Success story 1-3
Raffaele Raf
raffaele1963
Mon May 19 21:22:11 PDT 2003
Success story 3
Unfortunately, it did not work for me, but it was not
useless!!!
I posted the information above on the Hostap list, and
I was very
pleased to hear that it helped someone.
In particular Pavel Roskin gave me the right input
suggesting to
visit <http://home.eunet.cz/jt/wifi/> and download
the latest release of the flash.exe program.
Keep always clear in mind that when you get a new
card,
the first things to do are:
1) Backup the cis using flash.exe -legacy -3(or 5)v
-cd file.cis
2) Backup the pda using Winupdate from Intersil
(http://intersil.accent-graphics.net/design/prism/software-
o/PrismTestUtil322.exe) using the function
"Export Pda".
3) Backup the whole firmware image using Winupdate
using the function
"Export Entire Firmware Image".
If you break the card WITHOUT backing it up before
programming it,
you can dump the files above from an identical good
card and use
them. The only thing to change is the mac address
into the pda
file. You can usually read it from a label on the
card itself.
SRAM story.
While I was still sad for the pcmcia cards dead, I
started
another trouble. The destiny made me find a
Centennial SRAM 2MB 5
volts pcmcia card. I downloaded a 2MB openap image
from
http://tools.collegeterrace.net/openap-ct, and
tried to
write it into the sram card using the dd command
under Linux.
Unfortunately, I used the wrong device, and the
result was that I
erased the CIS into the sram card. But I did not
understand this.
I wrote the openap image into the sram, but if I
ejected it, after
reloading the sram its content was different from
the source.
I stopped using linux, and downloaded the Memory
Card Explorer
Demo working under Windows:
http://www.synchrotech.com/support-download/mced3161.zip
Same results, the card was not recognized properly
and did not
keep the programming.
To make the picture even darker, in the mean time I
had killed
2 more cards, including a USRobotics 2445 card
(coming from the
USR 2450 AP).
After a deep meditation session, I started to make
any kind of
tests, and these are the results:
I figured out that though the sram card was not
working, I could
still read the cis using flash.exe. I dumped it
into a file,
and wrote the cis back into the sram with linux
using the
information I found: dd if=filename.cis
of=/dev/mem0a
I ran again the Memory Card Explorer and this time
all worked!!!
The card was now recognized properly and kept the
programming.
I was ready to re-program the access point.
Yes, but how could I bypass the 5 volts limitation
????
I searched on the USR 2450 motherboard 1 pin
carrying 5 volts, and
connected this pin to the pin feeding the pcmcia
card at 3.6
volts. See the picture attached.
When I finished, I powered everything off and
disconnected the pin carrying 5 volts before inserting
the pcmcia wireless card.
After setting the serial port of my pc to 4800 n81, I
could successfully see the openap image booting from
the sram card. The boot procedure was exactly as
described at
http://opensource.instant802.com/getting_started_flash.php.
Last issue: the broken pcmcia wireless cards.
With the new flash.exe program I started to do
miracles.
First I resurrected the dead generic prism 2 card
using the firmware found into the following file:
http://home.eunet.cz/jt/wifi/floppy_flash.img
using the information above.
Then I resurrected a dead USR 2445 card (coming from
the USR 2450 AP) having broken PDA, primary and
secondary firmware.
What I did is to perform a "cold programming" not
using at all the information coming from the card.
Steps:
1) Find a compatible PDA and change mac add and
voltage if necessary
(8002.pda).
2) Find a compatible initial firmware (i10003c0.hex).
3) Find a compatible primary firmware (p10003c0.hex).
4) Find a compatible secondary firmware(s1010409.hex).
5) Download the latest flash.exe.
Then run in sequence:
A) flash -legacy -3v -on -i i10003c0.hex
B) flash -legacy -g -pf -p 8002.pda -spi -hf -3v -on
-d p10003c0.hex C) flash -legacy -g -pf -p 8002.pda
-spi -hf -3v -on -d s1010409.hex D) flash -legacy -g
-p 8002.pda -spi -hf -3v -on
And finally check the results with flash -legacy -3v
-s
The last broken card had everything broken: CIS, PDA,
primary and secondary firmware. Luckily I had a
firmware dump of that card made with Winupdate
(imagedump.hex), so what I did was:
A) flash -legacy -3v -on -i i10003c0.hex
B) flash -legacy -g -pf -p 8002.pda -spi -hf -3v -on
-d imagedump.hex
It fixed the CIS, so after this I could run the
procedure in 4 steps above.
If the procedures do not work, perhaps your card works
at 5 volts,
so try to change -3v with -5v.
Try more than once. If the hardware is still good, you
should succeed.
I hope the information above will help someone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting links:
http://www.rflinx.com/ - Site where you can find very
cheap 2.4GHZ amplifiers
http://www.ralphfowler.com/dwl900.html Good info about
dlink
dwl-900ap+
http://www.teletronics.com/tii/products/wireless_lan.html
- Good
shop for Prism based devices
http://www.pcengines.ch/cflash.htm - Good shop for
compact flash to
ide adapters allowing bootstrap!!!
http://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_06.html -
Good shop for
pci cards with embedded pcmcia carrier.
http://www.lillicomputers.net/dept.asp?dept_id=08 -
Good shop for
ITX form factor motherboards
http://www.pccard.co.uk/copy/aboutmce.php - Good
software to program
SRAM-FLASH cards under Windows
--------------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Mail: 6MB di spazio gratuito, 30MB per i tuoi allegati, l'antivirus, il filtro Anti-spam
http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.mail.yahoo.com/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 3.JPG
Type: image/pjpeg
Size: 33938 bytes
Desc: 3.JPG
Url : http://lists.shmoo.com/pipermail/hostap/attachments/20030520/a91ee42b/attachment.bin
More information about the Hostap
mailing list