Strange Netgear MA401

[Alexander Coers]

Hi,

I have a strange problem with an old PCMCIA Netgear MA401 card.
The card contains a PDA which identifies it as 0x8008 platform.
But the Windows drivers as well as hostap identifies it as 0x800c:


Oct 25 14:26:36 CNBSG016 kernel: [  362.820210] hostap_cs: Registered netdevice wifi0
Oct 25 14:26:36 CNBSG016 kernel: [  363.058600] wifi0: NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0
Oct 25 14:26:36 CNBSG016 kernel: [  363.059365] wifi0: PRI: id=0x15 v1.0.7
Oct 25 14:26:36 CNBSG016 kernel: [  363.060214] wifi0: STA: id=0x1f v1.3.6


If I try to update the firmware, so I have WPA support, I get the following error from prism2:

S3 CRC-16 generation record: start=0x007E17FE len=2 prog=0
Start address 0x00000000
srec summary for PK010101.HEX
Component: 0x0015 1.1.1 (primary firmware)
Supported platforms:
  0x800c 1.0.0,  0x8013 1.0.0,  0x8017 1.0.0,  0x801b 1.0.0,  0x8022 1.0.0
Interface compatibility information:
  role=Supplier variant=1 range=4-4 iface=Primary Firmware-Driver (3)
  role=Actor    variant=2 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
Separate S3 data areas:
S3 area count: 3
  addr=0x007E0000..0x007E0B55 (len=2902)
  addr=0x007E0C00..0x007E151F (len=2336)
  addr=0x007E17FE..0x007E17FF (len=2)
Total data length: 5240
Start address 0x00000000

S3 CRC-16 generation record: start=0x007E1800 len=65414 prog=1
Start address 0x00000000
srec summary for sf010704.hex
Component: 0x001f 1.7.4 (station firmware)
Supported platforms:
  0x800a 1.0.0,  0x800b 1.0.0,  0x800c 1.0.0,  0x800d 1.0.0,  0x8012 1.0.0
  0x8013 1.0.0,  0x8014 1.0.0,  0x8016 1.0.0,  0x8017 1.0.0,  0x8018 1.0.0
  0x801a 1.0.0,  0x801b 1.0.0,  0x801c 1.0.0,  0x8021 1.0.0,  0x8022 1.0.0
  0x8023 1.0.0
Interface compatibility information:
  role=Supplier variant=4 range=1-12 iface=Station Firmware-Driver (4)
  role=Actor    variant=1 range=1-1 iface=Modem-Firmware (1)
  role=Actor    variant=2 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
  role=Actor    variant=1 range=4-4 iface=Primary Firmware-Driver (3)
Separate S3 data areas:
S3 area count: 3
  addr=0x007E1800..0x007EE2DB (len=51932)
  addr=0x007F0800..0x007F1785 (len=3974)
  addr=0x007FE000..0x007FECC5 (len=3270)
Total data length: 59176
Start address 0x00000000

Overriding component id and supplied range data using PDA.
Wireless LAN card information:
Components:
  NICID: 0x800c v1.0.0
  PRIID: 0x0015 v1.0.7
  STAID: 0x001f v1.3.6
Interface compatibility information:
  PRI role=Supplier variant=1 range=1-1 iface=Modem-Firmware (1)
  PRI role=Supplier variant=1 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
  PRI role=Supplier variant=1 range=4-4 iface=Primary Firmware-Driver (3)
  STA role=Supplier variant=1 range=1-9 iface=Station Firmware-Driver (4)
  PRI role=Actor    variant=2 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
  STA role=Actor    variant=2 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
  STA role=Actor    variant=1 range=1-1 iface=Modem-Firmware (1)

Verifying update compatibility and combining data:
Incompatible interfaces:
  SREC: role=Actor    variant=2 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
  card: role=Supplier variant=1 range=1-1 iface=Controller-Firmware (2)
Incompatible update data.



I have no clue what the last three lines mean?
If I enable the "update firmware setting" for the Prism driver in Windows, the driver does make some updates 
in Ram, but the card does work anymore (I can connect to my network, but I can't scan).
If I use the DOS utility to "force" the update, I get the same result. I can join my wireless network, but the card does
not scan correctly, the list is always empty.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
 Alexander