New project change

This project compat-wireless has been renamed compat-drivers and new documentation information will be based on the following page as of the v3.7 releases:

https://backports.wiki.kernel.org

This page will only host information for the old stable releases up to the v3.6 releases.

Stable compat-wireless releases

This page is dedicated to the stable kernel compat-wireless releases. These releases are based on stable kernel versions. Our goal is to support stable releases on kernels at least as old as the oldest supported kernel listed on kernel.org, today that is 2.6.27 but we have done work to support even older kernels and each driver may also have additional work to support even older kernelsl

As of today every stable version should be compatible with every kernel >= 2.6.26, like the bleeding edge releases. This started with the announcement of work for 2.6.30-rc series and will continue for all stable kernels releases. These stable releases are intended for users looking for more stability than what bleeding edge daily compat-wireless releases provide.

Case for support

Wireless vendors are encouraged to use these releases for support purposes as no extra tree needs to be created and supported. Stable fixes must always be sent upstream as well. This ensures wireless vendors are testing with stable kernels and helping stabilize the kernels further.

Legend

Extra flag meanings:

• -s - get and apply pending-stable/ from linux-next.git
• -n - apply the patches linux-next-cherry-picks directory
• -p - apply the patches on the linux-next-pending directory
• -c - apply the patches on the crap directory

Release with no extra flags are simply vanilla releases of the kernel. Users are encouraged to use the -spn releases as these releases will have extra fixes not yet propagated. The -s flag for example indicates that the release has patches marked as stable which will be released by the next 2.6.x.y release of the kernel so you might as well get them now. Linux distributions are encouraged to use the extra flagged releases as well. We provide the vanilla releases for those Linux distributions which just want vanilla for whatever reason.

For more on this please see below.

compat-wireless stable releases

Here are the list of stable releases of compat-wireless.

NOTE: Please be aware that the releases below contain code from the given version of the Linux kernel. Therefore to add functionality, you should select a version that is later than your kernel version.

compat-wireless 3.6 stable releases

This will be the last release under the name of compat-wireless and hosted here, for future releases visit:

https://backports.wiki.kernel.org

compat-wireless 3.5 stable releases

compat-wireless 3.4 stable releases

compat-wireless 3.3 stable releases

compat-wireless 3.2 stable releases

compat-wireless 3.1 stable releases

compat-wireless 3.0 stable releases

compat-wireless 2.6.39 stable releases

compat-wireless 2.6.38 stable releases

compat-wireless 2.6.37 stable releases

compat-wireless 2.6.36 stable releases

Older stable releases

Recommended

We recommend these the following userspace applications to be installed:

• wireless-regdb

• CRDA

• iw

• latest wpa_supplicant release

Prerequisites

You need kernel headers to compile compat-wireless. Ensure /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/ exists and points to the location where the kernel headers are installed. If you do not have them, read your distribution's documentation on getting help.

Unpacking source

After downloading, unpack the source by typing (as example: version 2.6.32-rc5):

tar -xf /path/to/compat-wireless-2.6.32-rc5.tar.bz2

Note: Modern tar selects decompressor automatically (otherwise add "–bzip2" or "-j").

Also, please unpack it to a path that does not contain space. The kernel build system is unable to handle spaces in the module tree's directory and will fail if there is any.

Building and installing

cd /path/to/compat-wireless-2.6.32-rc5
./scripts/driver-select <driver-name>
make
sudo make install

Unloading

After build and installation unload modules and drivers:

sudo make unload

Loading

To load the new shiny drivers either reboot or just modprobe the module you want. To test whether or not the new drivers are being picked up you can use modprobe -l on the modules, you should see the wireless modules being picked up using the updates/ directory instead of the kernel/ directory. For example (ath9k driver):

$ modules="cfg80211 mac80211 ath9k"

$ for i in $modules; do sudo modprobe -l $i; done
/lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/updates/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/updates/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/updates/drivers/net/wireless/ath9k/ath9k.ko

Note that the make install command will output this for you so you can just look at that.

Note #2: If you got no network connection automatically, try to restart your network. For Debian systems do:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Linux distributions packaging compat-wireless

Please refer to the Linux distributions section for more details.