HOWTOs :: NetGear MA401 PCMCIA 802.11b (WLAN)

I bought the NetGear MA401 PCMCIA card a little while ago, and setting it up under the 2.4 kernel was easy, but it's even simpler under the 2.6 kernel. Here's the process for the latter:

First, you need to configure your kernel to compile and load the proper drivers. Log in as root, and configure to the kernel source code:

  su -
  cd /usr/src/linux
  make menuconfig

Now, ensure that you have the following values set in your kernel configuration:

Loadable module support ---> [*] Enable loadable module support Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA) ---> [*] PCI support [*] ISA support PCMCIA/CardBus support ---> <M> PCMCIA/CardBus suppor [*] Enable PCMCIA debugging <M> CardBus yenta-compatible bridge support Device Drivers ---> Generic Driver Options ---> <*> Hotplug firmware loading support (**) Networking support ---> [*] Networking support [*] Network device support Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) ---> [*] Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions <M> Hermes chipset 802.11b support (Orinoco/Prism2/Symbol) <M> Hermes PCMCIA card support

(**) This is not strictly necessary, but it's rather nice to have when we're dealing with PCMCIA.

Now, save your configuration, compile and install your new kernel and its modules.

We now need to install the PCMCIA-CS package; don't worry, the drivers won't be installed since we've enabled the PCMCIA support directly in the kernel, but we need the PCMCIA toolkit that comes with the package.

  emerge pcmcia-cs

We'll also need to install the hotplug package so the PCMCIA cardctl loads the proper drivers when it detects a card being inserted.
Note: You don't need to perform this step if you didn't select the (**) above.

  emerge hotplug

Since we're installing a wireless card, we'll need the wireless toolkit.

  emerge wireless-tools

After you're done emerging the packages above, make sure your kernel and its corresponding modules are installed into your system. Don't forget to edit your boot loader, if necessary, before you reboot and start up with your new kernel.

*** REBOOT ***

After you've rebooted, log in as root and configure the /etc/conf.d/net file so it matches your system. The documentation in the file should be self-explanatory.

Then, start the pcmcia and network services:

  /etc/init.d/pcmcia start
  /etc/init.d/net.xxx start

Here, the xxx is the device identification of your WLAN card. This name has to match the output of the iwconfig command. Run the following command as root, and insert the value into the /etc/conf.d/net file:

  iwconfig

After you've done this, copy the /etc/init.d/net.eth0 file to /etc/init.d/net.xxx. Again, the xxx has to match the device that identifies the WLAN card.

The last step is to make sure the services start at boot-up:

  rc-update add pcmcia default
  rc-update add net.xxx default

Test the final configuration by rebooting your system, and checking that you're online.

TODO: include how to do encryption here...