4. Compiling The Driver

As mentioned in Section 2, the The AT76C503A is paired with either an Intersil or RFMD radio. Recently Atmel removed Intersil radio support from the driver, but Intersil support still exists in Joerg's patches-07-12-2002 branch in CVS, and in CVS snapshots up to and including snapshot 20021209. Snapshots after this date, and driver release 2.1.1 only contain support for RFMD radios.

. atmelwlandriver project doesn't release many 'versions' of the driver code, and its likely that the versions that are there may be out of date. So, its recommended that you use the snapshots of the code that are created whenever changes are made in CVS.

4.1 Download the Driver

If your device contains an Intersil radio (e.g. MA101 Rev.A) then you need to get the 20021209 (December 9th, 2002) snapshot. This is the latest one with Intersil support.

If your device contains an RFMD radio (e.g. MA101 Rev.B) then you can also use the 20021209 snapshot, or any later snapshot or the latest release of the driver. The latest snapshot is recommended.

To decompress a snapshot of the driver, run:

• tar zxvf <file name>
• e.g. tar zxvf atmelwlandriver-ss-20021209.tar.gz

To decompress a release of the driver, run:

• tar jxvf <file name>
• e.g. tar jxvf atmelwlandriver.2.1.1.tar.bz2

4.2 Patch the Driver

Users of the driver often submit patches that fix various problems (yay opensource! :-). Its a good idea to find out if there are any patches available to save you suffering through an issue someone else has already suffered through and solved. For patches, look here. The only patch I currently apply to the 20021209 snapshot is one that fixes an issue found and solved by Matthew Nichols. The bug caused the stats reported by iwconfig to be meaningless. Get the patch here. You don't have to, but its a good idea.

Applying a Patch

To apply a patch, download it to any directory, then cd into the atmelwlandriver directory that was created when you decompressed the driver, and run:

• patch -p0 < /path/to/patch.diff

4.3 Compile the Driver

Follow these steps:

• ensure you're logged in as root (whoami)
• cd into the atmelwlandriver directory created when you decompressed the driver
• run: make config, and select the following options
  • Build all (y/n) : n
  • Build Debug version (y/n) : n
  • Set extra module version information (y/n) : n
  • Build USB Drivers (y/n) : y
  • Build USB 503A RFMD Driver (y/n) : n (for Intersil/Rev.A), y (for RFMD/Rev.B)
  • Build USB 503A intersil 3861 Driver (y/n) : y (for Intersil/Rev.A), n (for RFMD/Rev.B)
  • Build USB intersil 3863 Driver (y/n) : n
  • Build USB RFMD 505 Driver (y/n) : n
  • Build PCMCIA Drivers (y/n) : n
  • Build miniPCI Driver (y/n) : n
  • Build applications (y/n) : n (note: you should be able to do all config with iwconfig, rather than atmel's apps)
• run: make clean all install

You should now have the driver installed. usbvnet.o for Intersil/Rev.A, or usbvnetr.o for RFMD/Rev.B. You will find it here: /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb

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