XWLan updates

[eirik]

Version 3.12 beta of XWLan has just been posted at by Netlabs on http://svn.netlabs.org/xwlan.  The new version has several improvements and improved functionality.  Excellent job by the team behind (Christian Langanke, Adriand Gschwend, Steven Levine, and Andreas Buchinger).  Thanks guys :-)

When installing the widget version (highly recommended) please note the following:

• If you run previous widget versions of XWLan, close eCenter before installing (or it will not install).
• IIf this is the first time you install a widget version of XWLan, you need to add the widget (right mouse button all the way to the right on eCenter, and add widget from list.

Unfortunately, this did not help making wireless work on my Thinkpad T410 (see the GenMac discussion forum - direct link: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user/3482), as my problem appears to reside in the GenMac driver).  But it is great to see good work done towards making wireless available on modern hardware. Hopefully, in not to distant a future, this will be resolved through the Multimac project http://svn.ecomstation.nl/multimac as the list of drivers expand (where many, my self included, already benefit from the E1000E driver for wired access).

Keep up the good work, and thanks again!
Eirik

[Neil Waldhauer]

I installed the beta on my Thinkpad W500 with Intel 5100 WiFi. The new software seems to work as well as the old, plus the enhancements to the properties screens shows the versions of my installed software. The new DHCP client gets an address with no problems.

I can connect on either 802.11g and 802.11n with WPA2 security.

[Andi B.]

Neil, thank you for feedback.

[Andi B.]

Eirik - as you said if the problem is genmac does not support your hardware then xwlan can nothing do about that. From your posts at the newsgroup gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user I'm not sure if you ever tried without security (WPA) and if you ever solved your 'no valid MAC address' issue. Moreover did you test the executables in the genmac directory? f.i. 'link -verbose' 'scan verbose' At least a 'type wrnd32$' should give some info about what the driver sees.

And if these things all are working then you should try 'dimtest' from the \xwlan directory.

Please post your findings on the genmac newsgroup as this is probably the best place for you to get some help.

[Alex Taylor]

I installed the beta on my Thinkpad W500 with Intel 5100 WiFi. The new software seems to work as well as the old, plus the enhancements to the properties screens shows the versions of my installed software. The new DHCP client gets an address with no problems.

I can connect on either 802.11g and 802.11n with WPA2 security.

Neil, you're another of those lucky ones who managed to get 5100 WiFi on the W500 working, right?

I have a W500 with Intel 5100 and, as you may have seen from my despairing posts in various fora, I just cannot get it to work in OS/2 (using GenMAC with latest GenMU and latest wpa-supplicant+xwlan beta). The driver loads without complaint, the logs all look OK, but it just will not see any networks. (And it's not just xwlan, GenMAC's own scan.exe sees nothing either.)

Do you have any insights as to what the secret is?

[Doug Bissett]

I am not sure how it can work, although the W500 might use an older method to turn on the radio. In my case, I have a  Lenovo ThinkPad L530, with an Intel Wireless N 2200  device (I think it is very similar to the 5100). I can get the driver to load, with no complaint, and all looks like it should work. However, it works exactly like a wired NIC, with no cable plugged in. The problem appears to be, that I cannot find any way to turn on the radio. With no radio, there is no communication path, and it isn't going to work.

One thing that I have been meaning to do, is put the 2200 into my older Lenovo ThinkPad T510 (which has a realtek wireless device), and see if it will go there, but I suspect that it will have the same problem.

[Neil Waldhauer]

When I got the W500, it had an Intel 5300. I took that out, and replaced it with a 5100 that I bought on eBay.

When doing this, there are three antennae on the 5300, but only two on the 5100. I puzzled over that for an hour. Does it matter which lines are attached? I now wish I'd photographed the card after installation.

[Alex Taylor]

When I got the W500, it had an Intel 5300. I took that out, and replaced it with a 5100 that I bought on eBay.

When doing this, there are three antennae on the 5300, but only two on the 5100. I puzzled over that for an hour. Does it matter which lines are attached? I now wish I'd photographed the card after installation.

I really don't know.  Mine had a 5100 from the start. I've opened it up and examined the card in the past, and noticed that there are three antenna leads but only two are connected to the card (the third is tucked into the space beside the card with its end protected by some kind of black plastic cover).

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Neil

The good thing about Lenovo is that they put some work on creating the "Hardware Maintenance Manuals", I don't want to talk about the bad things

http://www.levnapc.cz/ProductsFiles/thinkpad-t500-manual-en.pdf   
Page 84.

But I still don't know what the third cable is for. It is like the third antenna cable.

Regards

[Neil Waldhauer]

I took the W500 with new XWLAN software to the public library. The first time, the system would not get WiFi. In fact the system froze. But I rebooted, and it worked fine. I'm attaching a screen capture of "Scan for Hotspots", showing 32 access points in the main reading room.

