> > I initially made the mistake of getting the "ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi > > wireless LAN Mini-PCIe" wireless card, but that Atheros-based card is not > > currently supported by OpenBSD because it uses the AR5424 chipset. So I > > had to replace it with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card--which is what I > > should have gotten in the first place. > > Why didn't you replace your card to one wich has free firmware? > maybe it is better to just accept the nonfree firmware and replace the > Intel wlan card later. Just a few ThinkPads have no intel wifi so > it really limits your choise. >
The T60 has a mini-PCI Express port. The older Atheros cards with the chipsets that OpenBSD does support are mini-PCI cards, not PCI Express. Also, I did not bother to try installing a non-Lenovo wireless card because Thinkpads have a BIOS whitelist that refuses to recognize "unauthorized" cards. Some people have modified the BIOS to solve this problem, but the modification attempts sometimes corrupt the BIOS and make the computer un-bootable, which I wasn't willing to risk. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_unauthorized_MiniPCI_network_card for examples of successes and failures with this BIOS modification.
