Help with rebuilding hostap_cs to apply patch and turn on firmware loading

[Artthou]

UPDATE:  I noticed in the kernel changelogs on ftp.kernel.org that the patch did get added in 2.6.22, so if a kernel that new will be available soon, I would like to try it out.  I will continue with the effort I describe below in .
till then.

Hello,

I haven't yet stepped into the world of building my own kernel modules, so I thought I would ask if one of you who already have everything in place could rebuild something for me real quick.

Basically, there is a bug in hostap_cs.c that affects the LINKSys DWL-650 RevP from being driven by hostap_cs.  The bug is documented here with a patch provided from the site:

http://hostap.epitest.fi/bugz/show_bug.cgi?id=197

I don't know if this patch is making its way into the mainline kernel, but it looks that way from some of the comments.  I am using 2.6.20.3, and I don't think it has been fixed as of then (since my card still doesnt show up when the driver is loaded).  I was going to try 2.6.21.3 but got nervous by some comments on the forum that made it sound like that is for SOHO and I am using Standard.  Should I try the latest kernel with Standard before going to all this trouble?

Could I bug one of you to rebuild the hostap_cs.ko after applying the patch and then passing it along here?

I will start reading up on how to get all this set up myself, but some help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

EDIT:  One more thing.  Some comments on he DSL forum indicated that you need to explicitly enable firmware loading when building this module.  Here is the link to that thread that has some specifics if this is unclear....

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/f/viewtopic.php?t=450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

[Artthou]

A small update.  I did try the 2.6.21.3 kernel with no success.  Since it also was a step back on my zd1211b card, I reverted to 2.6.20.3 and will try to get the source code set up to do the patch I asked about above.  So if anyone takes up the challenge, please base it on 2.6.20.3 if you can.

Thanks.

[Artthou]

I was able to patch the kernel in PCLOS and it did recognize the card.  On that partition, I also successfully loaded the firmware and the card was working.

However, when I rebooted, the firmware load step would fail with an ioctl error.  I think some order of steps that happens at boot must be getting things in a bad state.  I will try again by first blacklisting the driver so that I can do it all by hand and get the order right.  Hopefully the card is not in a permanently b0rked state.  Some of these cards have been noticed to work when you boot to windows, then soft boot to linux.  I don't have a windows install to try that with.

I will be trying this on Vector as well, as I want to run this laptop on a lean mean distro...it was just easier for me to patch that kernel module first as I am just beginning to dip my toe in these waters.

So, I don't think I need help patching the kernel module any longer, but if anyone has experience with hostap_cs and hostao_fw_load I am all ears!

[exeterdad]

Didn't want you to think you were talking to yourself on this thread.  I've been following it, but kernels aren't my specialty lately. 

[Artthou]

I am a software engineer during the day, and my linux tinkering usually gets me sunk into all these configuration tasks and getting my knowledge level up to speed to run on my hardware.  I'd like to get to the point of actually contributing software fixes or working on a project.  Kernel level changes is more my style compared to gui based stuff, so I am moving in the right direction.

So if I increasingly am drawn to vector, I'll be interested to hear what kinds of kernel work you all are into.

Thanks for adding a post to this otherwise lonely thread 

[Artthou]

Luckily I was successful in reloading the card if I made sure not to boot with it, and unloaded the hostap and hostap_cs modules before inserting the card.  While it is still a manual process, at least I am confident it can be done!  So now I can move on to Vector had get the patch put in to recompile the vector kernel module.

Hopefully anyone trying to get the D-Link 650 Rev P working in linux will find this info helpful.

[bigpaws]

Reading the bug report it appears to be fixed. Not that the fix ix that hard.

I sent a pm about this to you. If you are happy with the kernel you built then
to load everything a little better you can do in /etc/rc.d/rc.local add:

rmmod <name of modules>

That will unload the modules towards the last stage of booting.

Then a bash script to load your module.

HTH

Bigpaws