Intel 'Centrino' WLAN and Project Evil: how you can help

[Bill Paul]

I'm sure most of you already know what Project Evil is. For those that
don't, Project Evil is an NDIS shim layer for FreeBSD which allows
people to use Windows(r) network adapter drivers with FreeBSD/x86.
Its main purpose is to provide support for adapters for which it is
not possible to write a native FreeBSD driver (due to complete lack of
chipset programming specs).

My original target was unsupported ethernet chips, however it turns
out the most desireable unsupported devices these days are 802.11
wireless cards. Currently, Project Evil works with many Broadcom-based
wireless NICs (both PCI and cardbus) and has been reported to work
with at least one Atheros-based card. However, it's been reported
that Intel 'Centrino' wireless cards, i.e. the 2xxx series miniPCI
WLAN cards, do not yet work correctly. The reported symptomology
is that the driver panics the system on an attempt to send a packet.

Unfortunately, my attempts to fix this problem have been thwarted
by the fact that I don't actually have one of these cards, or a laptop
that has one built in. As far as I can tell, I've implemented all of
the necessary NDIS infrastructure correctly, so I'm at a loss to
explain the panic without some brute force debugging, and I can't
do that without a card.

So, I'm asking for help. I really need to get my hand on a system
with one of these NICs in order to properly debug this problem, however
a) I haven't been able to find one in my local consumer trap computer
stores, and b) I've already spent money on two other wireless cards
for this project and I really don't want another one, especially since
it will likely end up sitting on a shelf gathering dust once I'm done
ravaging it.

So how can you help? Well, there's a couple of ways:

- If you have a system with one of these NICs and know a thing or two
  about the NDIS spec and BSD networking internals, and would like to
  take a crack at solving the problem, have at it! If you manage to
  make it work, send me your patches and know that Centrino owners
  everywhere will be eternally grateful for your work. Note: please
  don't expect to be able to ask me loads of questions about how NDIS
  works or how BSD works. If you need to ask something about a particular
  aspect of the code in Project Evil, then I suppose I can accomodate
  you, but I'm not going to spend loads of time teaching people how
  all this stuff works, especially since my own knowledge of NDIS is
  newly acquired and almost certainly incomplete (otherwise I wouldn't
  be asking for help).

- Donate hacking time on your machine. If you are local to the SF
  bay area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley), have a Centrino-based
  laptop with Intel WLAN and are running FreeBSD 5.2mumble on it
  (i.e. 5-current or a 5.2 release candidate) and wouldn't mind
  giving me access to it for an hour or two of hacking time, drop
  me a line. I live in downtown SF and work in Alameda. If I can
  reach you via public transit without too much difficulty, then
  Project Evil might be able to come to you.

- Donate/loan a card for the cause. My understanding is that the
  Intel cards are only available in miniPCI form factor. Sadly, my
  laptop (Sony Picturebook PCG-C1VP) doesn't support miniPCI cards.
  If it turns out I'm wrong, and there's a desktop/PCI version
  of the card available, then I would need one of those, otherwise
  I'd need both an Intel WLAN miniPCI module and a miniPCI-to-PCI
  adapter card. This would be the ideal solution since it would
  allow me to work undisturbed in the comfort of Project Evil
  Laboratories (i.e. my living room).

- Offer the use of your bank account to help transfer $43,800,000
  (FORTY-THREE MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) from Nigeria--

  Wait a minute, that goes in another letter. Forget that part.

Cards can be donated to the FreeBSD project, or you can loan it
directly to me. In the latter case, the address to use is:

Attn: Bill Paul
Wind River Systems
500 Wind River Way
Alameda, CA. 94501
USA

Don't forget to include a note containing the exact shipping address
where you'd like the card sent upon return.

Before anyone asks: no, offering to test patches or giving me remote
access to your machine for debugging purposes won't help. I need to have
the system in front of me to debug this properly. We at Project Evil Labs
would like to thank people in advance for their assistance and
cooperation.

Remember: when you think evil, think Project Evil.

-Bill

--
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-Bill Paul            (510) 749-2329 | Senior Engineer, Master of Unix-Fu
                 wpaul at windriver.com | Wind River Systems
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              <adamw> you're just BEGGING to face the moose
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