Project Evil: The Evil Continues

Dev Tugnait dev at unixdaemon.org
Sat Jan 24 19:59:34 PST 2004


What in the world is Project Evil?

* Bill Paul (wpaul at FreeBSD.ORG) wrote:
> 
> Previously, I had asked for help getting the Intel Centrino wireless
> cards to work with Project Evil, and thanks to various wonderful people,
> a couple of Centrino cards and a miniPCI-to-PCI adapter turned up on
> Project Evil Labs' doorstep. The Centrino NDIS driver now works
> correctly. (The problem turned out to be that I wasn't initializing
> some special flags in ndis_packet structures).
> 
> Now I'm trying to get a handle on getting support done for all
> the remaining unsupported 802.11 chipsets out there. There are a
> couple that I know don't work, and a few which might work, but I
> don't know for sure since I don't have them.
> 
> Right now, it looks like all of the Broadcom-based cards should be
> supported, as well as the Centrino cards. There are various ethernet
> cards that I've tested which work as well. I am looking for success
> or failure reports concerning the following devices:
> 
> - nVidia MCP ethernet, integrated into the nVidia nForce2 chipset.
>   This driver should work using the nvenet.sys driver for Windows
>   which is available from nVidia's web site. Note: recent versions
>   of the driver consist of just two files: the nvenet.sys binary
>   module, and its accompanying .inf file. However some of the older
>   driver distributions included a couple of additional firmware/microcode
>   files that nvenet.sys would try to load at runtime. If you have one
>   of these older drivers, put the firmware/microcode files in
>   /compat/ndis, and the driver should load them correctly.
> 
> - RealTek RTL8180 wireless LAN chipset. I have been unable to find
>   a card with this chip in any of my local computer stores. The
>   RealTek driver for this chip _should_ work. I'm pretty sure all
>   of the routines it calls are implemented.
> 
> - ADMtek 8211 wireless LAN chipset. This one should also work, but I
>   can't find any cards with this chipset in my local computer stores.
> 
> - Intel PRO/5000 wirless card. This is apparently an Atheros 5210
>   chipset. I have been told the wl50nd5.sys driver for this card
>   crashes when you call its reset method, but again I don't have one of
>   these so I can't confirm this or figure out what the problem is.
> 
> - AMD Am1771/Am1772 wireless LAN chipset. This one probably won't
>   work: the supplied AMD driver calls lots of functions in ntoskrnl.exe
>   which I haven't implemented yet. This chipset is present on the
>   SMC 2602w version 3 card. I repeat: that's the SMC 2602w VERSION THREE.
>   The version 1 card is a Prism chipset. I don't know what the v2 card is.
> 
> - Texas Instruments ax100 chipset. I'm not sure if this one works or
>   not. This chipset has been reverse-engineered and there is a native
>   FreeBSD driver available, but I'm still curious to see if it works
>   with the NDISulator.
> 
> - Atheros chipsets. Of course, we have the ath(4) driver to support
>   these, but it would be nice to know which ones work (or do not work)
>   with the NDISulator.
> 
> - Any other PCI or cardbus NIC that I've overlooked which isn't currently
>   supported by an existing native driver.
> 
> If you have a system with one of these chipsets, please give the
> NDISulator a try. Note: you do NOT have to recompile your kernel to
> test it. Find the .sys and .inf files from your Windows driver media
> and do the following:
> 
> # 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 don't even have to reboot. Well, not unless the driver causes
> a panic. :/
> 
> If the NIC works, that's great! Drop me a line letting me know, so I
> can cross it off the list. If it doesn't work, please do the
> following:
> 
> - Describe the failure to me _in_ _detail_. DON'T LOAD THE DRIVER
>   WITH X RUNNING. (I hate it when people do that. If for some reason
>   there's a panic, you'll never see it unless you're watching the
>   console. If X is running, it will just look like the system froze,
>   and you won't be able to tell what happened.) If you see messages
>   of the form "No match for <ConfusingWindowsFunctionName>" on the
>   console, then the driver is trying to call some functions that I
>   haven't implemented yet. In very rare cases, the driver may still
>   work, but don't bet on it. Make a note of all console messages that
>   appear when you try to load the driver module. And send them to me,
>   along with a description of what card you have and whar Windows driver
>   module you used.
> 
> - Tell me where you got your card so I can try to get one too. As with
>   the Centrino, it's not always possible to debug these problems without
>   actual hardware.
> 
> - If you're feeling really generous, loan me your card for a while so
>   I can coerce^Wcoax it into working. (This doesn't apply to NICs
>   that are integrated into your system.)
> 
> Again, we at Project Evil appreciate your assistance in our efforts
> to dominate^Wimprove the world. If you decide to loan us your hardware,
> please send it do:
> 
> Attn: Bill Paul
> Wind River Systems
> 500 Wind River Way
> Alameda, CA. 94102
> USA
> 
> Project Evil: when it absolutely, positively has to be evil overnight.
> 
> -Bill
> 
> --
> =============================================================================
> -Bill Paul            (510) 749-2329 | Senior Engineer, Master of Unix-Fu
>                  wpaul at windriver.com | Wind River Systems
> =============================================================================
>               <adamw> you're just BEGGING to face the moose
> =============================================================================
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pub  1024D/B9046473 2003-11-21 Dev Tugnait (Freebsd) <dev at unixdaemon.org>                                     
     Key fingerprint = F690 6725 1930 6FBE C05A  FE4D 6CB1 34C1 B904 6473                                     
sub  1024g/F8F019DF 2003-11-21                                                                                
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