This package contains firmware images for use with the 
driver for atmel at76c50x cards in the linux 2.6 kernel it also
contains firmware images for the USB driver from 
http://at76c503a.berlios.de/

The prefered way to load these firmware images in to use the
firmware-loading facility of the Linux hotplug system. Prerequistites
for this are a kernel compiled with CONFIG_FW_LOADER and the
Linux hotplug scripts later than 2003_10_07. (Check for the existance
of /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent to ensure that your hotplug scripts are
sufficiently up to date.) You will also need to have sysfs mounted:
add a line like this to /etc/fstab, if it is not already there.

none            /sys            sysfs   defaults                0       0
 

If you do not wish to use the hotplug system, this package includes
a "push" firmware loader, atmel_fwl. You should arrange to run this 
as root from a network-startup script or PCMCIA script _before_ the 
interface is brought up. The command is simply

atmel_fwl <interface> /path/to/firmware

for instance

/sbin/atmel_fwl eth0 /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/atmel_at76c502.bin


To install the firmware package, simply run the install.sh script.
That script will remove any old versions of the package that you have
installed, and install the files in the correct locations.


Selecting the correct firmware image.

There are multiple firmware images in this package and the correct
one must be used. If the hotplug firmware loading mechansim is in use and
the driver recognises the card in its internal database, it will automatically
select the correct firmware image. If the card is not in the database
the driver will log a message and default to the at76c502 image. If
this is not correct, the default can be overridden with the "firmware"
module parameter. Since there is only one firmware image for PCI 
cards (at76c506) the driver should always select the correct one for
them.  If you card is not recognised, please send the result of
running the 'dump_cis' command to simon@thekelleys.org.uk so that it
can be included in future releases.

If using the "push" firmware loader there is no automatic selection of 
firmware image, you should ensure that the correct image is given in
the atmel_fwl command-line.

Note that there are two versions of many of the firmware images, the
second one with the suffix "-wpa". These are later releases from Atmel
which support WPA privacy. They are only usable by versions of the
driver greater than 0.9. If you use hotplug to load your firmware then
all will be fine, drivers earlier than 0.9 will ignore the
"-wpa" drivers and drivers after 0.9 will use them if available, or
default to the non-wpa ones if not. If you have to select a firmware
image manually, be sure not to use the "-wpa" one unless your in-kernel
driver code is version 0.9 or better. Sadly, as of version 0.9, the
in-kernel driver does not actually support the setting of WPA
passphrases.