Error 1802: IBM T41 doesn't like other network cards

[Phillip Crumpler]

Hello hackers,

Wanting to try out Sam Leffler's wireless layer back-port I tried to
replace the Intel miniPCI wireless card in my Thinkpad T41 (2373) with
an Atheros based one. I had a Netgear WAG311 handy - these are an
Atheros miniPCI wireless NIC on a PCI carrier - so I levered the top off
and freed the miniPCI card.

Ten minutes of open-notebook surgery later I started the machine with
the replacement card in, only to find it won't boot:

ERROR
1802 Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the
miniPCI card.

It seems that the IBM BIOS refuses to boot if the miniPCI card installed
is on IBM's approved list. This thread:

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.1/1048.html

describes a workaround that requires a byte to be set in the cmos,
including a snippet (below) to do the job on linux. This opens and
writes to /dev/nvram to set the byte.

Is there an equivalent on FreeBSD? Would I find the CMOS somewhere in
/dev/mem?

Anyone else has similar problems? BMS@ reported ditching the Centrino
card in his T40 but didn't mention if he replaced it with something else.

thanks

Phillip Crumpler

============================================================

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

int main(void)
{
int fd;
unsigned char data;

printf("Disabling WiFi whitelist check.\n");
fd = open("/dev/nvram", O_RDWR);
lseek(fd, 0x5c, SEEK_SET);
read(fd, &data, 1);
printf("CMOS address 0x5c: %02x->", data);
data |= 0x80;
printf("%02x\n", data);
lseek(fd, 0x5c, SEEK_SET);
write(fd, &data, 1);
close(fd);
printf("Done.\n");
}
_______________________________________________
freebsd...@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hacke...@freebsd.org"

[Bruce M Simpson]

Hi,

On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 09:57:25PM +1000, Phillip Crumpler wittered thus:

> Anyone else has similar problems? BMS@ reported ditching the Centrino
> card in his T40 but didn't mention if he replaced it with something else.

I used an official IBM Atheros part, so I didn't run into this problem.

> http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.1/1048.html

The quickest way to do this is to use the DOS program linked to above.

Porting the CMOS code to FreeBSD is fairly trivial for someone who knows,
though, but you probably don't want to wait.

BMS