wpi error: bus_dmamem_alloc failed to align memory properly

[Benjamin Close]

vittorio wrote:
> Context: HP laptop DV6000, centrino duo, FreeBSD 7.0-BETA4
> When loading if_wpi I get the following line saying that "bus_dmamem_alloc 
> failed to align memory properly"
> <SNIP>
> wpi0: <Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG> mem 0xd8000000-0xd8000fff irq 16 at 
> device 0.0 on pci2
> bus_dmamem_alloc failed to align memory properly.
> last message repeated 30 times
> wpi0: Ethernet address: 00:19:d2:99:e3:cb
> wpi0: [ITHREAD]
> wpi0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> wpi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
> wpi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 
> 36Mbps 48Mbps 54
> </SNIP>
>
> Therefore I'm unable to make wpi0 work at all.
>
> Could you please tell me what should I do?
>
> Ciao, Vittorio
>
>   
The bus_dmamem_alloc message is harmless in your case. Due to 
limitations in the freebsd allocator, sometimes requesting a 16k aligned 
block of dma memory fails. As a temporary work around the wpi driver 
reattempts the allocation. If it truely does fail you'll not get a wpi0 
device showing up, which clearly you did :).

These warning messages will go away when I sync the next lot of updates 
to the driver which aren't quite ready yet.

Can you describe a little more what you mean by wpi doesn't work?

Cheers,
    Benjamin
    wpi driver maintainer