Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:42:26 -0400 From: Glen Barber <glen.j.barber@gmail.com> To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ndis0 no link on 6.3-RELEASE Message-ID: <20080316164226.GA658@orion.hexidigital.org> In-Reply-To: <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCEEHPCFAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> References: <200803132256.01197.glen.j.barber@gmail.com> <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCEEHPCFAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt said: > > I just setup my laptop with a wireless card a couple weeks > ago and FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE. (it's an older Toshiba) > > I went through a total of 5 different wireless cards before > I found one that I was able to get working ndis drivers from > ndisgen. Fortunately there's a used computer place near here > (freegeek.org) that had a box of pcmcia wireless cards of all > different makes and models, which kindly allowed me to plunk > down my laptop (which dual-boots between Windows 98 and FreeBSD) > and they have wireless. So I would pick a card out of their bin, > boot into Windows, download the Windows driver, make sure the > card worked under Windows, then boot into FreeBSD and mount > the Windows partition, copy over the Windows driver and inf > file to the FreeBSD side, run ndisgen and then try loading the > driver. > > With some cards, the driver wouldn't even activate the card. > With other cards, the driver would allow me to list the wireless > nodes then panic the system when I tried associating. > > The card that did work was a Realtek-based card. And, it did > not work with the most current Windows drivers from the Realtek > website, it worked with the Windows drivers that were from a couple > years ago. (I found this out quite by accident) > > Fortunately, they DID also have a number of the Wavelan > cards - these are supported natively with the wi0 driver - > that worked out of the box. Those cards are only 802.11b > though so I kept at it with ndisgen and the newer cards. > > The interesting thing is that the original wireless card I > had in the Toshiba - a Texas Instruments-based chipset model - > never really quite worked properly in the Toshiba under Windows. > I put it into a different laptop I owned - a Thinkpad, and > it worked great in that. > > Unfortunately, in your case, nothing has changed with ndisgen > since 2006 (see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/usr.sbin/ndiscvt/ ) > so it's not that, it's something else in the system that changed. > > Start with the basics. Copy your bcmwl5.ko into /boot/modules > then in loader.conf put bcmw15_load="YES" and reboot the system, > check dmesg, and see if it's even loading > > Next put in /etc/rc.conf "ifconfig_ndis0="inet 192.168.1.1 ssid myssid" > and see if it even comes up at all and you can ping out (obviously > you will have to temporairly turn off wpa on your wireless node, > set the correct ssid, and set the correct IP address to hard-code an > IP address) > > If that doesen't work, regen the bcmw15.ko file using the "old" > method: > > # cp foo.sys foo.inf /sys/modules/if_ndis > # cd /sys/modules/ndis > # make; make load > # cd /sys/modules/if_ndis > # ndiscvt -i foo.inf -s foo.sys -o ndis_driver_data.h > # make; make load > > You need to isolate the problem to see if the driver is simply > just not working at all under 6.3, or if it is working, but it's > a scripting or turnup out of sequence error. And you need to > see if wpa has anything to do with it. > Hi Ted. Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, until I either get time to resize my hard disk and add a separate freebsd installation, or I figure out how to undo a buildworld, looks like I'm stuck. It's my school laptop, so I kind of need to get work done. ;) (I am able to run a 6.3-RELEASE kernel, but the 'world' is 6.3-RC1.) Regarding older drivers: Yes, I had this problem with my current chipset in 6.2-RELEASE. This is why I was so surprised I had problems with 6.3-RELEASE. Either way, I appreciate your response. Cheers. -- Glen Barber http://www.dev-urandom.com/
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