On 03/23/2010 02:30 PM, Chris Lopes wrote: > Hi, > > I had a perfectly working Dell system running Windows Vista and using > version 5.60.188.1 of the Broadcom windows driver (distributed by > Dell) for what Windows calls the "Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card", > which is actually 14e4:4315. > > I booted Parted Magic 4.9 from a USB flash drive, which uses the > 2.6.32 linux kernel. > I started up networking in Parted Magic and asked it to configure the > wireless driver. > > At first it found my normal SSID and I asked it to try to connect, but > it failed. I thought this was just a transient issue specific to > Parted Magic and/or linux. > > So I booted bank into Vista, only to see that although Vista reports > everything as being fine with the card, no wireless networks are ever > detected. I have verified that the wireless networks that I expect > indeed exist and are in range (the machine has not moved). > > Is it possible that the b43 driver somehow corrupted the firmware/ROM > of my card such that it does not function correctly? Can I fix this? > There is a DMA error (also shown below in context): b43-phy0 ERROR: > Fatal DMA error: 0x00000400, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, > 0x00000000, 0x00000000
No, b43 did not corrupt your firmware. The firmware is not contained in non-volatile memory. With a power-down, it goes away. There is an EEPROM containing some initial values, but changing that requires specific actions through the sysfs, and does not happen accidentally. The wl and Windows drivers have the firmware embedded in the driver. For copyright reasons, we cannot do that, which is why there is external firmware. Your DMA error is a known problem with 14e4:4315 devices with Netbooks and some other systems with Intel processors and a Phoenix BIOS. Again, we have no fix. With a 2.6.33 kernel, the system will seamlessly switch to PIO mode when the fatal DMA error occurs. Larry _______________________________________________ Bcm43xx-dev mailing list Bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev
