Sierra Wireless Aircard 555 adventures

Fri Aug 27 00:37:07 PDT 2004

After reading the previous posts on the subject, and having one of these
cards drop in my lap, I have decided to try and get this card working
correctly in RELENG_5_2. I have reached somewhat of a stumbling block,
mostly because I dont completely understand some of what is involved.

After reading over the Linux and OSX fixes for this card, the best way
to get it working as a serial device only, is to change the CIS
information on the card.

I have been trying to use cis quirks to accomplish the first task, which
is changing the function id from network card to serial port. This was
quite simple, but looking over the complete CIS information provided, it
seems to also have to create its own set of cftable entries to direct
the proper io addresses and irq mask for the card.

This is where I am stuck. I dont understand the pccard_config_entry
struct enough to make the proper changes. I have been making
semi-educated guesses, but am still falling short.

Below I am going to dump all the information that I think is somewhat
valid in this endeavour, including what I think I'm missing and some
other notes regarding it.

The original tuple before any changes is as follows.

cis mem map 0xda2be000 (resource: 0x88000000)
pccard0: CIS tuple chain:
CISTPL_DEVICE type=null speed=null
  01 02 00 ff
CISTPL_DEVICE_A type=eeprom speed=250ns
  17 03 41 00 ff
CISTPL_MANFID
  20 04 92 01 55 a5
CISTPL_FUNCID
  21 02 06 00
CISTPL_VERS_1
  15 2a 07 00 53 69 65 72 72 61 20 57 69 72 65 6c
  65 73 73 00 41 69 72 43 61 72 64 20 35 35 35 00
  41 35 35 35 00 52 65 76 20 31 00 ff
CISTPL_CONFIG
  1a 05 01 03 00 07 73
CISTPL_CFTABLE_ENTRY
  1b 09 c1 41 19 01 55 66 30 f8 ff
CISTPL_END
  ff
cis mem map da2be000
CISTPL_LINKTARGET expected, code ff observed
pccard0: check_cis_quirks
pccard0: CIS version PC Card Standard 7.0
pccard0: CIS info: Sierra Wireless, AirCard 555, A555, Rev 1
pccard0: Manufacturer code 0x192, product 0xa555
pccard0: function 0: network adapter, ccr addr 700 mask 73
pccard0: function 0, config table entry 1: I/O card; irq mask fff8;
iomask 6, iospace 0-3f; rdybsy_active io8 io16 irqlevel
pccard0: functions scanning
pccard0: Card has 1 functions. pccard_mfc is 0
pccard0: I/O rid 0 start 0 end ffffffff
pccard0: ccr_res == 88000000-880003ff, base=700
pccard0: function 0 CCR at 0 offset 700: 41 0 0 0, 0 0 0 0, 0
pccard0: <unknown card> (manufacturer=0x0192, product=0xa555) at function 0
pccard0:    CIS info: Sierra Wireless, AirCard 555, A555

This shows the first major issue with getting this working, the fact
that its telling the system its a network card. Now I looked at the
Linux cis info from http://centerclick.org/aircard555/

/etc/pcmcia/cis/aircard555.cis:
dev_info
   no_info
attr_dev_info
   EEPROM 250ns, 512b
manfid 0x013f, 0x0710
funcid serial_port
vers_1 7.0, "Sierra Wireless", "AirCard 555", "A555", "Rev 1"
config base 0x0700 mask 0x0073 last_index 0x03
cftable_entry 0x20 [default]
   io 0x03f8-0x03ff [lines=3] [8bit] [range]
   irq mask 0x3fbc [level]
cftable_entry 0x21
   io 0x02f8-0x02ff [lines=3] [8bit] [range]
cftable_entry 0x22
   io 0x03e8-0x03ef [lines=3] [8bit] [range]
cftable_entry 0x23
   io 0x02e8-0x02ef [lines=3] [8bit] [range]
cftable_entry 0x24
   io 0x0000-0x0007 [lines=3] [8bit]

