Atmel at76c506 devices
This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on the Atmel at76c506 PCI chipset on Debian systems.
?TableOfContents(3)
atmel_pci is a module for the Atmel at76c506 PCI 802.11b wireless LAN chipset. For assistance with Atmel PCMCIA or USB wireless devices, see the ["atmel_cs"] and ["at76_usb"] pages respectively.
Non-free firmware is required, which can be provided by installing the atmel-firmware package.
Installation
The atmel_pci driver is included the mainline kernel since 2.6.5. It is included as a module in Debian kernel images.
Firmware is required to be installed prior to driver operation:
Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list for your Debian version, for example:
# Debian Etch/4.0 deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
or
# Debian Lenny/5.0 deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
Update the list of available packages and install the atmel-firmware and wireless-tools packages:
aptitude update aptitude install atmel-firmware wireless-tools
The necessary kernel module should be [:Modules:automatically loaded]. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:
modprobe atmel_pci
Verify your device has an available interface:
iwconfig
Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:
ifconfig eth1 up
[:WiFi/HowToUse:Configure] your wireless interface as appropriate.
Troubleshooting
- Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg) to verify the required firmware file is being loaded by the driver. Lack of firmware is the usual reason for the "SIOCSIFFLAGS: Resource temporarily unavailable" error message.
Ensure the atmel-firmware package is installed.
Supported Devices
The page ["HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI"] explains how to identify a PCI device.
The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo atmel_pci.
PCI: 1114:0506 Atmel Corporation at76c506 802.11b Wireless Network Adaptor
Other Notes
The dependent atmel module accepts a firmware parameter, which can be used to force the loading of a specific firmware file if necessary.
See Also
- ["atmel_cs"] - Help page for Atmel PCMCIA wireless devices
- ["at76_usb"] - Help page for Atmel USB wireless devices
[:WiFi/HowToUse:?HowToUse] WiFi adapter
External Links
[http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers.802.11b.html#AtmelPcmcia Alternate Pcmcia GPL driver] - Driver description in the Linux Wireless LAN Howto