Laptop Wireless

Tue Nov 14 23:17:18 UTC 2006

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006, Damian Wiest wrote:

> The OP replied off-list with his output from dmesg.  I'm sending it back to the
> list in the off-chance that someone knows more about this wireless adapter.
>
> -Damian
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Rem P Roberti <remegius at comcast.net> -----

>> On Sun, Nov 05, 2006 at 07:57:03AM -0800, Rem P Roberti wrote:
>>
>>> Would someone point me in the right direction here.  I have an old
>>> Compaq Presario 1692 that my sister-in-law gave to me after she
>>> upgraded.  I installed FreeBSD 6.1 and everything is working fine.
>>> However, the laptop also came with a Belkin Wireless G (F5D7011)
>>> notebook card, and I would like to learn how to install the appropriate
>>> drivers for the card to work.  I am new to FreeBSD, and have glanced at
>>> the Handbook section dealing with wireless.  It's a little daunting at
>>> this time, and I haven't yet been able to make sense out of it with
>>> respect to this laptop and wireless card.  Any help in making the
>>> process understandable would be much appreciated.
>>>
>>> Rem
>>>
>>
>> Can you post the dmesg?
>>
>> Assuming that particular device has a working driver, you can probably
>> use ifconfig for most of the wireless settings.
>>
>> -Damian
>
> Thanks for the reply, Damian.  Here is the dmesg:
>
> Copyright (c) 1992-2006 The FreeBSD Project.
> Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
>       The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
> FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE #2: Fri Nov  3 08:22:20 PST 2006
>   rem@:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/REMKERNEL
> Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
> CPU: AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor (432.98-MHz 586-class CPU)
> Origin = "AuthenticAMD"  Id = 0x58c  Stepping = 12
> Features=0x8021bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8,PGE,MMX>
> AMD Features=0x80000800<SYSCALL,3DNow>
> real memory  = 201261056 (191 MB)
> avail memory = 187408384 (178 MB)
> kbd1 at kbdmux0
> K6-family MTRR support enabled (2 registers)
> ACPI disabled by blacklist.  Contact your BIOS vendor.
> cpu0 on motherboard
> pcib0: <AcerLabs M1541 (Aladdin-V) PCI host bridge> pcibus 0 on motherboard
> pir0: <PCI Interrupt Routing Table: 7 Entries> on motherboard
> pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
> agp0: <Ali M1541 host to AGP bridge> mem 0xe0000000-0xe3ffffff at device
> 0.0 on pci0
> pcib1: <PCI-PCI bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
> pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
> pci1: <display, VGA> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
> isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
> isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
> pcm0: <ESS Solo-1 (unknown vendor)> port
> 0x1080-0x10bf,0x1070-0x107f,0x1060-0x106f,0x10c4
> -0x10c7,0x10c0-0x10c3 irq 5 at device 9.0 on pci0
> cbb0: <TI1211 PCI-CardBus Bridge> at device 10.0 on pci0
> cardbus0: <CardBus bus> on cbb0
> pccard0: <16-bit PCCard bus> on cbb0
> pci0: <simple comms> at device 15.0 (no driver attached)
> atapci0: <AcerLabs M5229 UDMA33 controller> port
> 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0xfc
> 90-0xfc9f at device 16.0 on pci0
> ata0: <ATA channel 0> on atapci0
> ata1: <ATA channel 1> on atapci0
> pci0: <bridge> at device 17.0 (no driver attached)
> ohci0: <AcerLabs M5237 (Aladdin-V) USB controller> mem
> 0xfc000000-0xfc000fff irq 5 at dev
> ice 20.0 on pci0
> ohci0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
> usb0: OHCI version 1.0, legacy support
> usb0: <AcerLabs M5237 (Aladdin-V) USB controller> on ohci0
> usb0: USB revision 1.0
> uhub0: AcerLabs OHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
> uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
> pmtimer0 on isa0
> orm0: <ISA Option ROMs> at iomem 0xc0000-0xcb7ff,0xdc000-0xdffff on isa0
> atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
> atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> irq 1 on atkbdc0
> kbd0 at atkbd0
> atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
> psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
> psm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
> psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
> fdc0: <Enhanced floppy controller> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2
> on isa0
> fdc0: [FAST]
> fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
> ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
> ppc0: Generic chipset (EPP/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
> ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
> plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
> lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
> lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
> ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
> sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
> sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
> sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
> sio0: type 16550A
> sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0
> sio1: port may not be enabled
> vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
> speaker0: <PC speaker> at port 0x61 on isa0
> unknown: <PNP0c02> can't assign resources (memory)
> unknown: <PNP0303> can't assign resources (port)
> unknown: <PNP0c02> can't assign resources (memory)
> psmcpnp0: irq resource info is missing; assuming irq 12
> unknown: <PNP0501> can't assign resources (port)
> unknown: <PNP0400> can't assign resources (port)
> unknown: <PNP0700> can't assign resources (port)
> ulpt0: Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 840C, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 2, iclass 7/1
> ulpt0: using bi-directional mode
> Timecounter "TSC" frequency 432983113 Hz quality 800
> Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec
> cardbus0: CIS pointer is 0!
> cardbus0: Resource not specified in CIS: id=10, size=2000
> cardbus0: <network> at device 0.0 (no driver attached)
> ad0: 6194MB <FUJITSU MHH2064AT B815> at ata0-master UDMA33
> acd0: DVDROM <TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2202/1W23> at ata1-master UDMA33
> Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
>
>
> As you can see, it does not recognize the card.  Indeed, when I looked
> at the list of wireless cards in the hardware list the Belkin wireless
> card was nowhere to be found.  It may be that there is no driver for
> this particular card, and that I may just have to get another card.
> What do you think?
>
> Rem
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
A couple of strange things (to me) in the dmesg.

1) ACPI disabled by blacklist.  Contact your BIOS vendor

      ACPI is much preferred to APM. I have never seen this message but assume it
      means the ACPI initialization did not like your BIOS.  You should upgrade
      and see if it fixes this or compile a kernel with no ACPI, use APM.

2) Hopefully you have windows also on the system. If so boot windows and
    compare the irq usage with that in the dmesg. If not boot from a cdrom. If
    you are running kde, KInfoCenter formats all irqs i/o ports etc. Otherwise
    use dmesg and pciconf.

           pciconf -l -v

3) PnP problems

      unknown: <PNP0c02> can't assign resources (memory)
      unknown: <PNP0303> can't assign resources (port)
      unknown: <PNP0c02> can't assign resources (memory)
      psmcpnp0: irq resource info is missing; assuming irq 12
      unknown: <PNP0501> can't assign resources (port)
      unknown: <PNP0400> can't assign resources (port)
      unknown: <PNP0700> can't assign resources (port)

     If you fix irq conflicts by manually assigning the windows values perhaps
     the probe will find something, ...

but I rather doubt it. Fixing X-windows and hardware issues where there is a bug 
and/or no support (which seems to be the case here) requires a maximum amount of 
expertise for the least payoff. By that I mean going where no one has gone 
before will require, learning the internal working of the card and writing and 
debugging a driver. All to get where windows is, i.e. to do basic network 
operations. IMO a much better use of time/money would be to buy a supported 
card.