ndis panic HP pavilion ze4400 won't boot

[Neal Hogan]

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 1:07 PM, Glen Barber <glen.j.barber at gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> > I'm in the process of sync'ing up my system with source . . . but, in the
> > meantime I'm wondering about the choice of Broadcom driver. Is it really
> a
> > matter of trying different ones?
>
> It was for me.  It took me 3 tries before I found one that 'worked'.
>
> > I updated the driver this morning to a new
> > version. Is that not the driver that I'll use for the ndiswrapper? Should
> an
> > older version, perhaps the one that was originally installed?
> >
>
> If I remember correctly, the version I use is 3 versions back from the
> latest update.
>
> > I apologize if these questions are rather simple and naiive.
> >
>
> Not at all.  Broadcom is difficult sometimes.  This is one of those times.
>
> --
> Glen Barber
> 570.328.0318
>

Well, it took me all day, but I did synch-up the source with the kernel.
However, being new to the ways of fBSD I (accidentally) ended up building
the -CURRENT source and kernel (8.0). I tried ndisgen on the latest driver
and it didn't work . . . I'll tell you why in a second.

I'm a bit uncomfortable dealing with current. I'd rather go back to the
7.1-RELEASE, which claims to have better ndis support. FYI - I've dual
booted fBSD, and am merely experimenting with it. So, while it may seem odd
that I continue to move between versions, I do have access to other machines
that have more familiar environments (oBSD and XP).

Now, the *ndisgen path/to/inf path/to/sys* didn't work because it said that
the .inf file was in a different format than it expected. So, I attempted to
convert it to ascii using *iconv -c -f utf-16 -t ascii path/to/inf >
.inf.ascii* and use the new file as the .inf. Again, it said it was the
wrong format. That's when I bailed. So as not to waste my time with 8.0,
because I wish to pursue expermenting on 7.1. Anyway . . . at this time, I
have one more question regarding the driver that will end up being
successfull (hopefully there is one).

Should I have to manipulate the .inf file? There is the wrong format issue,
mentioned above, and when setting up ndis in the "panicky" situation,
ndisgen claimed that the last line of the .inf file was bad (I forget the
actual teminology used). So, I deleted that line and it successfully
generated the .ko file. It seems odd to me that I would have to manipulate
the driver information so much and that it may the source of some of my ndis
problems. Another way of asking this question . . . will the successful
driver just work (i.e., not need such manipulations)?

Thanks for you patience.

-- 
www.nealhogan.net