ifconfig ndis0 up scan doesn't find my ap

[Scott Bennett]

     On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:00:58 -0700 Steve Franks <bahamasfranks at gmail.com>
wrote:
>I get this behavior on 2 completely different laptops, one on
>7.0-release, and the other on 7-stable.  ndio0 [broadcom :( ] comes
>right up in dmesg, and ifconfig(), but it won't find any AP's - is
>this known? - because I can google people with lots of different ndis0
>problems (mostly on 5.x and 6.x), but not this particular one...I seem
>some warning about not supporting AP's in the handbook for ndis, but
>it seems to be under the 'build your own AP from freebsd and a nic
>section', so I'm hoping it doesn't apply, cause my shiny new lenovo
>s10e has a really ugly looking broadcom slot, not minipci.  Must be
>something new like micro pci, but at any rate, I would prefer not to
>have to hack my bios to get it to boot with a non-broadcom nic in it
>anyways.  ndisgen has always been an acceptable, if distasteful,
>solution in past days.
>
     I use ndis on an Inspiron XPS with a Dell 1450 wireless card, which
uses a Broadcom chipset.  I'm still running 6.3, but 7.x probably acts
the same way.  It takes *two* ifconfig commands to get the interface
up and working.  The "up" has to appear by itself on the first ifconfig.
Once that completes okay, I then run a second ifconfig with the rest of
the options.  In other words, if I do

# ifconfig ndis0 up [rest of options]

all that happens is the interface comes "up", and the rest of the options
are ignored.  If I do

# ifconfig ndis0 up
# ifconfig ndis0 [rest of options]

all is well.  That means, of course, that I end up having to do it manually
because the stuff in /etc/rc.d doesn't handle more than one ifconfig per
interface on system startup. :-(


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
**********************************************************************
* Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good  *
* objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments *
* -- a standing army."                                               *
*    -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790         *
**********************************************************************