[Ian B Manners]

Works great with a Lenovo R61.
I tend to stick with the old and tried stuff though..

[dusan]

I installed the beta on my Thinkpad W500 with Intel 5100 WiFi. The new software seems to work as well as the old, plus the enhancements to the properties screens shows the versions of my installed software. The new DHCP client gets an address with no problems.

I can connect on either 802.11g and 802.11n with WPA2 security.

I'm wondering which driver are you using? I do have Intel 5100 WiFi which doesn't work under eCS 2.1 or 2.2 beta!
I have Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook E Series

Ragrads!

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'm using GenMac update v0.2.0 network driver. These are hacks done after development of GenMac ended. Thanks to Andy Willis for working out the details of Intel 5100 and to Doug Bissett for collecting and distributing the fixes.

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user/3439

If the URL above doesn't work, contact Doug privately for more information.

[Doug Bissett]

If the URL above doesn't work, contact Doug privately for more information.

That URL doesn't respond, this morning, for me. You can find all of my stuff at: ftp://genmac@ftp.os2voice.org/ (use the word "unsupported" - lower case, and no quotes - as a password, if it asks). Be sure to read the readme files. The GenMU* files contain drivers that have been reported to work (that doesn't mean that they will work for you). The GenMU_TEST* files have been packaged, for simple installation, but nobody has reported that they actually work, or some have reported that they do not work (some also have multiple drivers in them, with the most likely to work one picked). I have more drivers for Intel, and Realtek, but they have been replaced by existing MultiMac drivers, so they were pulled from the packages. It is easy to create a new package for a GENMAC driver, if you send me the required information (or upload it to the FTP site, as instructed in the readme). There is no guarantee that what gets packaged will work for you, or anybody else.

Note that unsupported WiFi devices have no hope of working, without patching C:\IBMCOM\macs\GENM32W.OS2. If you don't do that, correctly, GENMAC fails to load something that is required to communicate with XWLan. The instructions are in the README files, but the installer does it for you.

[klaus]

I installed the beta on my Thinkpad W500 with Intel 5100 WiFi. The new software seems to work as well as the old, plus the enhancements to the properties screens shows the versions of my installed software. The new DHCP client gets an address with no problems.

I can connect on either 802.11g and 802.11n with WPA2 security.

Neil, you're another of those lucky ones who managed to get 5100 WiFi on the W500 working, right?

I have a W500 with Intel 5100 and, as you may have seen from my despairing posts in various fora, I just cannot get it to work in OS/2 (using GenMAC with latest GenMU and latest wpa-supplicant+xwlan beta). The driver loads without complaint, the logs all look OK, but it just will not see any networks. (And it's not just xwlan, GenMAC's own scan.exe sees nothing either.)

Do you have any insights as to what the secret is?

Alex,
I've got the same problems with my Lenovo Thinkpad X200t. The driver loaded without any error, but didn't connect to XWLAN.  But then after many tries, I switched off the Hardware WLAN switch, wait a few seconnds and turned it on again. And XWLAN started to work perfectly. Maybe this will help you to. Give it a try.

I use the GenMu 0-2-2.wpi and XWLAN312beta.zip. PCI.EXE detects My W5100 Intel as:
 Bus 3 (PCI Express), Device Number 0, Device Function 0
 Vendor 8086h Intel Corporation
 Device 4237h PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection
 Command 0106h (Memory Access, BusMaster, System Errors)
 Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
 Revision 00h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
 Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
 Cache line size 64 Bytes (16 DWords)
 PCI Class Network, type Other
 Subsystem ID 12118086h WiFi Link 5100 AGN
 Subsystem Vendor 8086h Intel Corporation
 Address 0 is a Memory Address (64-bit) : F2500000h
 System IRQ 17, INT# A
 New Capabilities List Present:
   Power Management Capability, Version 1.2
     Does not support low power State D1 or D2
     Supports PME# signalling from mode(s) D0, D3hot, D3cold
     PME# signalling is currently disabled
     3.3v AUX Current required : 0 mA (Self powered)
     Current Power State : D0 (Device operational, no power saving)
   Message Signalled Interrupt Capability
     MSI is disabled
     MSI function can generate 64-bit addresses
   PCI Express Capability, Version 1
     Device/Port Type :
       PCI Express Endpoint Device
     Device Capabilities :
       Unsupported Request Severity is Fatal
     Device Status :
       Correctable Error Detected
       Unsupported Request Detected
       AUX Power Detected
     Link Capabilities :
       Maximum Link speed : 2.5Gb/s
       Maximum Link Width : x1
       Link Port Number   : 0
     Link Control :
       Common Clock Configuration In Use
     Link Status :
       Current Link speed : 2.5Gb/s
       Current Link Width : x1