3 Copyright (c) 1998 Corey Thomas (corey@world.std.com)
5 This file is the documentation for the Raylink Wireless LAN card driver for
6 Linux. The Raylink wireless LAN card is a PCMCIA card which provides IEEE
7 802.11 compatible wireless network connectivity at 1 and 2 megabits/second.
8 See http://www.raytheon.com/micro/raylink/ for more information on the Raylink
9 card. This driver is in early development and does have bugs. See the known
10 bugs and limitations at the end of this document for more information.
11 This driver also works with WebGear's Aviator 2.4 and Aviator Pro
14 As of kernel 2.3.18, the ray_cs driver is part of the Linux kernel
15 source. My web page for the development of ray_cs is at
16 http://world.std.com/~corey/raylink.html and I can be emailed at
19 The kernel driver is based on ray_cs-1.62.tgz
21 The driver at my web page is intended to be used as an add on to
22 David Hinds pcmcia package. All the command line parameters are
23 available when compiled as a module. When built into the kernel, only
24 the essid= string parameter is available via the kernel command line.
25 This will change after the method of sorting out parameters for all
26 the PCMCIA drivers is agreed upon. If you must have a built in driver
27 with nondefault parameters, they can be edited in
28 /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/pcmcia/ray_cs.c. Searching for MODULE_PARM
31 Information on card services is available at:
32 ftp://hyper.stanford.edu/pub/pcmcia/doc
33 http://hyper.stanford.edu/HyperNews/get/pcmcia/home.html
36 Card services user programs are still required for PCMCIA devices.
37 pcmcia-cs-3.1.1 or greater is required for the kernel version of
40 Currently, ray_cs is not part of David Hinds card services package,
41 so the following magic is required.
43 At the end of the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts file, add the line:
45 This will make card services read the ray_cs.opts file
46 when starting. Create the file /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts containing the
49 #### start of /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts ###################
50 # Configuration options for Raylink Wireless LAN PCMCIA card
52 class "network" module "misc/ray_cs"
54 card "RayLink PC Card WLAN Adapter"
58 module "misc/ray_cs" opts ""
59 #### end of /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts #####################
62 To join an existing network with
63 different parameters, contact the network administrator for the
64 configuration information, and edit /etc/pcmcia/ray_cs.opts.
65 Add the parameters below between the empty quotes.
67 Parameters for ray_cs driver which may be specified in ray_cs.opts:
69 bc integer 0 = normal mode (802.11 timing)
70 1 = slow down inter frame timing to allow
71 operation with older breezecom access
74 beacon_period integer beacon period in Kilo-microseconds
75 legal values = must be integer multiple
79 country integer 1 = USA (default)
88 essid string ESS ID - network name to join
89 string with maximum length of 32 chars
90 default value = "ADHOC_ESSID"
92 hop_dwell integer hop dwell time in Kilo-microseconds
93 legal values = 16,32,64,128(default),256
95 irq_mask integer linux standard 16 bit value 1bit/IRQ
96 lsb is IRQ 0, bit 1 is IRQ 1 etc.
97 Used to restrict choice of IRQ's to use.
98 Recommended method for controlling
99 interrupts is in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts
101 net_type integer 0 (default) = adhoc network,
104 phy_addr string string containing new MAC address in
105 hex, must start with x eg
108 psm integer 0 = continuously active
109 1 = power save mode (not useful yet)
111 pc_debug integer (0-5) larger values for more verbose
112 logging. Replaces ray_debug.
114 ray_debug integer Replaced with pc_debug
116 ray_mem_speed integer defaults to 500
118 sniffer integer 0 = not sniffer (default)
119 1 = sniffer which can be used to record all
120 network traffic using tcpdump or similar,
121 but no normal network use is allowed.
123 translate integer 0 = no translation (encapsulate frames)
124 1 = translation (RFC1042/802.1)
127 More on sniffer mode:
129 tcpdump does not understand 802.11 headers, so it can't
130 interpret the contents, but it can record to a file. This is only
131 useful for debugging 802.11 lowlevel protocols that are not visible to
132 linux. If you want to watch ftp xfers, or do similar things, you
133 don't need to use sniffer mode. Also, some packet types are never
134 sent up by the card, so you will never see them (ack, rts, cts, probe
135 etc.) There is a simple program (showcap) included in the ray_cs
136 package which parses the 802.11 headers.
138 Known Problems and missing features
140 Does not work with non x86
142 Does not work with SMP
144 Support for defragmenting frames is not yet debugged, and in
145 fact is known to not work. I have never encountered a net set
146 up to fragment, but still, it should be fixed.
148 The ioctl support is incomplete. The hardware address cannot be set
149 using ifconfig yet. If a different hardware address is needed, it may
150 be set using the phy_addr parameter in ray_cs.opts. This requires
151 a card insertion to take effect.