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.

Non-free firmware is required, which must be acquired and installed for driver operation.

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

ACX100USB

To install firmware for the ACX111 chipset:

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

TNETW1450

To install firmware for the TNETW1450 chipset:

•  $ su
   # wget -P /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

Using Etch? Skip to the Etch section.

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 prepare
   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.

Etch with 2.6.18 kernel

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

   # Debian Etch/4.0
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian etch 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 prepare
   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.

Etch with 2.6.24 kernel

etch/acx100-source is unable to compile on the 2.6.24 kernel. You are required to use lenny/acx100-source instead.

1. Install the debhelper, dpatch, module-assistant and wireless-tools packages:

   aptitude update
   aptitude install debhelper dpatch module-assistant wireless-tools

2. If etch/acx100-source was previously installed, clear the acx100 module build directory and remove the package:

   m-a clean acx100
   aptitude purge acx100-source

3. Manually acquire lenny/acx100-source from http://packages.debian.org/lenny/all/acx100-source/download. For example:

   wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/a/acx100/acx100-source_20070101-3_all.deb

4. Install lenny/acx100-source via dpkg:

   dpkg -i /path/to/acx100-source*deb

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

   m-a prepare
   m-a a-i acx100

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

7. Load the acx module:

   modprobe acx

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

8. Verify your device has an available interface:

   iwconfig

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

   ifconfig wlan0 up

10. 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) 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 currently supported.

• The driver versions in etch/acx100-source and lenny/acx100-source do 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 on Lenny.

• 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 Stick
  USB: 057C:6201 AVM GmbH WLAN USB v1.1
  USB: 07B8:B21A D-Link Corp. 802.11g Wireless Adapter
  USB: 0CDE:0017 Z-Com (Device name unknown)
  USB: 2001:3B00 D-Link Corp. [hex] AirPlus DWL-120+ Wireless Adapter
  USB: 2001:3B01 D-Link Corp. [hex] WLAN Boot Device

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

See Also

• How to use a WiFi interface

External Links

• http://lisas.de/~andi/acx100/ - Driver homepage

• 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

    • http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Distribution_list/Debian - Debian Installation

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

• http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/acx100 - Linux Wireless driver page

CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless