Thinkpad T41 and intel 2200 wireless miniPCI

[Candid]

Some time gone and now the glitch gets me again.

What happened?

I had to reinstall WLAN driver and Access Connections. For some reason I cannot work anymore with Access Connections 3.30 which I successfully patched to be able to use IBMs tools to enable/disable WLAN card.

So I installed the current version 3.71 and did the necessarry patches which works fine.

The Fn+F5-Tool from IBM shows me the WLAN card but I cannot disable radio. When I disable the WLAN card with the Fn+F5-Tool Access Connections activates the card again. Normally, with AccessConnections 3.30 I got a confirmation sound when enabling/disabling and the card was on or off. With AccessConnections 3.71 I do not get this confirmation sound and the card is always on.

Any suggestions for this nice IBM feature?

PS: Concerning the LED I did not get it working ;(

 

[mibas]

I use patched ver. 3.71 and it works fine.
But to be honest - currently I prefer Intel PROset/Wireless software.

Michal

 

[Candid]

Can you please tell me which bytes you patched?

 

[WhiteHeat]

I found something dealing with Toshiba laptops but it may work for you IBM gang:

Toshiba phone support has recommended this hack to get the LED and RF Kill switch working:
* Cover pins 11 and 13 on your mini-pci wireless card (even pins are on the bottom side, the odd are on the top. For orientation, the "top" of the card is where you plug the two antenna in.)
* While facing the "top" of the card count to pin 11 and 13. (from the "cut" in the card over, don't forget to count the lone pin as well "1,2") cover both pins 11 and 13 with finger nail polish. Let it dry, replace the card, start your laptop, and you should be able to configure it from there.

Hope this helps...

 

[WhiteHeat]

Anyone try this? ^^^^

 

[longu]

I did. I tried finger nail polish and adhesive tape but LED still doesn't light on my R40 ;-(.
Greetings.

 

[SuperFreaky]

I have an nc4000 and am trying to follow these instructions (1/2way down the page).

Knoppix can't read from the stupid USB cd-rom! It will start to load and then "Can't find Knoppix filesystem, sorry." Error comes up.

Anybody know a linux distro that might work?

 

[SuperFreaky]

I finally got it working, by using a different laptop and knoppix 3.8. A intel 2200bg mini-pci in my HPNC4000

Here's how:

First off if you don't have linux installed you will need to go to www.knoppix.org and download KNOPPIX_V3.8.2-2005-05-05-EN.iso, then burn the cd

You need to have the card install during the boot sequence so, have your laptop open and bootup, when you see the boot:_ line insert the card then press enter. Knoppix will autodetect the card & the bios wont complain.

Once knoppix has booted:

Click on the penguin on the taskbar and select "Root Shell", then the following command (from now on any line that begins with a # is a command to be typed at the Root prompt:
#iwconfig
You will get a list of ethernet adapters, eth0, eth1 etc. The wireless one should be quite obvious from the text displayed after it with all the wireless parameters!
#ethtool -e ethX
Obviously replace the 'X' with the index of your wireless card you found above.
You will get a hex dump of the 256 bytes of EEPROM data.
Note: There is nothing dangerous in the above steps at all.

If you want to writing to your EEPROM (You can seriously screw your card up so be careful ):

#mkdir /usr/tmp
#cd /usr/tmp
#wget http://www.geocities.com/sonyirclib/ipw2200.tar.gz
>

N.B. This file has already been patched to allow writing to the eeprom

#tar xvzf ipw2200.tar.gz
#cd ipw2200-1.0.3
#sh unload
#sh load

Now all that you need to do is write to the eeprom. If your card is from Europe:

#ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0x8 value 0xf6
#ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0x9 value 0x12
#ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0xa value 0x3c
#ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0xb value 0x10

If it is from the US:

ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0x8 value 0xf5
ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0x9 value 0x12
ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0xa value 0x3c
ethtool -E eth0 magic 0x2200 offset 0xb value 0x10

N.B. the -E must be uppercase for writing to work.

Now reboot your computer and you should no longer get the error 104...

 

[phideauxx]

Ok so I have a Thinkpad T42, and installed an Intel 2200BG card after applying the no1802 and it works fine. I then modified the qcon.dll and the TPFnF5C.exe files to make the Fn f5 thinger work. It pretends to work but it really doesn't. It says the radios are turned off and the connection is lost for about 5 seconds, then it reconnects. Did I do something wrong or is there something else I need to do?

 

[fantomex]

hello, this thread is cool =) i have a little bit diffrent problem - i have "genuine IBM" 2200bg, but it's locked for the NA region (so called MoW - Most Of The World) - i've been trying the CMOS patch you've menitoned here... will post tomorrow how to make it working with latest knoppix with no extra hassle =) - but changing the PCIID (or OEMID or VENDORID whatever) didn't help (i've changed from 2711 to 2712, which is RoW card)... i think (and hope) that the problem can be solved somewhere in the "forbidden area" 0x40+... can someone supply me with some reliable "XOR counter" =)) so i can start testing? =)) ... going to bed =)


EDIT: ah-ha =) seems like these patched drivers should have the crc checksum counter build in =) great =) gotta check that out =)))

i got my US card working in EUROPE (channels 12,13) - check this tutorial out =)

http://fx.cz/sklad/intel/

 

[mips]

I have a HP nx6110 & Intel 2200BG wireless card. OS is Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy) linux.

When I try and do the "sh load" I get the following error:

user@asterix:~/tmp/ipw2200-1.0.3$ sudo sh load
No modules unloaded.
insmod: error inserting './ieee80211_crypt.ko': -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting './ieee80211_crypt_wep.ko': -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting './ieee80211_crypt_tkip.ko': -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting './ieee80211_crypt_ccmp.ko': -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting './ieee80211.ko': -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting './ipw2200.ko': -1 Invalid module format
No modules loaded.
user@asterix:~/tmp/ipw2200-1.0.3$

How can I fix this, i'm not using the Knoppix CD but my default Ubuntu OS, Any help would be appreciated.

I've also tried the Knoppix 3.8.2 LiveCD and if I use that I get all zeros when I issue the ethtool -e et0 command. This is inserting the card before hitting enter at the boot:_ prompt. Ubuntu livecd did the same though.

With Ubuntu Breezy installed I can access the eeprom but cannot do sh load...

Please HELP !

 

[roedi]

@jmedina98 @glotzi
Same thing here (R32&Intel 2200BG), I suppose things are working differently on the R32.
I had a look at a bios dump from the R32 and it differs a lot from
the example you can find on the web. Nevertheless I found something
that I consider to be the whitelist, but I'm frightened damage my laptop
just to get this card running.
Nevertheless there is no real hardware-problem since the wlan adapter works fine
if you insert it when the system is suspended.

br

 

[mips]

Ok, problem solved.

Nothing I tried on my nx6110 would work with the knoppix solution above.

I eventually borrowed a friends nx9010, loaded the knoppix cd, followed the procedure without any problems. Reinstalled the 2200BG into my nx6110 and no more error 104 !!!

Thanks for this solution, I now have very cheap wireless LAn that works

Cheers
mips

 

[mips]

Originally posted by: roedi
@jmedina98 @glotzi
Same thing here (R32&Intel 2200BG), I suppose things are working differently on the R32.
I had a look at a bios dump from the R32 and it differs a lot from
the example you can find on the web. Nevertheless I found something
that I consider to be the whitelist, but I'm frightened damage my laptop
just to get this card running.
Nevertheless there is no real hardware-problem since the wlan adapter works fine
if you insert it when the system is suspended.

br

Instead of editing your BIOS why dont you edit the wireless cards eeprom ?

 

[roedi]

Originally posted by: mips
Instead of editing your BIOS why dont you edit the wireless cards eeprom ?

