IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is deprecated, updated documentation can be found here

HostAP is the recommended driver for Prism2.x/3 based PCMCIA and PCI cards. The driver official web site is at http://hostap.epitest.fi.

If you're using a kernel version >= 2.6.16, you have to patch kernel sources with hostap-kernel-2.6.18.patch patch instead of using the following method:

ifconfig wlan0 down
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=disable
/etc/init.d/CardBus stop
rmmod prism2_pci
rmmod hostap_pci
wget http://hostap.epitest.fi/releases/hostap-driver-0.4.9.tar.gz
tar -xvzf hostap-driver-0.4.9.tar.gz
cd hostap-driver-0.4.9
wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/hostap-driver-0.4.7.patch
patch -Np1 -i hostap-driver-0.4.7.patch
make && make install
mv -f /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf~
/etc/init.d/pcmcia start
modprobe hostap_pci &>/dev/null

If your card appears to hang (no packets captured or injected), disable the interface, reload the drivers and re-insert the card. Also consider updating the firmware (if prism2).

Your system hangs when booted or crashes when the card is inserted.

http://forum.aircrack-ng.org/index.php?topic=2337.msg13100#msg13100

This problem can be fixed with a patch from SuD:

http://tv.latinsud.com/hostap/

Or run the following script. It is a bit convoluted but it works.

Script:

 #!/bin/sh
 modprobe orinoco_cs
 pccardctl eject
 rmmod orinoco_cs
 rmmod orinoco
 rmmod hermes
 rmmod hostap_cs
 modprobe hostap_cs
 pccardctl insert

You also need to add this to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

 #orinco wireless drivers
 blacklist orinoco_cs
 
 #hostap wireless drivers
 blacklist hostap_cs

Also be aware of this bug

There are some important limitations with this driver:

• Fragmentation attack does not work
• Shared key authentication attack does not work
• The driver does not support USB devices
• The prism cards only support B mode. They don't support G mode, Super G, N, etc. This means you are limited as to what packets you can capture.