Topics
Modified on January 23, 2005

This software is provided at no charge. If you want to help to enhance this driver and to support more hardware you can make a donation using Paypal. Thank you.

Introduction

This driver manages IEEE 802.11b wireless network adapters based on the Intersil Prism 2/2.5/3 (HFA3841 and HFA3842 MAC processors).
The most recent version from January 23, 2005 is hfa384x-0.0.10-x86.

Features

The driver allows the network card to act as a station of a BSS linked to an access point or as a station of an IBSS in a peer to peer network without an access point.
The WEP is managed with keys of 40 or 104 bits for a global level of protection of 64 or 128 bits.
It is recommended to update the firmware of the adapter for optimal operation.
The driver had been tested with BeOS 5 PRO Edition and Zeta Neo Deluxe Edition, on different configurations of which a biprocessor.

Device support

PCI
The PCI identifiers of the supported devices are presented in the next table.

IdentifiersNameComment
1260:3872Intersil Prism 3Untested
1260:3873Intersil Prism 2.5 Mini-PCI WLAN
167d:0a00Samsung MagicLAN SWL-2210PUntested

PCMCIA
The PCMCIA identifiers of the supported devices are presented in the next table.

IdentifiersNameComment
000b:7300Netgear 802.11b Wireless PC Card 16-bit PCMCIA Model MA401
0156:0002Belkin 11Mbps Wireless Notebook Network Adapter F5D6020First version only
The version 2 is based on an unsupported Atmel component

PLX
The PCI identifiers of the supported devices are presented in the next table.

IdentifiersNameComment
1638:1100Belkin Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter F5D6000Same as the Eumitcom Technology WP11000 adapter

USB
Vendor and device identifiers supported by this driver are presented below. I may add more if needed.

IdentifiersNameComment
0846:4110Netgear MA111 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter
0967:0204Acer WarpLink USB Adapter
09aa:3642Intersil Prism 2.5 802.11b USB Adapter
2001:3700D-Link DWL-122 Air Wireless 2.4GHz (802.11b) USB Adapter

Disclaimer

This driver is copyrighted © 2003, 2004, 2005 by Patrick Lafarguette. All Rights Reserved.
Some portions of code are copyrighted © by Be Incorporated.
No warranty.
Use at your own risk.

Installation

There is no need to install the add-on for using the driver with BONE or Zeta.

PCI

  1. Open the driver folder. Drag the file hfa384x in the folder named drop driver here.
  2. Create a link in the folder /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/net to the driver named /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/hfa384x.
  3. Go to parent folder.
  4. Open the add-on folder. Drag the file hfa384x in the folder named drop add-on here.
  5. Go to parent folder.
  6. Open the configuration folder. Drag the file hfa384x in the folder named drop configuration file here.
  7. Reboot. After reboot, you will see a new device in the Network preferences panel.
  8. Setup your device and restart networking.

PCMCIA

  1. Open the driver folder. Drag the file hfa384x_cs in the folder named drop driver here.
  2. Create a link in the folder /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/net to the driver named /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/hfa384x_cs.
  3. Go to parent folder.
  4. Open the add-on folder. Drag the file hfa384x_cs in the folder named drop add-on here.
  5. Go to parent folder.
  6. Open the configuration folder. Drag the file hfa384x_cs in the folder named drop configuration file here.
  7. Insert your network card in a PCMCIA socket.
  8. Open a terminal. Execute the command cardctl ident to get the informations needed for the configuration of the PCMCIA service: 
    $ cardctl ident
Socket 0:
  no product info available
Socket 1:
  product info: "Belkin", "11Mbps Wireless Notebook Network Adapter", "Version 01.02", ""
  manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
  function: 6 (network)
  9. Edit the file /boot/home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/pcmcia. Add the configuration informations to bind this kind of card to the driver: 
    card { # PCMCIA Prism 2/2.5/3
	manfid 0x0156 0x0002
	bind hfa384x_cs
}
  10. Reboot. After reboot, insert the network card. You will see a new device in the Network preferences panel.
  11. Setup your device and restart networking.

PLX

  1. Open the driver folder. Drag the file hfa384x_plx in the folder named drop driver here.
  2. Create a link in the folder /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/net to the driver named /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/hfa384x_plx.
  3. Go to parent folder.
  4. Open the add-on folder. Drag the file hfa384x_plx in the folder named drop add-on here.
  5. Go to parent folder.
  6. Open the configuration folder. Drag the file hfa384x_plx in the folder named drop configuration file here.
  7. Reboot. After reboot, you will see a new device in the Network preferences panel.
  8. Setup your device and restart networking.

USB

  1. Open the driver folder. Drag the file hfa384x_usb in the folder named drop driver here.
  2. Create a link in the folder /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/net to the driver named /boot/home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/hfa384x_usb.
  3. Go to parent folder.
  4. Open the add-on folder. Drag the file hfa384x_usb in the folder named drop add-on here.
  5. Go to parent folder.
  6. Open the configuration folder. Drag the file hfa384x_usb in the folder named drop configuration file here.
  7. Reboot. After reboot, you will see a new device in the Network preferences panel.
  8. Setup your device and restart networking.

Configuration

The configuration file is used to specify the wireless settings. The different parameters are presented in the next table.

ParameterDescription
mode Specify the kind of the wireless network
0 for an IBSS, peer to peer network
1 for a BSS, infrastructure network with an access point
The default value is 1.
channel Specify the radio channel to use
Possible values are from 1 to 14 according to the adapter used
ssid Specify the name of the network to join or create
Up to 32 characters
If this value is not specified in BSS mode, the adapter can join all the existing networks
privacy Specify if the frames are encrypted
0 disables privacy
1 enables WEP 64 bits
2 enables WEP 128 bits
The default value is 0
authentication Specify the authentication type
0 open system authentication
1 shared key authentication (requires WEP)
The default value is 0
format Specify the WEP keys format
0 ASCII
1 hexadecimal string
The default value is 0
key0
key1
key2
key3		 Define the four keys associated with WEP
A key is a succession of 5 or 13 ASCII characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters according to the selected format and level of privacy

History

The different published versions of the driver are presented in the next table.

VersionDateDetails
0.0.1001/23/2005Open system and shared key authentication support
0.0.912/17/2004USB device support
Improved WEP support
Modification of the configuration file format
0.0.802/12/2004PLX device support
Configuration file for compatibility with BONE/Zeta
0.0.711/24/2003IBSS mode support for peer to peer network
WEP support for privacy, keys of 40 and 104 bits are managed
The device configuration is now realized by the add-on
0.0.611/17/2003Improved performances
Improved reliability
0.0.510/30/2003First public release
Basic support