Re: access point using 3945

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Sat, 01 Jan 2011 10:22:40 -0800, briand wrote:

> On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 16:30:52 +0000 (UTC) Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> OTOH, it seems that "iwl3945" driver does not allow the card to be set
>> in master mode (AP), as you said:
>> 
>> http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers
>> 
>> Additional documentation on this can be found here:
>> 
>> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/hostapd
>> 
>> 
> aargh.  I think I finally figured out what's going on - the web pages
> were quite confusing.  looks like I'm SOL, and that I do _have_ to use
> the iwl3945 driver for the device.  I thought it had been superceded by
> an open-source driver which provided AP functionality.

Let's see... Yes, the docs are quite confusing. 

As I understand, "nl80211" is not a driver "per se" but an API for 
drivers to use of it. It seems it will replace "wext" extentions and 
that's all its role.

If we continue reading, we get:

"All new mac80211 based drivers that implement AP functionality are 
supported with hostapd's nl80211 driver."

Note the "that implement AP functionality", because I think that's the 
key point here. So we if we go to the drivers table we can see that Intel 
drivers support "cfg80211" but not all modes are available.
 
> I was wrong.  don't buy this card if you want to turn it into an AP. All
> you folks that think closed-source drivers don't matter - this is why it
> does.  I can't do this precisely because this goofy card uses a closed
> source binary firmware load.

Yes, that's right. I'm afraid your hardware/firmware combo does not 
support AP mode :-(

The "why", I dunno. Note that Broadcom cards (b43) or Ralink (rt2800, 
some models) also need a closed or non-modificable firmware but still 
they provide AP capabilities :-?

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón