Trying to install a wireless broadcom card

[Reid Linnemann]

Written by Gaëtan Podevijn on 04/13/08 08:14>>
> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to configure my Acer Aspire 5024wmli wireless card (pciconf
> -lv told me device: BCM43XX Broadcom 802.11b/g) but without any success.
> 
> I use ndis with windows drivers and it is correctly loaded:
> 
> kldstat
> 
> Id Refs Address    Size     Name
>  1   24 0xc0400000 906518   kernel
>  2    2 0xc0d07000 e750     if_ndis.ko
>  3    3 0xc0d16000 1aa10    ndis.ko
>  5    1 0xc0d94000 1bdc     wlan_xauth.ko
>  6    1 0xc0d96000 2ec0     wlan_acl.ko
>  7    1 0xc0d99000 6a32c    acpi.ko
>  8    1 0xc44f4000 22000    linux.ko
>  9    1 0xc4699000 62000    bcmwl5_sys.ko
> 10    1 0xc47c9000 21000    radeon.ko
> 11    1 0xc47ea000 f000     drm.ko
> 
> and I have a ndis0 interface but when I use this command line: ifconfig
> ndis0 up scan it returns me anything!
> 
> Here is my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:
> 
> ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
> ctrl_interface_group=wheel
> 
> network={
> 	ssid="wireless"
> 	scan_ssid=1
> 	key_mgmt=NONE
> 	wep_key0=XXX
> }
> 
> and my /etc/rc.conf:
> # -- sysinstall generated deltas -- # Sat Apr 12 18:32:05 2008
> # Created: Sat Apr 12 18:32:05 2008
> # Enable network daemons for user convenience.
> # Please make all changes to this file, not to /etc/defaults/rc.conf.
> # This file now contains just the overrides from /etc/defaults/rc.conf.
> hostname="herlock-bsd"
> keymap="be.iso"
> linux_enable="YES"
> nfs_server_enable="YES"
> rpcbind_enable="YES"
> sshd_enable="YES"
> # -- sysinstall generated deltas -- # Sat Apr 12 17:07:34 2008
> #ifconfig_re0="DHCP"
> hostname="herlock-bsd"
> ifconfig_ndis0="WPA DHCP"
> gnome_enabled="YES"
> 
> And it doesn't work...
> 
> Can anyone tells me how is it possible to make this card works on
> freebsd ?
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Gaëtan.

Make sure the radio is actually turned on for the device. I've had ndis
bite me in the ass before on laptops with Fn-key radio switches; when I
put FreeBSD on, the radio was disabled and the Fn-key apparently
required OS support to work. I beat my head against the wall trying to
get it to associate with an AP to no avail. I've never been sure if
there is a way on these systems to turn the radio on in FreeBSD, I've
always thrown Windows on a spare partition and used it to turn the radio
on. Maybe someone else can be more enlightening on this subject.