subsystem completely.  Unfortunately this
module didn't work either, either refusing to compile, refusing to load, or
on the rare occasions it would load but oops or kernel panic when I
attempted to activate the card.

I then tried the orinoco MPL/GPL drivers that are included in the latest
kernels.
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Orinoco.html
That Orinoco driver supports most of the features of the Prism2 chipset.
Again I couldn't get the PCMCIA subsystem online, but they supply an
orinoco_plx.o driver.  I loaded it just fine, and even brought the network
interface online.  I'm able to change the card to IBSS Ad-Hoc mode, set the
SSID and my Windows XP laptop is able to establish a link.  The very first
time that link established I was able to get a ping reply between the
notebook and firewall, but that stopped working quickly with a ton of ugly
dmesg messages and hasn't worked since even after reboots/poweroffs.  Also
WEP seems completely inoperative on the Linux firewall side with this
driver.

On the bright (?) side, the card works great in Windows 2000, and the
installation was less than 30 seconds.  =(

Has anyone got the SMC2602W or any PLX PCI card working in Linux?  I should
have bought a real AP and completely avoid this crap.  I'm spending way too
much time trying to get this working.

My Orinoco card order comes in this week, and I guess I'm buying a real
Access Point now and using a third NIC in my Linux firewall unless somebody
has any ideas on getting this thing to work.  I'm hoping the Orinoco + PLX
card combination will work with the orinoco_plx.o driver, then I wont need
to buy the Access Point.

HELP!!!!

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com