[OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Scott Mcdermott]

I read with great interest the thread from a few months ago
regarding the IBM BIOS whitelists for Mini-PCI WLAN cards.

But the thread leaves off with someone waiting for IBM
support and getting an official response that Linux wasn't
supported, so too bad (even though the issue affects any
operating system on the machine).

Has anyone heard more about this from IBM or know of some
way to disable the whitelist checking? It's really a shame
to not be able to use the nice builtin antennas in these
laptops with newer Mini-PCI cards (like the a/b/g combo that
IBM themselves make, which is still "unauthorized" on both
my X31 and T30 with latest BIOS) and instead be forced to
waste a PCMCIA slot and not get as good a signal.

Any information anyone has on this, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Joel Jaeggli]

the card and antenna are certified together. The cards that were certified 
with that antenna work in that laptop. 

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003, Scott Mcdermott wrote:

> I read with great interest the thread from a few months ago
> regarding the IBM BIOS whitelists for Mini-PCI WLAN cards.
> 
> But the thread leaves off with someone waiting for IBM
> support and getting an official response that Linux wasn't
> supported, so too bad (even though the issue affects any
> operating system on the machine).
> 
> Has anyone heard more about this from IBM or know of some
> way to disable the whitelist checking? It's really a shame
> to not be able to use the nice builtin antennas in these
> laptops with newer Mini-PCI cards (like the a/b/g combo that
> IBM themselves make, which is still "unauthorized" on both
> my X31 and T30 with latest BIOS) and instead be forced to
> waste a PCMCIA slot and not get as good a signal.
> 
> Any information anyone has on this, is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.
> -
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-- 
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Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu    
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Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Disconnect]

On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 18:16, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> the card and antenna are certified together. The cards that were certified 
> with that antenna work in that laptop. 

And yet I was able to call dell and just order an older card to go in my
Inspiron.  (A standard 802.11b card; orinoco on a pci->cardbus bridge.) 
The only regulatory info they mentioned was including a pack of the
certified-by stickers to replace the ones that were on the laptop from
the original card.

I'm dubious.  (And also consider that I can go buy a randomly-branded
antenna to plug into my orinoco pcmcia cards without having to get them
certified together..)
 
-- 
Disconnect <lkml@sigkill.net>

Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Hollis Blanchard]

On Monday, Dec 15, 2003, at 18:03 US/Central, Disconnect wrote:

> On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 18:16, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
>> the card and antenna are certified together. The cards that were 
>> certified
>> with that antenna work in that laptop.
>
> And yet I was able to call dell and just order an older card to go in 
> my
> Inspiron.  (A standard 802.11b card; orinoco on a pci->cardbus bridge.)
> The only regulatory info they mentioned was including a pack of the
> certified-by stickers to replace the ones that were on the laptop from
> the original card.

What model Dell card exactly? I'm looking to buy a Linux-compatible 
minipci wireless card (no Centrino for obvious reasons), and the only 
models I've found listed at http://tuxmobil.org/minipci_linux.html are 
apparently no longer for sale. I'd rather not pay for a Cisco Aironet 
but I'm afraid I might have to.

-- 
Hollis Blanchard
IBM Linux Technology Center

Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads^WDells

[Disconnect]

I'm using the TrueMobile 1150.  It was about $100 as I recall.  One of
the antenna leads is just barely long enough (it takes some work to get
it in) but it works fine.  (And does monitor mode, with the appropriate
patches.)

A couple of decent sites for linux-on-dell are:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/G.Wilford/Inspiron8500/ - lots of
good info, its where I went when I first got my dell set up.
http://www.gotontheinter.net/ - my site, mostly relating to mobile
kernel patches (mostly aimed at the I8500, but thats due to lack of
submissions/requests more than anything else.)

On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 14:55, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
> On Monday, Dec 15, 2003, at 18:03 US/Central, Disconnect wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 18:16, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> >> the card and antenna are certified together. The cards that were 
> >> certified
> >> with that antenna work in that laptop.
> >
> > And yet I was able to call dell and just order an older card to go in 
> > my
> > Inspiron.  (A standard 802.11b card; orinoco on a pci->cardbus bridge.)
> > The only regulatory info they mentioned was including a pack of the
> > certified-by stickers to replace the ones that were on the laptop from
> > the original card.
> 
> What model Dell card exactly? I'm looking to buy a Linux-compatible 
> minipci wireless card (no Centrino for obvious reasons), and the only 
> models I've found listed at http://tuxmobil.org/minipci_linux.html are 
> apparently no longer for sale. I'd rather not pay for a Cisco Aironet 
> but I'm afraid I might have to.
-- 
Disconnect <lkml@sigkill.net>

Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003, Hollis Blanchard wrote:

> On Monday, Dec 15, 2003, at 18:03 US/Central, Disconnect wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 18:16, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> >> the card and antenna are certified together. The cards that were 
> >> certified
> >> with that antenna work in that laptop.
> >
> > And yet I was able to call dell and just order an older card to go in 
> > my
> > Inspiron.  (A standard 802.11b card; orinoco on a pci->cardbus bridge.)
> > The only regulatory info they mentioned was including a pack of the
> > certified-by stickers to replace the ones that were on the laptop from
> > the original card.

the truemobile 1150 is just an off the shelf avaya/agere/orinoco/proxim 
minipci card... I happen to have one with an acer label in my inspiron 
4150 but since they all have the same fcc id they were all made by agere.

> What model Dell card exactly? I'm looking to buy a Linux-compatible 
> minipci wireless card (no Centrino for obvious reasons), and the only 
> models I've found listed at http://tuxmobil.org/minipci_linux.html are 
> apparently no longer for sale. I'd rather not pay for a Cisco Aironet 
> but I'm afraid I might have to.
> 
> 

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu    
GPG Key Fingerprint:     5C6E 0104 BAF0 40B0 5BD3 C38B F000 35AB B67F 56B2

Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 732 bytes --]

On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 14:43, Scott Mcdermott wrote:
> Has anyone heard more about this from IBM or know of some
> way to disable the whitelist checking? It's really a shame
> to not be able to use the nice builtin antennas in these
> laptops with newer Mini-PCI cards (like the a/b/g combo that
> IBM themselves make, which is still "unauthorized" on both
> my X31 and T30 with latest BIOS) and instead be forced to
> waste a PCMCIA slot and not get as good a signal.

Bryan O'Sullivan just posted saying that he got an Atheros card from IBM
which works, but only after a BIOS update.  I've attached his message. 
I'm hoping to try one of these out myself soon (I've got a Cisco card,
but the driver is really only just works).

	J

[-- Attachment #2: Type: message/rfc822, Size: 2724 bytes --]

From: Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: durey@EmperorLinux.com
Subject: Update for IBM Thinkpad X31 and T40 users wishing to use miniPCI wifi cards
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 08:45:36 -0800
Message-ID: <1071074736.16162.12.camel@camp4.serpentine.com>

IBM has a newish Atheros-based 802.11a/b/g card, model number 31P9701,
which works with the Thinkpad X31.  I received mine last night and got
the infamous error 1802 (card not authorized).

I unplugged the miniPCI card and updated the X31's BIOS to revision
2.04, version 1QET66WW, dated 2003/12/02.  (I believe you must still
have Windows available to do this.)  The system now boots happily, and
the madwifi driver drives the card OK for me under both 2.4 and 2.6.

I assume that the PCI whitelist of infamy is still in place in the
latest BIOS, but at least it now supports a modern wifi card model.

	<b

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Re: [OT] "unauthorized" mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003, Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
> 
> Bryan O'Sullivan just posted saying that he got an Atheros card from IBM
> which works, but only after a BIOS update.  I've attached his message. 
> I'm hoping to try one of these out myself soon (I've got a Cisco card,
> but the driver is really only just works).

tha seems likely since you can actually order an x31 with this card in it 
at the moment.

 
> 	J
> 

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu    
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Re: [OT] working mini-pci wlan cards in thinkpads

[Hollis Blanchard]

On Tuesday, Dec 16, 2003, at 17:10 US/Central, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> On Monday, Dec 15, 2003, at 18:03 US/Central, Disconnect wrote:
>>
>> And yet I was able to call dell and just order an older card to go in
>> my Inspiron.  (A standard 802.11b card; orinoco on a pci->cardbus 
>> bridge.)
>> The only regulatory info they mentioned was including a pack of the
>> certified-by stickers to replace the ones that were on the laptop from
>> the original card.
>
> the truemobile 1150 is just an off the shelf avaya/agere/orinoco/proxim
> minipci card... I happen to have one with an acer label in my inspiron
> 4150 but since they all have the same fcc id they were all made by 
> agere.

Thanks for the recommendation! I installed a Dell Truemobile 1150 in a 
(gift) Thinkpad R40 last week. Worked perfectly in WinXP and Knoppix 
3.3, no fussing with (PrismII) drivers in either case.

Also, the antenna leads were plenty long enough, and I didn't see any 
BIOS authorization problems (as mentioned at 
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0312.2/0147.html).

-- 
Hollis Blanchard
IBM Linux Technology Center