Wifi for Lenovo Laptop

[Chris]

>________________________________
> From: Waitman Gobble <gobble.wa at gmail.com>
>To: Chris <devnullaccount at yahoo.se> 
>Cc: "freebsd-questions at freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org> 
>Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 6:51 PM
>Subject: Re: Wifi for Lenovo Laptop
> 
>
>
>On Aug 29, 2012 8:44 AM, "Chris" <devnullaccount at yahoo.se> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>> I've tried to search the lists but can't find anything, but please point me to an existing resource if available.
>>
>> I recently got a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 (3259-9VG) laptop and would like to get the Wifi card running (fresh FreeBSD 9.0 install), but I'm failling as it has been at least 5 years since I used with wifi under FreeBSD. The card is not automatically detected (interface not listed in ifconfig) so I'm assuming I have to either load a kernel module or go the NDIS path. It seems like on Windows, the same driver is used for E430, E435, E530 and E535, so in case anyone is using one of these models, please let me know if have things running.
>>
>> So some questions that might point me in the right direction:
>>
>> - How can I find out which type of card this laptop actually has (can I read it out of dmesg, some PCI listing or whatever)?
>>   All I can find are product sheets saying that it has 11b/g/n, but doesn't help me to find a driver. I
>>   Is there some "meta-module" that loads all the native wifi drivers that I can use that I can test?
>> - If I need to use NDIS emulation, does anyone think it will work for this model/card? Windows drivers can be found here http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/default.page).
>>   The handbook (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html#CONFIG-NETWORK-NDIS) says I need Win XP drivers, is that old text or do I need that? I can't find XP drivers on the lenovo page...
>> - If NDIS should be possible, how do I extract the .sys and .inf file from the exe that I downloaded from the URL above (I don't have any Windows machine right now).
>>
>> TIA,
>>   Chris
>>
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>
>hi, you can usually find "replacement wifi cards" for your model on ebay, this can give you an idea of the chipset. 
>also, you could always pull off the panel and look at the card.
>ndis can be tricky because it needs an "older" 32 bit driver, and you need to run a 32 bit version of FreeBSD.
>a good solution is to find a ralink or atheros card on ebay and swap it out, usually will cost less than 10 bucks USD.
>Waitman Gobble
>San Jose California USA
>
>
>

Hi Waltman, jb and Daniel,
(sorry for not replying to the latest email in the thread, something is wrong with my email account)

Thanks very much for the help, it is really appreciated.
I called Lenovo support and the only info they had was that it was "an Intel card", so that's the same info as jb had tracked down (and I also found myself).

Using pciconf as per jb's hint tells me it is a broadcom I have:

none3 at pci0:3:0:0:       class=0x028000 card=0x060814e4 chip=0x472714e4 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor     = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device     = 'BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller'
class      = network


As per the release notes for 9.0 (http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.0R/hardware.html#WLAN), the bwn(4) driver be the one to use.

Added the following to my /boot/loader.conf following the instructions in http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-wireless.html and rebooted.

if_bwn_load="YES"
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"


(also tried the bwi(4) driver instead of bwn)

I still don't get anything in dmesg or ifconfig. So either I have missed some step, or this specific card isn't supported by the bwn/bwi drivers.
Anyone have any further ideas?
If not, I'll try to track down some USB WLAN card that is supported, as I've also heard the same thing as Daniel, i.e. that non-Lenovo cards are blocked by the BIOS if you try to replace the default one.

BR,
  Chris