if_wpi will not work for me

[knowtree at aloha.com]

> My notebook is HP Compaq nc2400 running FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE
> 
> kldload if_wpi give me
> Mar 18 10:29:34 juba kernel: wpi0: <Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG> mem 
> 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci8
> Mar 18 10:29:34 juba kernel: wpi0: could not allocate memory resource
> Mar 18 10:29:34 juba kernel: device_attach: wpi0 attach returned 6
> 
> and ifconfig show no wpi0
> 
> I have not seen this behaviour mentioned before, so could anyone 
> give me some hints, please?
> 
> mvh
> 
> johan

I have been describing related problems in a different thread, but it might
help others if I join this one.

Before I go on, a big mahalo (thanks) to everyone with advice on how to get
my Lucent Gold wifi card working better. Much better now.

My Dell Latitude D830 has a built-in wifi interface which Dennis Melentyev
said might work with the wpi driver. I followed his advice and the
instructions on the wpi man page, but no luck yet.

Here is my entire /boot/loader.conf file, which includes stuff for the
sound card (which does not send output through the built-in speakers, which
is not much of a loss).

sound_load="YES"
snd_hda_load="YES"
# enable ATAPI/CAM driver for CD-ROM
atapicam_load="YES"
# enable wpi wireless driver for Dell internal
legal.intel_wpi.license_ack=1
if_wpi_load="YES"
wlan_load="YES"
wlan_amrr_load="YES"
firmware_load="YES"
wpifw_load="YES"

Does it matter what sequence these come in?

Here the output of kldstat:

Id Refs Address    Size     Name
 1   19 0xc0400000 926ed4   kernel
 2    2 0xc0d27000 4a5ac    sound.ko
 3    1 0xc0d72000 14324    snd_hda.ko
 4    1 0xc0d87000 4d20     atapicam.ko
 5    1 0xc0d8c000 f140     if_wpi.ko
 6    1 0xc0d9c000 25f60    wpifw.ko
 7    1 0xc0dc2000 6a1c4    acpi.ko
 8    1 0xc5987000 22000    linux.ko

I noticed some things not listed, wlan, wlan_amrr, and firmware. Just for
fun I tried loading them manually, and got this:

# kldload wlan.ko
kldload: can't load wlan.ko: File exists

The other two, wlan_amrr, and firmware, do the same. I suspect that means
those modules are configured into the kernel. ???

When the system boots I see no sign of activity from wpi0. It does not
appear in /var/run/dmesg.boot or /var/log/messages. Is there a log file for
loader.conf?

The computer has an LED that is on in Windows (it comes on about half way
through the boot sequence), but remains off when I boot into FreeBSD from
power-on. The slider switch on the side of the computer does not switch on
the radio. If I go into Windows, then restart and select FreeBSD, the LED
remains on but with no change, still nothing in the logs or in the output
of ifconfig.

I can load and unload if_wpi without error.

I added this to /etc/rc.conf:

network_interfaces=bge0 wi0 wpi0

to try to force recognition of wpi0 but no change. (bge0 is the built-in
wired Ethernet NIC.)

Any suggestions?

Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project