Belkin F5D6001 (v1) and flashed firmware

[Pavel Roskin]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Chris Cox wrote:

> Just checking to see if anyone has had success in reflashing the
> firmware on a Belkin F5D6001 prismII card.
>
> I attempted the same a week ago and ended up killing the card.  I have
> tried to resurrect it using the Intersil DOS flash.exe utility, however,
> though the card appears to be recognised by the tool, it does not
> actually rebuild the firmware.

We really need to fix prism2_srec so that it doesn't require working
secondary firmware.  It appears that apart from this limitation, it's the
safest way to update the firmware.  I believe it would not kill your card.

> I called Belkin tech support, however, they were unable (or unwilling)
> to proivide any details of exactly which firmware would run on their
> cards, or specific parameters to supply to the flash tool.

I think it's a bad idea.  Such calls discourage vendors from publishing
firmware updates.  Even if they didn't tell you anything, they still spent
time on you.

> Their only solution was to have the card replaced under warranty.  This
> they have actually done, although they replaced it with the newer v2
> card which no longer uses the prismII chipset.  However, they told me to
> just trash the old card rather than returning it, so, if anyone can help
> with suggestions on resurrecting the old card, I would be very greatful.

It's possible, but you need a modified PCMCIA adapter.  If you happen to
have TI PCI1410, connect pin 134 to +5V as described here:
http://sisyphus.iocaine.com/pipermail/hostap/2003-April/002446.html

> Also, in case there is not a current (1.5.6 or later) flashable firmware
> retrievable that works with the belkin card, is anyone aware of a RAMmable
> firmware later than 1.4.9?
>
> I would like to disable the ssid broadcast (ssid hide) which evidently
> requires 1.6.3 or later.

These are the latest available firmwares:

               Prism 2            Prism 2.5
RAM            1.7.1              1.7.4
Flash          1.4.9              1.7.4

All are available at http://www.red-bean.com/~proski/firmware/ Since you
probably have Prism 2.5 now, you can flash it with 1.7.4. The old card can
be flashed with 1.4.9 and updated to 1.7.1 on startup.  If you need help
with resurrecting the old card, write me in private.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin