Atheros (ath) MSI wireless embedded chipset fails to attach on 7.0-STABLE

[Manolis Kiagias]

Alexander Sack wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Alexander Sack <pisymbol at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 11:31 AM, Manolis Kiagias <sonic2000gr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Alexander Sack wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Hello:
>>>>
>>>> I have installed FreeBSD-7.0-amd64 stable on my new AMD X2 Turon based
>>>> notebook, a MSI-1710A (GX710Ax) which has a generic embedded
>>>> controller.  During boot up I notice that ATH complains with:
>>>>
>>>> ath_rate: version 1.2 <SampleRate bit-rate selection algorithm>
>>>> ath_hal: 0.9.20.3 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
>>>> ath0: <Atheros 5424/2424> mem 0xfd7f0000-0xfd7fffff irq 16 at device 0.0
>>>> on pci2
>>>> ath0: Reserved 0x10000 bytes for rid 0x10 type 3 at 0xfd7f0000
>>>> ath0: [MPSAFE]
>>>> ath0: [ITHREAD]
>>>> ath0: unable to attach hardware; HAL status 13
>>>> device_attach: ath0 attach returned 6
>>>>
>>>> HAL status 13 from the header file seems to indicate that the
>>>> 7.0-STABLE driver doesn't support my hardware revision.  Here is my
>>>> pciconf -l output:
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Maybe you could try compiling a kernel with a newer hal. This is the kind of
>>> hack we use on the eeepc. Have a look at this:
>>>
>>> http://nighthack.org/wiki/EeeBSD
>>>       
>> Thank you SO much for this link.  That's EXACTLY what I want to do
>> because I realize that this is a HAL problem.  I've been searching
>> like MAD where I could get an updated binary HAL for this chipset
>> (PCIe based).
>>     
>
> Btw, is there any particular reason you chose the version you linked
> against what's the current stable release?  Also is this the only
> place to get updated ath HAL's?
>
> -aps
>
>   

Well, the linked page is not mine ;)  but I have successfully used newer 
editions of the madwifi driver on the eeepc, so don't let this stop you!