Translation(s): Français


Intersil ISL3877, ISL3880, ISL3886, ISL3887, ISL3890 devices (Prism54)

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Prism54 chipsets on Debian systems.

Drivers

p54 is a driver supporting Intersil/Conexant Prism54 802.11g wireless LAN chipsets, introduced in the Linux kernel at version 2.6.24.

The produced kernel modules are:

p54pci and p54usb require non-free firmware, which must be installed for device operation. Device firmware is not packaged (481234).

The obsolete prism54 driver (supporting PCI devices with an ISL3877, ISL3880 or ISL3890 chipset) is disabled in Debian Linux kernel images.1

{i} Prism 2/2.5/3 802.11b devices are supported by the hostap and linux-wlan-ng drivers.

p54pci

p54pci is included as a module in Debian Linux kernel images. Firmware is required for device operation.

  1. Acquire and install firmware:

    $ wget https://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/fw-softmac/2.13.25.0.arm --no-check-certificate
    $ su
    # mv 2.13.25.0.arm /lib/firmware/isl3886pci
  2. As the p54pci module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r p54pci ; modprobe p54pci
  3. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

p54usb

p54usb is included as a module in Debian Linux kernel images. Firmware is required for device operation.

First generation USB devices (ISL3886 with net2280 bridge)

  1. Acquire and install firmware:

    $ wget https://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/fw-usb/2.13.1.0.lm86.arm --no-check-certificate
    $ su
    # mv 2.13.1.0.lm86.arm /lib/firmware/isl3886usb
  2. As the p54usb module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r p54usb ; modprobe p54usb
  3. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Second generation USB devices (ISL3887)

  1. Acquire and install firmware:

    $ wget https://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/fw-usb/2.13.25.0.lm87.arm --no-check-certificate
    $ su
    # mv 2.13.25.0.lm87.arm /lib/firmware/isl3887usb
  2. As the p54usb module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r p54usb ; modprobe p54usb
  3. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting

A problem and solution reported by one user: After reboot, the device no longer works until one runs 'modprobe p54usb'.

Solution: Place a .conf file in the module directory

  1. Find your module directory, which can be revealed for example by:

    # modprobe foo
  2. Create the .conf file in the module directory, which should look something like this:

    # sudo cd /lib/modules/4.13.0-32-generic
    # sudo touch p54usb.conf
    # echo "p54usb" | sudo tee p54usb.conf > /dev/null
  3. Test by rebooting.

Supported Devices

p54pci

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

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo p54pci in Debian 3.16 (3.16.7-ckt9-3~deb8u1) kernel images.

p54usb

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

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo p54usb in Debian 3.16 (3.16.7-ckt9-3~deb8u1) kernel images.

See Also


CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless