broadcom fast-ethernet card

[boxcartenant]

ok, being as it is that i am still a bit computer illiterate, i recently think i may have found another way to get wireless internet on my laptop. i opened it up and found a "Broadcom" wireless fast-ethernet thing. i looked at my network software and it was recognised by that as well. i can get internet through a lan connection, but it seems that my computer isnt recognising it as a wireless adaptor. the "fn/(activate)wireless" command on the keyboard is not responding like it should.

i will give you more tecnical information about the card next time i have access to my laptop and a screwdriver at the same time, right now, i am on the road and for reasons i dont care to explain, i have access to neither.

[TerryP]

What is a 'wireless fast-ethernet thing' thing?

[boxcartenant]

ive got my computer on another desk with me now, and heres what it says about the card -- "bfe0 (Broadcom BCM4401 Fast Ethernet)"

if i open up the case and look right at the card, theres a whole bunch of other numbers and stuff. i could get those if you want, but the broadcom support site only needed what i gave you, so im hoping it will suffice. (broadcom says they dont offer technical support for that card on this operating system)

old owners of the laptop say that under windows, you could just press fn and the wireless key to make it search for signals.

[richardpl]

bfe0 is lan ethernet card and doesnt have anything with bwi0 which is wireless ethernet card -> they are two different things from same vendor.

bwi driver is currentlu available in OpenBSD and DragonflyBSD,

bwi had not yet hit FreeBSD CURRENT (iwn,malo(mwl) did), upgt is already available for testing ..... and couple of others are still under development ....

Alternatively, You cant use that wireless card via ndis, what is output of

pciconf -lv|grep -B 2 -A 1 WLAN

[boxcartenant]

would you explain what you mean by, "what is output of [code such-n-such]"? and how do i find the answer, if that is, in fact, a question?

you say there are drivers and compatability softwares being tested? im in no big hurry to get this to work, if you think i could just wait a while and download some pc-bsd updates in the near future, i would be willing to do that. just tell me how i will know when what i am waiting for is available and approximately how long i will be waiting.

[TerryP]

What he means by the code block with 'pciconf' and such in it, is to open the konsole program and run those commands.

type it in at the shell prompt and hit enter, you can use the mouse to highlight it all and the middle mouse button (or press left/right mouse at same time if you don't have a MMB/Wheel) to paste it into a forum post between a pair of [ code ] tags.



When updates hit PC-BSD, newer ISOs (with upgrade option) should be posted on the websites main page (www.pcbsd.org (http://www.pcbsd.org)), which you can always burn to disk and upgrade from.


Unlike the PBI based update system of yore, the newer system updater does things.. A bit differently, although they could be installed manually with a little work.



It's likely to be a good while before the cards supported.

[graedus]

would you explain what you mean by, "what is output of [code such-n-such]"? and how do i find the answer, if that is, in fact, a question?
That means to input that line of code in a terminal emulator/shell/console, whatever you wish to call it, and then feedback with that command's output.

you say there are drivers and compatability softwares being tested? im in no big hurry to get this to work, if you think i could just wait a while and download some pc-bsd updates in the near future, i would be willing to do that. just tell me how i will know when what i am waiting for is available and approximately how long i will be waiting.

Perhaps richardpls' post was too technical. The "bfe0 (Broadcom BCM4401 Fast Ethernet)" device you have available, is a wired, not wireless, ethernet network adapter, most recent notebook computers have two network adapters, a wired and a wireless one. The fact that the wired one appears listed doesn't mean the wireless one was detected.

Following richardpls' post, the generic driver for the broadcom wireless adapter is available for testing (this means beta software) on FreeBSD 7.0. PCBSD is based on FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE, and won't switch to FreeBSD 7.0 until its next major release, which hangs a bit (perhaps more than six months). On a side note, he explains the driver for that adapter is available in other operating systems related to FreeBSD, those are OpenBSD and DragonFlyBSD, which suppose less effort (not a lack of effort) for developers to adapt the code to FreeBSD. Even though, that should take some time, and no, no one around here knows exactly when that will ocurr, we're no sages or oracles. I'm glad you have no hurry, though.

The self condescending way you've been asking for help, and the apparent unwillingness to provide feedback or make a little effort to do so doesn't help getting other user's responses. The people that have been answering your questions are no employees or associated in any formal way with PCBSD (you have to remember that PCBSD is a free operating system), so they have no obligation to answer your inquiries. If you wish for technical support, you might well purchase an official copy of pcbsd. At this point of time, and for the reasons explained above I highly doubt the paid support will solve your particular issues.

Regards.

[richardpl]

Following richardpls' post, the generic driver for the broadcom wireless adapter is available for testing (this means beta software) on FreeBSD 7.0.
No it is not yet available for beta testing on FreeBSD 7.0, but it is available for testing in FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT via another site.

I have broadcom mini-pci card and I use it with FreeBSD via ndisgen, and it works extremly well (better than bwi driver).
Note that bwi driver is reverse enginered, on other side ndisgen use binary blobs from Windows XP driver.

[graedus]

Following richardpls' post, the generic driver for the broadcom wireless adapter is available for testing (this means beta software) on FreeBSD 7.0.
No it is not yet available for beta testing on FreeBSD 7.0, but it is available for testing in FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT via another site.Thanks for correcting this, I misinterpreted your post, my bad. Then, if the driver is available externally for FreeBSD 8-CURRENT, then its availability is pushed farther away.


I have broadcom mini-pci card and I use it with FreeBSD via ndisgen, and it works extremly well (better than bwi driver).
Note that bwi driver is reverse enginered, on other side ndisgen use binary blobs from Windows XP driver.

I haven't had so much luck with ndsigen. To clear things up for the original inquiry, ndisgen is a tool for wrapping a windows binary driver so it can be used on FreeBSD. You can check the article at the PCBSD Reference page (http://faqs.pcbsd.org/index.php?action=artikel&cat=4&id=324&artlang=en). You need available and ready the windows driver as individual files (sometimes the drivers are packed in an msi, cab, executable, or zip file, so you need them extracted), and some luck, since there's no warranty this workaround will work.

[boxcartenant]

The self condescending way you've been asking for help, and the apparent unwillingness to provide feedback or make a little effort to do so doesn't help getting other user's responses.
thanks, i appreciate your constructive criticism, and i will work on improving my communication in these ways.

now, as for putting in the code. im not sure if i did it right, so i tried it a couple of times in different ways. here is the whole conversation.
%pciconf -lv|grep -B 2 -A 1 WLAN
%
%pciconf
usage: pciconf -l [-cv]
pciconf -a selector
pciconf -r [-b | -h] selector addr[:addr2]
pciconf -w [-b | -h] selector addr value
%pciconf -lv|grep -B 2 -A 1 WLAN
%pciconf -lv|grep -B2 -A1 WLAN
%pciconf lv|grep B 2 A 1 WLAN
usage: pciconf -l [-cv]
pciconf -a selector
pciconf -r [-b | -h] selector addr[:addr2]
pciconf -w [-b | -h] selector addr value
grep: 2: No such file or directory
grep: A: No such file or directory
grep: 1: No such file or directory
grep: WLAN: No such file or directory
%pciconf lv|grep B2 A1 WLAN
usage: pciconf -l [-cv]
pciconf -a selector
pciconf -r [-b | -h] selector addr[:addr2]
pciconf -w [-b | -h] selector addr value
grep: A1: No such file or directory
grep: WLAN: No such file or directory


another question, if i use ndisgen, and the windows driver happens to come in msi, cab, or executable form, how do i unpack them using pc-bsd?

[TerryP]

There is a archivers/cabextract program in ports that should be able to extract the cab files.


I'm not sure if the 'ark' program for handling archives in PC-BSD will know how to use it or not but it may. Either way there would be a command line interface for doing it manually. With traditional msi/exe installers and such things, in the *worst* case one could install WINE but I doubt that would be necessary.


Someone else on this forum should know a lot more about dealing that kind of issue then I do and hopefully can post something more helpful.

[graedus]

You get no output from the pciconf conmmand since you got no 'WLAN' devices detected, this is bad.

You can try to input the same command without the grep and see what devices were recognized, perhaps a description other than WLAN is used.
pciconf -lv

Have you tried following the NDIS guide (http://faqs.pcbsd.org/index.php?action=artikel&cat=4&id=324&artlang=en) already?

And have you looked in the drivers cd/dvd/other media that came with your computer, to find out if those files are readily available, before asking further step by step how-to's just in case?

[graedus]

Let's further set things straight. Although PCBSD is quite an easy to setup installation, once in a while it just doesn't work, and more than often one or two devices won't work.

Your issue is of intermediate difficulty. To attempt to solve you'll need.
- To read the NDIS guide (http://faqs.pcbsd.org/index.php?action=artikel&cat=4&id=324&artlang=en)
- To read the ndisgen documentation
man ndisgen
- To locate and be able to identify your driver files, and which files you require for ndisgen to wrap a suitable driver for you (you'll most certainly find more files than you need, and for different versions of windows). This might require some savvyness on windows drivers, such as be able to read a .inf file.
- If the files are encapsulated in any sort of pakaging (msi, cab, zip, etc), you'll need to be able to extract and sort them.
- Some luck or prayer so the procedure works (even if you have all the elements required to wrap the driver, sometimes the resulting driver won't work)

I just wanted to point this out before we lose more time and you build up expectations on the few people that have been answering your thread. On my behalf, I can't provide any further assistance other than these pointers. And be aware that your issue won't be solved using any simple step by step guide, but ain't an impossible task either.

Good luck.

[boxcartenant]

allright, im back. its been a little while.
i will begin reading ndis guide and ndisgen information tomorrow, since its kindof late, and im not sure how long reading it will take.

i input the pciconf -lv command, and got several readouts on different hardware, but i think i was able to isolate just what we needed.
bfe0@pci1:6:0: class=0x020000 card=0x2029161f chip=0x440114e4 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'BCM4401 10/100 Integrated Ethernet Controller'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
none4@pci1:9:0: class=0x028000 card=0x000217f9 chip=0x432014e4 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation'
device = 'BCM94309 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller'
class = network


as for looking in the drivers and software that came with my laptop, i cant. i got it from a friend, who has apparently thrown out all the stuff that came with it. he gave it to me, saying that if i could get an operating system to work on it, i could keep it. it's relatively new, and the hardware is all in tact, but for some reason it no longer boots with windows OS installing discs.

and thanks again, guys. i appreciate you spending your time to help me with this. i will get back to you on this thread when i have updates.