broadcom wireless card BCM94311MCG on FreeBSD 7.1

Saifi Khan saifi.khan at twincling.org
Mon Feb 23 08:51:20 PST 2009


Hi all:

Compaq C301TU laptop has a Broadcom chipset based wireless card and
i'm unable to make it work on FreeBSD 7.1

Using the ndisgen approach with bcm5wls.sys and bcm5wls.inf files
creates a driver file which on kldload causes a kernel panic.

Interestingly on the same laptop, there is a ethernet card of RTL
8139, which is also not detected by FreeBSD 7.1 . However, lets not
worry about that for the time being.

With Gentoo Linux, i've configured the Linux kernel to use the native
bcm43xx driver and using the bcm43xx-fwcutter, i've been able to
install the firmware and get the wireless card to work.

Here is the lspci -v -nn details as collected from the Linux side.

06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan
mini-PCI (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1364
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop-
ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
        Region 0: Memory at 88000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA
PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
        Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit-
Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 00000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [d0] Express (v1) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s
<4us, L1 unlimited
                        ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE- FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal-
Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq-
AuxPwr- TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s,
Latency L0 <4us, L1 <64us
                        ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM L0s Enabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled-
Retrain- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train-
SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
        Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel <?>
        Kernel driver in use: bcm43xx
        Kernel modules: bcm43xx

i don't intend to buy another wireless add-on card or another old laptop.

Would be thankful, if anybody can suggest how i can get the Wireless
card work to with FreeBSD 7.1 or FreeBSD 8.0 snapshot.
Additional tips for getting the ethernet card to work will also be appreciated.

-- 
thanks
Saifi.


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