change in iwi-firmware operation

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Altpeter [mailto:frankaltpeter.de] 
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 7:25 AM
To: Wilde, Donald
Cc: freebsd-mobilefreebsd.org
Subject: Re: change in iwi-firmware operation

Hi there,

Wilde, Donald wrote on 2006-05-15 at 15:12:13 CEST:
> Hi, All -
> 
> I have a Centrino (2200G) equipped Dell Inspiron 6000,
and had it 
> working reasonably well with the iwi firmware.
> 
> I just updated to the version in ports as of a few days
ago, and 
> discovered that the firmware won't stay firm.

Sure. The firmware is not permanent. It must be loaded on
boot every
time ...
I'm running ipw which provides an ipw.sh startup script in
$PREFIX/etc/rc.d which has to enabled with
ipw_enable="YES" - i assume
the same fits for iwi driver...
============================================================
============
=

Thanks for the pointer, Frank,

Hmmm. Kinda defeats the meaning of 'firmware', and I'm
going to start
worrying about write-cycles of the FLASH. Dunno what's in a
Centrino
system, (anybody?) although it's likely Intel NOR FLASH,
which should be
good for 100K-cycles. Even so, WHY would one need to load
FLASH every
boot?

No, the iwi.sh did not get installed in /usr/local/etc/rc.d,
although I
did have iwi_enable="YES" in rc.conf. Either
that, or the nice little
helpful routine in mergemaster cleaned it out for me as one
of those
"old" scripts that can cause "Very Bad
Things" to happen...

--
Don Wilde    Org 01737    505-844-1126
 I didn't get a toy train like the other kids. I got a toy
subway
instead. You couldn't see anything, but every now and then
you'd hear
this rumbling noise go by. - Steven Wright

 

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> Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 07:44:34 -0600
> From: "Wilde, Donald" <dwildesandia.gov>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobilefreebsd.org
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frank Altpeter [mailto:frankaltpeter.de] 
> Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 7:25 AM 
> To: Wilde, Donald Cc: freebsd-mobilefreebsd.org
> Subject: Re: change in iwi-firmware operation
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> Wilde, Donald wrote on 2006-05-15 at 15:12:13 CEST: 
> Hi, All - 
>  
>
> I have a Centrino (2200G) equipped Dell Inspiron 6000,
and had it
> working reasonably well with the iwi firmware.  
>  
> I just updated to the version in ports as of a few days
ago, and  
> discovered that the firmware won't stay firm.
> 
> Sure. The firmware is not permanent. It must be loaded
on boot every
> time ...  I'm running ipw which provides an ipw.sh
startup script in
> $PREFIX/etc/rc.d which has to enabled with
ipw_enable="YES" - i
> assume the same fits for iwi driver...
> =========================
> =========================
> =========================
> 
> Thanks for the pointer, Frank,
> 
> Hmmm. Kinda defeats the meaning of 'firmware', and
I'm going to start
> worrying about write-cycles of the FLASH. Dunno what's
in a Centrino
> system, (anybody?) although it's likely Intel NOR
FLASH, which should
> be good for 100K-cycles. Even so, WHY would one need to
load FLASH
> every boot?

It is not hard on the flash as the iwi (and many other newer
cards)
don't have flash at all. They use RAM, which is much less
expensive. It
saves money, but means that the "firmware" must
be loaded after every
power cycle.

It's a real pain and, because of the wording of the
license, the
firmware may not be included in the FreeBSD distribution.
That's why the
port to get the firmware. 

Note that this applies to Intel and Broadcom based cards,
but others do
allow the inclusion of the binary in distributions, so you
don't need to
install a port for the Atheros or most Asian parts.

With margins on these things is razor thin, saving a few
cents on RAM
vs. flash can be the difference between a successful product
and a
failure.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab)
E-mail: obermanes.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
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On Mon, 15 May 2006 07:44:34 -0600
"Wilde, Donald" <dwildesandia.gov> wrote:

> No, the iwi.sh did not get installed in
/usr/local/etc/rc.d, although I
> did have iwi_enable="YES" in rc.conf.
Either that, or the nice little
> helpful routine in mergemaster cleaned it out for me as
one of those
> "old" scripts that can cause "Very
Bad Things" to happen...

Hi 

pkg_info -L iwi-firmware*

will show  that the script installed by the port is
/etc/rc.d/iwi

I had the issue with mergemaster destroying it in the past
(thank god for
backups!), so I had moved it to /usr/local/etc/rc.d/iwi.sh .

Since 6.1 and latest iwi port upgrade (I'm on
iwi-firmware-2.4_7 now) * , i'm
getting more a lot more lockups than before when bringing
the card back up
( usually after a suspend/resume cycle). I'm testing a new
set of custom
scripts to load/unload if_iwi.ko for a full reset and see if
this makes any
different to stability.

* lack of stability could also be caused in my case due to
change of
laptop( from Toshiba Tecra A2 to IBM thinkpad z60m...)

Beto
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