6.0-release beta1 breaks ndis for dell truemobile 1400

[Ben Kaduk]

On 7/21/05, Fabian Keil <freebsd-listen at fabiankeil.de> wrote:
> Ben Kaduk <minimarmot at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I have not extensively used the ndis driver since I am not often
> > around wireless networks, but
> > after installing 5.4-release I compiled the driver using
> > cd /usr/src/sys/modules/ndis
> > make install
> > cd /usr/src/sys/modules/if_ndis
> > ndiscvt -i bcmwl5a.inf -s bcmwl5.sys -o ndis_driver_data.h
> > make && make install
> >
> > as recommended, with the bcmwl* files being the ones here:
> > http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/kaduk/www/*
> >
> > The self-extracting driver (for windows) also generated a bcmwl5.inf
> > (not 'a'), but ndiscvt
> > produced an error whilst trying to read this file, so I used the 'a'
> > version, and ndiscvt finished
> > successfully; if_ndis was produced with no errors, and I was able to
> > kldload if_ndis.ko and ndis.ko.  Upon doing this, console messages
> > were produced recognizing my Dell TrueMobile 1400 (broadcom bcm4324
> > chipset), but i didn't have a wireless network to use then.
> > Since then, I have performed a source upgrade to 6.0-release beta1
> > (cvsup last saturday; can't be more precise since I must boot windows
> > to use wireless :(   ).
> > I just today had occasion to use the wireless card, and kldload()-ing
> > if_ndis resulted in a panic().  I didn't save the message for two
> > reasons: (1), I thought it was just that if_ndis.ko had not been
> > rebuild with world, and (2) I'm using my laptop at a friend's
> > appartment with no serial console.  After performing several
> > iterations of cleaning for ndis, if_ndis, and wlan, and
> > rebuilding/installing, I produced if_ndis.ko, ndis.ko, and wlan.ko
> > that I could successfully kldload() with no panic.  However, there
> > were no console messages that appeared indicating that the system had
> > found my hardward, leading to the statement in the subject that the
> > beta breaks ndis for this card.  I have already posted a pciconf -lv
> > to the list in this thread:
> > http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=116619+0+current/freebsd-current
> >
> > What steps can I take to help debug this regression?
> 
> At first you should try to build ndis the right way, which
> was changed a while ago. Now /usr/sbin/ndisgen is used to put the
> firmware in a separate module.
> 
> <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2005-July/016762.html>
> 
> 
> Fabian
> --
> http://www.fabiankeil.de/
> 
> 
> 


Is there anyone working on updating the handbook and generating an
ndisgen() manpage, or should I whip something together?

Ben