Thanks for the quick reply. So are you saying that it is impossible that the b43 driver could have somehow made my wireless card unable to detect any networks after a reboot (in either Windows or Linux)?
On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 2:46 AM, Larry Finger <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev
