New trouble with wi(4) & AP discovery

[Gary E. RAFE, Ph.D.]

Now that we've determined how to get our WiFi NICs to "discover"
available access points, I set about to let dstumbler run on the
interface for a little while.

After a few minutes, the following dstumbler error message appeared:

  error: unable to ioctl device socket: Operation not supported by device

and the following messages were issued by the kernel:

  wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0002; event status 0x8000
  wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0000; event status 0x8000
  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

after which the internal MiniPCI WiFi card
[a TOSHIBA Wireless LAN Card, Lucent Firmware: Station (8.72.1)]
became unusable.
A search of mailing list archives suggests that this is likely
related to the NIC firmware, particulary when scanning for APs.

So, a few more questions for the list:

1) Anyone seen a firmware upgrade for this MiniPCI/chipset ?
   The latest firmware I can locate for thie chipset seems to
   come from Dec 2002 (Avaya's SR02-01), which appears to be
   what's currently on the NIC.

2) I suspect that an APM suspend/resume cycle will bring the
   MiniPCI WiFi card back, though what if it's not convenient to
   do that just now (e.g., in the middle of a long "make") ?
   Does NEWCARD offer [like OLDCARD did with pccardc(8)]
   a way to cycle the power to a specific PCCARD slot,
   which essentially detaches/re-attaches the device in that slot ?

3) Where is the MiniPCI card in the Satellite Pro 6100, anyway ?!
   None of the openings in the case bottom has what looks like a
   MiniPCI WiFi card in them, and I'd be interested in swapping
   this card for one with an Intersil Prism chipset.

In the meantime, our USR2410 PCCARD on wi1 has been running
dstumbler without complaint for over an hour...
--
Gary E. RAFE, Ph.D.	<mailto:rafege at mail.com>
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