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Texas Instruments ACX100/TNETW1100, ACX111/TNETW1130, ACX100USB, TNETW1450 devices

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Texas Instruments chipsets on Debian systems.

acx is a module for Texas Instruments ACX100, ACX111, ACX100USB and TNETW1450 wireless LAN chipsets, developed by the acx100 project.

Driver source is packaged for Debian as acx100-source in Lenny. Non-free firmware is required, which must be acquired and installed for device operation.

This driver is not available for Squeeze due to Debian bug 563474.

Installation

Firmware

The relevant firmware is required to be present before the acx module is loaded. Some devices may require a particular firmware version or file(s) to be provided/omitted, see http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Firmware for more information.

ACX100

Specific firmware is required for devices with this chipset, refer to the acx100 firmware page.

ACX111

To install all version 1.2.1.34 firmware for the ACX111 chipset:

• $ su
  # mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
  # for i in "" c16 c17 r16 r17 ; do wget -P /usr/local/lib/firmware http://acx100.erley.org/fw/acx111_1.2.1.34/tiacx111$i ; done

ACX100USB

To install firmware for the ACX100USB chipset:

• $ su
  # mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
  # wget -P /usr/local/lib/firmware http://acx100.erley.org/fw/acx100_1.0.9-USB/tiacx100usbc0D

TNETW1450

To install firmware for the TNETW1450 chipset (not supported by lenny/acx100-source):

• $ su
  # mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
  # wget -P /usr/local/lib/firmware http://acx100.erley.org/fw/acx111_2.4.0.70-USB/tiacx111usbc1B

Driver

The acx driver is required to be compiled and installed, which can be automated via module-assistant.

Lenny

1. Add a "contrib" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

   # Debian Lenny/5.0
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

2. Update the list of available packages and install the module-assistant and wireless-tools packages:

   aptitude update
   aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools

3. Build and install an acx100-* package within your system:

   m-a a-i acx100

4. If not already performed, connect the device to your system.

5. Load the acx module:

   modprobe acx

   This module will be automatically loaded when your system is restarted and the device is connected.

6. Verify your device has an available interface:

   iwconfig

7. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

   ifconfig wlan0 up

8. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

See also troubleshooting and known issues.

Troubleshooting

• Firmware is required to be loaded before a wireless interface is created on your system.

• Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify the required firmware files are being loaded by the driver. Firmware not currently available will be stated, for example:

  acx: found ACX111-based wireless network card at 0000:09:00.0, irq:11, phymem1:0xE0000000, phymem2:0xE0020000, mem1:0xe0a08000, mem1_size:8192, mem2:0xe0b80000, mem2_size:131072
  initial debug setting is 0x000A
  using IRQ 11
  requesting firmware image 'tiacx111c16'
  acx: firmware image 'tiacx111c16' was not provided. Check your hotplug scripts
  requesting firmware image 'tiacx111'
  acx: firmware image 'tiacx111' was not provided. Check your hotplug scripts
  acx: reset_dev() FAILED

  • Ensure the required firmware is installed, then re-insert the driver module: modprobe -r acx ; modprobe acx

Known Issues

• WPA encryption is not supported.

• The driver version provided in lenny/acx100-source does not support the TNETW1450 chipset.

Supported Devices

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device. The page HowToIdentifyADevice/USB explains how to identify a USB device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo acx built from lenny/acx100-source:

• PCI: 104C:8400 Texas Instruments ACX 100 22Mbps Wireless Interface
  PCI: 104C:8401 Texas Instruments ACX 100 22Mbps Wireless Interface
  PCI: 104C:9066 Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
  USB: 0451:60C5 Texas Instruments, Inc. (Device name unknown)
  USB: 057C:5601 AVM GmbH AVM Fritz!WLAN [Texas Instruments TNETW1450]
  USB: 057C:6201 AVM GmbH AVM Fritz!WLAN v1.1 [Texas Instruments TNETW1450]
  USB: 07B8:B21A AboCom Systems Inc WUG2400 802.11g Wireless Adapter [Texas Instruments TNETW1450]
  USB: 0CDE:0017 Z-Com (Device name unknown)
  USB: 2001:3B00 D-Link Corp. AirPlus DWL-120+ Wireless Adapter [Texas Instruments ACX100USB]
  USB: 2001:3B01 D-Link Corp. WLAN Boot Device

  http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Device_list - supported devices

See Also

• How to use a WiFi interface

External Links

• http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ - Project homepage;

  • http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/ - Wiki;

    • http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Firmware - Firmware page

    • http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Device_list - Supported devices

  • irc://irc.freenode.net/acx100 - Driver IRC channel

• http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/acx1xx - Linux Wireless driver page

CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless