enabling config_wireless_ext

[captain]

On 06/10/12 18:29, Jorgyano Vieira wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Oct 05, 2012 at 07:04:31PM +0100, captain wrote:
>> Sorry Confused. I'm building from the latest 3.6 kernel from git in
>> order to be able to submit patches. Well if I get that far. I'm
>> running the built on my netbook but I'm having problems building my
>> wifi drivers against the 3.6.0 kernel. Basically I've got an error:
>>
>> error: 'struct net_device' has no member named 'wireless_handlers'
>>
>> Which is fair enough if you look in the kernel source
>> include/linux/netdevice.h there's a "'#ifdef CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT"
>>
>> So this is easy all I have to do is enable that switch and rebuild
>> the kernel. You might not believe it but that's were I come unstuck.
>> I did a search in "make menuconfig" for that switch and it does
>> provide some info but normally when I do a search the help tells me
>> where to find it. (Which is a God send.) So searching for it is
>> finding it but not giving me suitable help on where it is in the
>> menu structure.
>>
>> I then decided that I'd search for it in the .config file. Can't
>> find it in there either.
>>
>> This is a mailing list for newbies and I know this is a stupid
>> question but can anybody advise me on where that switch is in make
>> menuconfig?
>>
>> I did find this page out there but that's pointing at Kconfig in
>> source code not where it is in the menus:
>>
>> http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/WIRELESS_EXT.html
>
> First thing: you shouldn't be gettin this error at all.
> If this piece of code depends on WIRELESS_EXT, and it is this
> flag is not set the code should not be built or the code should set this flag, as we will see below.
> You can investigate and fix it if you want.
>
> Searching for WIRELESS_EXT on menuconfig we get:
>
>   Symbol: WIRELESS_EXT [=n]
>     Type  : boolean
>       Selected by: GELIC_WIRELESS [=n] && NETDEVICES [=y] && ETHERNET [=y] && NET_VENDOR_TOSHIBA [=n] && GELIC_NET [=n] && WLAN [=y] || PCMCIA_RAYCS [=n] (...)
>
>
> I didn't put the entire "Selected by" here, there is dozens of fields.
>
> The first thing we learn here is that the flag does not have a "Prompt" field,
> instead, it has a "Selected by" field. This means that you wont see a check box to
> this fllag on menuconfig and you should not manually add the flag on .config,
> because this kind of flag is selected by the drivers which needs it,
> and you don't have to worry about it on the configuration.
>
> for example, the WIRELESS_EXT flag b is selected by PCMCIA_RAYCS,
> searching for this synbol on menuconfig we see that it has the prompt:
> Aviator/Raytheon 2.4GHz wireless support, and it's located on:
> -> Device Drivers
>      -> Network device support
>          -> Wireless LAN
>
> selecting it and searching again for WIRELESS_EXT we see that it's selected:
> Symbol: WIRELESS_EXT [=y]
>
> So, perhaps the driver of your wireless device should select WIRELESS_EXT flag
>

Thanks so much your your response. You cleared that up for me. The 
driver I'm trying to install is for a "Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 
802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller" which is not part of the kernel at 
all. The readme for the driver is at [1] and I basically compile that 
driver against the kernel headers which I've built. That driver expects 
CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT to have been on when the kernel was built so all is 
good, after your explanation.

Thanks as well for including pointer to PCMCIA_RAYCS I got that enabled 
which as you said enabled the switch I needed. It's just as well because 
even thought the help info mentions "Toshiba" vendor I couldn't find 
that where I thought it was meant to be in make menuconfig. No matter 
PCMCIA_RAYCS did the job.

[1] http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt