Fwd: Messed up PCMCIA firmware

[Madhusudan Singh]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Madhusudan Singh <singh.madhusudan at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: Messed up PCMCIA firmware
To: Pavel Roskin <proski at gnu.org>


Thanks for your response. Here is the o/p of dmesg, immediately after
inserting the card into the slot :

[  342.623400] pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0
[  342.623701] pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia0.0
[  342.623982] hostap_cs: setting Vcc=33 (constant)
[  342.624038] Checking CFTABLE_ENTRY 0x01 (default 0x01)
[  342.624045] IO window settings: cfg->io.nwin=1 dflt.io.nwin=1
[  342.624052] io->flags = 0x0046, io.base=0x0000, len=64
[  342.625620] hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wifi0
[  342.665401] hostap_cs: index 0x01: , irq 4, io 0xc100-0xc13f
[  147.323335] hostap_cs: assuming no Primary image in flash - card
initialization not completed
[  147.323346] wifi0: test Genesis mode with HCR 0x1f
[  147.323363] prism2_pccard_cor_sreset: original COR 41
[  147.327375] prism2_pccard_genesis_sreset: original COR 41
[  147.357223] Readback test failed, HCR 0x1f write 00 e1 a1 ff read 00 04
a1 04
[  147.357226] wifi0: test Genesis mode with HCR 0x0f
[  147.357239] prism2_pccard_cor_sreset: original COR 41
[  147.361249] prism2_pccard_genesis_sreset: original COR 41
[  147.391132] Readback test succeeded, HCR 0x0f
[  147.391145] prism2_pccard_genesis_sreset: original COR 41
[  147.425640] wifi0: registered netdevice wlan0
[  147.721971] wlan0: cannot get RID fdc6 (len=12) - no PRI f/w

Visually, the LED on the card comes on for a second or two and then switches
off. The normal behaviour is steady light (when it finds a network) and
blinking light (when it does not).

ifconfig does not show any wlan0/wifi0 interface after the insertion.

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008  at 1:38 PM, Pavel Roskin <proski at gnu.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 2008-07-09 at 12:05 -0700, Madhusudan Singh wrote:
> > Network card - Netgear MA401 Rev D
> >
> > NICID x0800c (from what I remember). Initial firmware version 1.0.0.
>
> What does it mean?  The initial firmware doesn't reside in the flash.
> It's loaded in genesis mode to allow flashing primary and secondary
> firmware.
>

I am new to flashing firmware, so please bear with me.


>
> If you mean that your original secondary firmware was 1.0.0, I don't
> think you got it right.  The oldest firmware for 3842 I know is 1.1.0.
>

Then it must be the primary firmware.


>
> >  Tried to upgrade it to 1.8.2 because it did not support WPA2.
> > Followed Jun Sun's guide on flashing Intersil based chipsets with
> > version 1.8.2 :
> >
> > http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/
> >
> > prism2_srec failed to download the firmware on to the flash memory. It
> > also wiped out (apparently) the previous one (I used option -f).
>
> Did you try to upgrade the primary firmware as well?
>

I think so. I used option -f.


>
> > Now, the card does not even register as a network interface (Readback
> > test fails complaining about missing primary firmware).
>
> Please never rephrase error messages.  Even little details may be
> helpful.
>

See above.


>
> >  So, I do not know how I can use prism2_srec even if get the firmware
> > from somewhere.
>
> You should be able to flash primary firmware in genesis mode and then
> flash secondary firmware.
>

How do I do that (is it option -g ?) ? If so, what is the argument to the
command (there is no wlan0 interface, remember) ?


> > What are my options ? How do I flash it with its original firmware (I
> > downloaded the contents of the initial CD from Netgear's website) ?
>
> I don't think the initial firmware is needed for 3842 cards.
>
> > No. I did not make a backup copy of the original firmware :(
>
> I don't think it's even possible to back up firmware from the card.
> There are areas in the firmware that are rewritten for the specific
> card.
>
> If you are going to write more about it, please mention the version of
> the software, i.e. the kernel and hostap-utils.
>

The kernel is the latest Ubuntu hardy kernel :
2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 18 14:43:41 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

hostap-utils - the latest Ubuntu Hardy version. I believe it is 1:0.4.0-1 :

http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/net/hostap-utils



>
> --
> Regards,
> Pavel Roskin
>

With regards,

MS
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