WiFi 802.11/ac PCIe supported adaptor

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014, O. Hartmann wrote:

> Am Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:50:02 -0600 (MDT)
> Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> schrieb:
>
>> On Sun, 28 Sep 2014, Gavin Atkinson wrote:
>>> On Sun, 28 Sep 2014, O. Hartmann wrote:
>>>> Networking wasn't an issue for me for years, but now, sitting on a pile of neat new
>>>> hardware of which FreeBSD can not make any serious use, let me rethink. Luckily, The
>>>> Lenovo laptops have a mini PCIe WiFi NIC - if I'm willing to follow FreeBSDs agony
>>>> I'm able to swap the NIC with a piece of hardware that is supported. But it is
>>>> additional
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, many Lenovo laptops lock the BIOS down in such a way that
>>> they won't boot without the NIC they were shipped with :(
>
> Yes, I realized this very sadly today. Intel 6300 WiFi adapter isn't recognized, the crap
> of Laptop rejects starting firmware and I get a message telling me using uncertified
> hardware. Last time I bought a Laptop from Lenovo!
>
>>
>> Well, or a short list of approved Lenovo-branded cards.  In the past,
>> Lenovo (or IBM) has supplied Atheros cards.  The trick will be finding
>> that list and identifying the chipsets on each.  There are also
>> unofficial BIOS modifications to remove the limits.
>
> There are lists, but they are outdated and newer chipsets aren't listed.

No, I mean each particular Thinkpad notebook has a list of allowed cards 
in the BIOS.  However, it is not the same list for each model.  So the 
trick is to find the list of approved cards for your particular model, 
and then figure out which of those is Atheros-based.