 From the OSX driver change

// Hack to replace CIS data
cisdump_t cisinfo = { 122,
{ 0x01, 0x01, 0xff, 0x17, 0x03, 0x41, 0x00, 0xff, 0x20, 0x04, 0x3f,
0x01, 0x10, 0x07, 0x21, 0x02, 0x02, 0x00, 0x15, 0x2a, 0x07, 0x00, 0x53,
0x69, 0x65, 0x72, 0x72, 0x61, 0x20, 0x57, 0x69, 0x72, 0x65, 0x6c, 0x65,
0x73, 0x73, 0x00, 0x41, 0x69, 0x72, 0x43, 0x61, 0x72, 0x64, 0x20, 0x35,
0x35, 0x35, 0x00, 0x41, 0x35, 0x35, 0x35, 0x00, 0x52, 0x65, 0x76, 0x20,
0x31, 0x00, 0xff, 0x1a, 0x05, 0x01, 0x03, 0x00, 0x07, 0x73, 0x1b, 0x0b,
0xe0, 0x01, 0x18, 0xa3, 0x60, 0xf8, 0x03, 0x07, 0x30, 0xbc, 0x3f, 0x1b,
0x08, 0xa1, 0x01, 0x08, 0xa3, 0x60, 0xf8, 0x02, 0x07, 0x1b, 0x08, 0xa2,
0x01, 0x08, 0xa3, 0x60, 0xe8, 0x03, 0x07, 0x1b, 0x08, 0xa3, 0x01, 0x08,
0xa3, 0x60, 0xe8, 0x02, 0x07, 0x1b, 0x04, 0xa4, 0x01, 0x08, 0x23, 0x14,
0x00, 0xff, 0x00 } };

Extrapolating from the above, I have come up with the following
equivlant in the standard way that the kernel dumps the cis ( THIS MAY
BE COMPLETELY INCORRECT, AND I WOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF IT WAS )

CIS_TPL_DEVICE
  01 01 FF

CISTPL_DEVICE_A
  17 03 41 00 ff

CISTPL_MANFID
  20 04 3f 01 10 07

CISTPL_FUNCID
  21 02 02 00

CISTPL_VERS_1
  15 2a 07 00 53 69 65 72 72 61 20 57 69 72 65 6c
  65 73 73 00 41 69 72 43 61 72 64 20 35 35 35 00
  41 35 35 35 00 52 65 76 20 31 00 ff

CISTPL_CONFIG
  1a 05 01 03 00 07 73

CISTPL_CFTABLE_ENTRY
  1b 0b e0 01 18 a3 60 f8 03 07 30 bc 3f 1b 09 a1
  01 08 a3 60 f8 02 07 1b 08 a2 01 08 a3 60 e8 03
  07 1b 08 a3 01 08 a3 60 e8 02 07 1b 04 a4 01 08
  23 14 00 ff

CISTPL_END
  NULL??

I have yet to figure out what the changes in CIS_TPL_DEVICE actually do.

I also can't figure out why the MANFID would be changed. I thought
initially this was an attempt to just clone the MANFID from a currently
working modem card. I checked and 0x013f is used by Racore Computer
Products, which doesnt seem to make modem cards. I dont think that
changing MANFID on this card is even useful in this instance, but
anything is possible.

Changing FUNCID from 06 (network) to 02 ( serial ) is straightforward.
One part that I am not sure of ( because I do not know the standard
structures of tuples, is does a FUNCID of 21 02 06 00 mean that its
capable of both network and serial. Im assuming its not because of the
change, but it would make sense if it did.

To make this change, I created the following struct

static struct pccard_function pccard_a555_func0 = {
         0,                      /* function number */
         PCCARD_FUNCTION_SERIAL,
         0x4,                   /* last cfe number */
         0x700,                  /* ccr_base */
         0x73,                   /* ccr_mask */
};

I am not sure that the last cfe number is correct.

The next changes are in the CFTABLE_ENTRY. This seems alot longer than
the standard entry there, and this is where I am confused. I see from
the Linux text cis file, that its creating 5 entries. Since the first (
last? ) byte is 1b, and its repeated 5 times, I'm assuming thats the
start/end of the cftable entry. I can also see where the port addresses
are written, and the entire entry makes perfect sense. What I dont know,
is how to create the pccard_config_entry struct in pccard_cis_quirks to
change the cftables properly. Do I only make a cfe0 ? do I have to make
0-4 because of the 5 different entries?. I tried duplicating it from the
3cxem556 entry and modifying it about 30 times with no success.

I spent an incredibly long time trying to figure out why my changes in
pccarddevs wasnt registering the card, but until I figured out until it
has attached to a driver, its going to show up as <unknown card>

The card is now detected as a serial port, assigned sio4, but because
the cftable entries are not correct / complete, the port and irq
assignments are wrong, the uart is not properly detected, and the system
freezes. If required I can copy the final part of the screen I still see
post lockup, but its just the incorrect port / irq assignments ( which
im assuming what is held in the current CFTABLE ENTRY as its not being
changed properly yet )

Any ideas on what the pccard_config_entry structs should look like in
this case? I have tried going through the NetBSD changes for this file
also, and I can see the changes that were made, but they make little
sense to me because I cant see what the previous CIS looked like to
compare it to, and I also dont have any information on the PCCARD
specifications so this all has been just flying by the seat of my pants.

Thanks alot,
Mike

Linux Fix Website
http://centerclick.org/aircard555/
OSX Fix Patch
http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~snoeren/aircard555.patch