2WIRE 802.11g PC Card Wireless Adapter Working

[Kixtosh]

This is to inform those trying to get this card working that it DOES work! I searched for a long time and found no reference to success elsewhere, so I'm adding it here, with tags to help searches find this thread. These cards were (are still, maybe) frequently sold to AT&T broadband DSL subscribers in the United States for laptop use.

2WIRE 802.11g PC Card Wireless Adapter
FCC ID: M4Y-XG-300
Model: 1000-100023-000

2Wire is now a part of Pace, it seems. Here's a link to a product image and Windows drivers download page (just to be thorough), but these should not be needed, as will be explained below:

http://support.2wire.com/?page=view&article=771


Firstly, this may work for you if ...

The output from the "lspci" command typed in Terminal gave me a list of lines of output, including this line, which got me going in the right direction:

04:00.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx, by the way, since I don't intend to update this old system every six months.


A Word of thanks to Wary Puppy 512.

This card works out of the box with Wary Puppy, installed on a Gateway Solo 5350 laptop. This led me to believe that there must be a solution for Ubuntu as well.


Ndiswrapper did NOT help!

Of course, I went right there, using the link above to the Windows drivers. It didn't work at all. It was easy to add Ndiswrapper from the Ubuntu Software Center though, and remove it just as quickly when I figured out I didn't need it! That can be found in the "Applications" menu, on the left of the top "panel" on your screen, by default, if you're new to Ubuntu.


Finally, it's a firmware issue:

Thanks to the wonderful work on this page, I found the firmware files needed to make this work:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54

All I had to do was:

1) Use the link on that page to download the file listed as "PCI / PCMCIA isl3886pci", in the section "for 2.6.29 kernels and above".

2) The file was saved in my download folder as "2.13.25.0.arm". I renamed it "isl3886pci", to match the result from the "lspci" command above. Note that I did not leave the file extension ".arm".

3) Opened Terminal (from the Applications menu, if you're very new to Ubuntu and Linux) and typed

gksudo nautilus

This gave me Root privileges so that I could then copy the file, using the Nautilus file manager, from my user's download folder to the system folder:

/lib/firmware

Normally this folder is read only, and you cannot edit files, rename them or copy new ones to that location. The "gksudo" command allows temporary Root access to Nautilus.

4) Reboot, and you're done. Since I already had a different wireless PC Card on this laptop, that did work, my WPA password for the wireless network was still in memory, and my wireless connected immediately with the 2Wire card, without doing anything else at all.


Updates!

I'll update this post, or thread, if it's useful to anyone else, or if there is some missing information that anyone would like me to add.

[chili555]

You might post:

lspci -nn

The pci.id couplet is often used to search. The firmware is also available in the package linux-firmware-nonfree. No renaming or moving is needed, it installs where it's needed.

[Kixtosh]

Thy wish is my command, oh mighty one of the ten thousand beans (congratulations, by the way)!

04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intersil Corporation ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] [1260:3886] (rev 01)

Since I don't have much on this laptop right now, I'll wipe it clean and try a brand new, freshly installed 10.04 Lucid Lynx, then use the Synaptic Package Manager to add the "linux-firmware-nonfree" package you refer to so that I can confirm that alternate "leaner, meaner & cleaner" method later.

I'm all out of tags, but anyone else should feel free to add 1260:3886 to the tags to facilitate searches. I think that is what is meant by the "pci.id couplet" in the post by chili555.

[chili555]

Thank you for your kind words.

feel free to add 1260:3886 to the tags to facilitate searches. I think that is what is meant by the "pci.id couplet"

Exactly. I couldn't see how to add a tag myself. I think if it's in the text of your post, Google et al and quite a few searchers will catch it.

Thanks.

[Kixtosh]

... The firmware is also available in the package linux-firmware-nonfree. No renaming or moving is needed, it installs where it's needed.