Yes I'm currently thinking about this, seems I have to read this thread
again deeply. The problem is, that even IBMs version of the 2200bg is not
whitelisted. This means i have to patch the driver files an the eeprom, right?
Might be worth a try, nevertheless its really unlikely that what i found is not the whitelist,
since i found exaclty the ids of the cards officially accepted for the r32..

thanks for the hint,

Carsten

 

[roedi]

 

[roedi]

Sorry for the empty reply. I tried to get my hands on the cards eeprom data but
sadly, knoppix reboots after waking up from standby (#echo mem > /sys/power/state)
so the reinsert trick doesn't work :-(. Do you have any ideas?

tia

 

[mips]

Have the cd in the drive when the laptop is off.
Open the door where the wireless card is supposed to go.
Insulate the antenna connectors.
Balance the laptop on its side so you have easy access to the mini-PCI slot. This is easiest done with the display open at 90deg angle.
Switch the laptop on
Wait for the bios screen to pass and insert the card before the knoppix boot promp appears.
I have found you could actually insert the card before switching on as long as you keep it at the largest angle from the motherboard and once pass the BIOS screen just press it down so it latches into place.

 

[roedi]

Originally posted by: mips
Wait for the bios screen to pass and insert the card before the knoppix boot promp appears.
I have found you could actually insert the card before switching on as long as you keep it at the largest angle from the motherboard and once pass the BIOS screen just press it down so it latches into place.

Nice, this really does the trick . But I'd have to patch the card to a cisco aironet or so
to let it be accepted by my r32 and i still have doubts this will work with the windows drivers. I think I'll have to check out, whether its possible to load the patched linux module after having altered the whole identifier in order to undo my changes afterwards.
What do you think?

 

[mips]

Just to clarify,

Which wireless card do you have. Give me the full make and model.
The laptop is an IBM R32, what BIOS type and version is it using ?

I dont see anything positive on the R32 so far.
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/wireless.html
http://www.paul.sladen.org/thinkpad-r31/wifi-card-pci-ids.html

Could you possibly follow the info on the Paul Sladen website just to get a dump of your BIOS looking for what they specify so we can have a look at it ? Dont go writing anything just yet. You should be able to find the two cards, Cisco & something else in there.

I will do some research and come back to you.

 

[blackomegax]

fantomex

thanks for the channel hack. you need to let google crawl that

 

[roedi]

Originally posted by: mips
Just to clarify,

Which wireless card do you have. Give me the full make and model.
The laptop is an IBM R32, what BIOS type and version is it using ?

Could you possibly follow the info on the Paul Sladen website just to get a dump of your BIOS looking for what they specify so we can have a look at it ? Dont go writing anything just yet. You should be able to find the two cards, Cisco & something else in there.

I will do some research and come back to you.

Hi,

Thank you for your help. I already made a BIOS dump using winphlash and found an area which I suppose to be the whitelist, I'll post the dump, the BIOS version and the
full information about the wireless card this evening.
Btw, does anyone know how the flag patched by the no-1802 patch was discovered?
I wonder if such a flag can be found in the r32 cmos data, too. Somehow I'd feel
much safer editing CMOS data instead of reflashing my BIOS .

br

 

[mips]

I dont own a Thinkpad but is there a way to restore the BIOS should it get corrupted ?

 

[roedi]

Originally posted by: mips
I dont own a Thinkpad but is there a way to restore the BIOS should it get corrupted ?

I'm not shure, but i don't think so. I'm browsing the ibm support site to find a
hint on this. The notebook is a 2658-bjg, the wireless card is a intel pro/wireless 2200bg that reports with the identifier 20 42 86 80 02 27 86 80 in the eeprom. The Bios version is the latest from ibm, I have a dump but i don't think its sensible to post half a meg of data here.
The interesting part I found starts at 0xdae4 and reads:
FF 60 12 73 38 68 16 06 04 00 60 12 73 38 86 80 13 25 00 B9 14 04 A5 B9 14 00 50 01 00
where 60 12 73 38 68 16 06 04, 60 12 73 38 86 80 13 25, B9 14 04 A5 B9 14 00 50 are exactly the cards allowed for the r32.

 

[mips]

I pm'ed you.

In the meantime I'll see what I can come up wrt R32 bios restoration should something go wrong.

I recommend you get the standard BIOS disk so long, http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-43572

Alos found this service manual, ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/02r2914.pdf