NICID, firmware, etc.

[llewelly at xmission.com]

I have an 'Instant wireless' pc card, which FreeBSD 5.2 detects:

    wi0: <Instant Wireless   Network PC CARD> at port 0x100-0x13f irq 11
         function 0 config 1 on pccard0
    wi0: 802.11 address: 00:06:25:51:ff:eb
    wi0: using RF:PRISM2 MAC:HFA3841 CARD:HWB3163 rev.A
    wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary (0.3.0), Station (0.7.6)
    wi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
    wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0121; event status 0x8000
    wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0121; event status 0x8000
    wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x000a; event status 0x8000
    wi0: failed to allocate 2372 bytes on NIC
    wi0: tx buffer allocation failed (error 12)
    wi0: interface not running
    wi0: wi_cmd: busy bit won't clear.
    wi0: init failed
    wi0: failed to allocate 2372 bytes on NIC
    wi0: tx buffer allocation failed (error 12)
    wi0: interface not running

Despite the complaints, I can ifconfig it, and ping the IP address I
    give it from the box it's installed in. I don't know if it will
    talk to another card wirelessly, because I don't have any other
    (working) computers with wireless.

I pulled this card out of a 3-year old linksys BEFW11S4 version 1,
    which will still route and switch, but can't seem to communicate
    wirelessly. When I put the 'instant wireless' prism2 card back in
    the linksys, I plug an actiontec prism2.5 card into my fbsd box
    and ifconfig it, but I get 'status: no carrier'. My actiontec
    works fine with a friend's laptop. (Sorry, I don't know what kind
    of wireless card he had, it 'just worked'.)

I've already tried updating the firmware on the linksys, but that
    didn't fix anything. More, it did not update the firmware on the
    card. (the card has seperate firmware.) So my next try at fixing
    this piece of old hardware is going to be updating the card's
    firmware, and then plugging it back into into the box.

However my only machine with a pc card slot has FreeBSD as its only
    installed OS, and I don't have space to install another OS.

I've been reading http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/ , which is
    naturally linux-centric, and it's been somewhat helpful, but I'm
    not running linux. (I would if I had space for it, but ...)

So has anyone tried running the linux tools for updating the firmware
    under freeBSD's linux compatibility layer?

I'm installing linux_base-8 for the first time as I send this.