With a fresh installation of 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx on a brand new hard drive, I can confirm that this works effortlessly, as suggested by chili555:

1) Click on "System" in the top panel,
2) From the drop down menu, click on "Administration",
3) From the expanded menu, click on Synaptic Package Manager,
4) Enter your password when prompted in the pop-up dialogue box,
5) Now enter something like "nonfree" in the "Quick Search" box of the Package Manager. You'll see linux-firmware-nonfree listed there, along with a couple of dozen other things.
6) Check the box next to it, select "Mark for installation" from the pop-up,
7) Click on the green tick "Apply" icon, and you're done. The firmware for isl3886pci will have been added in the appropriate location and the PC card wireless adapter will spring to life after you restart.

The 2Wire 802.11g PC Card Wireless Adapter will allow the more secure WPA encryption to be used as well. I don't remember if this is true with Windows as well, or not.

It's just great when you get stuff like this working on a ten year old laptop, that now boots in less than a minute, shuts down in less than five seconds, and surfs the web like a champ wirelessly and just as effectively as a $1,000 new laptop can.

[chili555]

It's just great when you get stuff like this working on a ten year old laptop, that now boots in less than a minute, shuts down in less than five seconds, and surfs the web like a champ wirelessly and just as effectively as a $1,000 new laptop can.

My 6 year old laptop, bought for $189 on the 'Bay says, "Amen, brutha!"

[Kixtosh]

Just wanted to add: there is an advantage, in some circumstances, to the more convoluted method outlined in my first post: you can save the downloaded missing firmware file on any computer, and just copy it over to the target computer, with whatever method you prefer (USB flash drive, etc.). This is an advantage if you don't have a convenient way to connect the offending (non-wireless) computer directly to your modem or router with an Ethernet cable and download the firmware file directly to the system that needs it to be added. You can get wireless working without having to be wired first!

Note also, I think the best name to use for the firmware file is "isl3886pci", not just "isl3886". Otherwise, even if it does work properly, you may notice an error message displayed for a moment during the boot process. Now that's just messy! I'm going to edit my first post to reflect this change.

I didn't mention it, but to add tags, just click the "edit tags" text on the very bottom right side of all the list of current thread posts displayed. To see why it might be useful, click on a few tags and see what comes up in terms of results. In some cases, I have found it easier to use (and more successful at finding very relevant answers) than Google, or the forum search feature.

[Archy1987]

It doesn't worked for me. My lspci:
01:09.0 Network controller [0280]: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] [1260:3890] (rev 01)

I am using Wireless PCI card:
HC-211004
XG-901
54mbps 802.11g
Wireless Pci Card
H/w Rev: 1.0
FCC ID:M4Y-XG-900

http://www.bildites.lv/images/90khoh0l6oaj8cgvrq72.jpg

[chili555]

It doesn't worked for me. My lspci:
01:09.0 Network controller [0280]: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] [1260:3890] (rev 01)

I am using Wireless PCI card:
HC-211004
XG-901
54mbps 802.11g
Wireless Pci Card
H/w Rev: 1.0
FCC ID:M4Y-XG-900

http://www.bildites.lv/images/90khoh0l6oaj8cgvrq72.jpg

What does this tell us?

dmesg | grep p54
ls /lib/firmware | grep isl

[Archy1987]

archy@archy-desktop:~$ dmesg | grep p54
[ 25.855862] p54pci 0000:01:09.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[ 25.855918] p54pci 0000:01:09.0: firmware: requesting isl3886pci
[ 25.958244] phy0: p54 detected a LM86 firmware
[ 25.958249] p54: rx_mtu reduced from 3240 to 2376
[ 27.407893] Registered led device: p54-phy0::assoc
[ 27.407916] Registered led device: p54-phy0::tx
[ 27.407939] Registered led device: p54-phy0::rx
[ 27.407961] Registered led device: p54-phy0::radio
[ 27.407971] p54pci 0000:01:09.0: is registered as 'phy0'
archy@archy-desktop:~$ ls /lib/firmware | grep isl