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This is in regard to the $50 PCMCIA (PC card) wireless network cards. <br>
I gather that to get these to work you need a card adaptor, PCI or SIA to
PCMCIA, plus the driver to run it (bridge) then you need the drivers for
the actual card. And these all have to work with eachother.<br>
<br>
My personal choice of system is FreeBSD 4.5 (about to upgrade anyway) which
seems to support this stuff. <br>
<br>
from the 4.4 release notes
<h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN204">2.1.6 PCCARD Support</a>
</h3>
On many modern hosts, PCCARD devices can be configured to route
their interrupts via either the ISA or PCI interrupt paths. The
<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4"><span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class="REFENTRYTITLE">
pcic</span>(4)</span></a>
driver has been updated to support both interrupt paths (formerly,
only routing via ISA was supported). In most cases,
configuration of PCMCIA devices in laptops is simpler and
more flexible. In addition, various Cardbus bridge PCI cards
(such as those used by Orinoco PCI NICs) are now supported. Some
hosts may experience problems, such as hangs or panics, with
PCI interrupt routing; they can frequently be made to work by
forcing the older-style ISA interrupt routing. <br>
<br>
<br>
here is a snippit from the man pages<br>
<br>
<pre>PCIC(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual PCIC(4)
<a name="NAME" href="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end"><b>NAME</b></a>
<b>pcic</b> - pccard bridge driver
<a name="SYNOPSIS" href="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end"><b>SYNOPSIS</b></a>
<b>device pcic</b>
<b>device card</b>
<a name="DESCRIPTION" href="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end"><b>DESCRIPTION</b></a>
The <b>pcic</b> driver controls the pccard subsystem. The <b>pcic</b> driver supports
most ExCA devices attached to either ISA or PCI bus. The <b>pcic</b> driver
does not support the so-called TCIC controllers made by Databook. Nor
does it support the MECIA chipset found in some early PC98 NOTE PC
machines. The mecia driver now supports that bridge.
The following ISA devices, or true clones, are supported in the current
code.
Intel i82365SL Step A
Intel i82365SL Step B
Intel i82365SL Step C Intel's original 16-bit pccard controller.
Intel i82365SL-DF Intel's last version of this device. 3.3V support
was added.
VLSI 82C146 An older VLSI part with some issues on some
machines.
Cirrus Logic PD-6710
Cirrus Logic PD-6720
Cirrus Logic PD-6722 Cirrus Logic's pcic controller. Compatible with
the i82365SL Step C with the addition of a differ­
ent 3.3V control.
Ricoh RF5C296
Ricoh RF5C396 Ricoh's pccard bridge chips. These are compatible
with the i82365SL Step C, but with yet another
different 3.3V control.
Vadem 365
Vadem 465 Compatible with i82365SL Step C.
Vadem 468
Vadem 469 Like the earlier Vadem models, but with Vadem's
own, incompatible, 3.3V control system.
IBM PCIC IBM clone of the original i82365SL part, with its
own ID register value. Has no 3.3V ability.
IBM KING A strange clone of i82365SL. This part has many
restrictions not found in the i82365SL, plus some
strange power control. It has not been tested in
ages, but is believed to work. Its use is
believed to be confined to model of ISA card,
available only in Japan.
Many other vendors made parts in this arena, but most of them were com­
patible with one of the above chipsets.
The following PCI cardbus and pcmcia bridges are supported:
Cirrus Logic PD6729
Cirrus Logic PD6730 These two might be broken at the moment.
Cirrus Logic PD6832
Cirrus Logic PD6833
O2micro OZ6729
O2micro OZ6730
O2micro OZ6812
O2micro OZ6832
O2micro OZ6833
O2micro OZ6836
O2micro OZ6860
O2micro OZ6872 O2 Micro chips may be poorly supported because the
author does not have good access to machines with
one of these bridges in it.
Ricoh RL4C475
Ricoh RL4C476
Ricoh RL4C477
Ricoh RL4C478
TI PCI-1031
TI PCI-1130
TI PCI-1131
TI PCI-1211
TI PCI-1220
TI PCI-1221
TI PCI-1225
TI PCI-1250
TI PCI-1251
TI PCI-1251B
TI PCI-1410
TI PCI-1420
TI PCI-1450
TI PCI-1451
TI PCI-4451
Toshiba ToPIC95
Toshiba ToPIC97
Toshiba ToPIC100</pre>
FreeBSD also seems to support the $50 PCMCIA cards we have been offered.<br>
At least I am assuming that Roamabout is orinoco silvers. either way, both
are supported in FreeBSD 4.3 and later at least<br>
see also<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.bawug.org/pipermail/bsd-wireless/2001-June/000087.html">http://lists.bawug.org/pipermail/bsd-wireless/2001-June/000087.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
from <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/4-STABLE/hardware/i386/x26.html#AEN1244">http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/4-STABLE/hardware/i386/x26.html#AEN1244</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 class="SECT2"><a name="AEN1244">3.5 Wireless Network Interfaces</a>
</h2>
<p>NCR / AT&T / Lucent Technologies WaveLan T1-speed ISA/radio
LAN cards (<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wl&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable"><span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class="REFENTRYTITLE">
wl</span>(4)</span></a>
driver)</p>
<p>Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA and ISA standard
speed (2Mbps) and turbo speed (6Mbps) wireless network adapters and
workalikes (<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wi&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable"><span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class="REFENTRYTITLE">
wi</span>(4)</span></a>
driver)</p>
<div class="NOTE">
<blockquote class="NOTE">
<p><b>Note:</b> The ISA versions of these adapters are actually
PCMCIA cards combined with an ISA to PCMCIA bridge card, so both
kinds of devices work with the same driver.</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<ul>
<li>
<p>NCR WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>3COM 3crwe737A AirConnect Wireless LAN PC Card</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Addtron AWA100</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Compaq WL100</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Corega KK Wireless LAN PCC-11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>ELECOM <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Air@Hawk/LD-WL11/PCC">Air@Hawk/LD-WL11/PCC</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>ICOM SL-1100</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Laneed Wireless card</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Melco Airconnect WLI-PCM-L11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>TDK LAK-CD011WL</p>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<p>Aironet 802.11 wireless adapters (<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=an&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable"><span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class="REFENTRYTITLE">
an</span>(4)</span></a>
driver)</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Aironet 4500/4800 series (PCMCIA, PCI, and ISA adapters
are all supported)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cisco Systems Aironet 340 and 350 series (PCMCIA, PCI,
and ISA adapters are all supported)</p>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<p>Raytheon Raylink 2.4GHz wireless adapters (<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ray&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable"><span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class="REFENTRYTITLE">
ray</span>(4)</span></a>
driver)</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Webgear Aviator</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Webgear Aviator Pro</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Raylink PC Card</p>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<p>AMD Am79C930 and Harris (Intersil) based 802.11 cards (awi driver)</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>BayStack 650 and 660</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Farallon SkyLINE Wireless</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Icom SL-200</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Melco WLI-PCM</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>NEL SSMagic</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Netwave AirSurfer Plus and AirSurfer Pro</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>ZoomAir 4000</p>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
Dr Paul van den Bergen
SERC
goofey:bulwynkl
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:paul@serc.rmit.edu.au">paul@serc.rmit.edu.au</a>
+613 9925 1624 (RMIT)
+613 9905 4654 (Monash-less often)
</pre>
<br>
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