Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 15:02:54 -0500 From: Walter <walterk1@earthlink.net> To: Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: Buffalo/Broadcom wireless N card Message-ID: <482C96EE.1070206@earthlink.net> In-Reply-To: <4820F2FF.4050503@earthlink.net> References: <4820F2FF.4050503@earthlink.net>
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Walter wrote: > I'm trying to compile support for a wireless router into FBSD 7 > using instructions off a FBSD help page I can't locate just now. > (I'm working on building a network bridge.) > > none0@pci0:0:10:0: class=0x028000 card=0x03531154 chip=0x432914e4 > rev=0x01 hdr=0x00 > vendor = 'Broadcom Corporation' > device = 'BCM43XNG 802.11n Network Adapter' > class = network > > When it boots in the machine which has the card (I compiled > on another computer) it blows out with a kernel error (writing > not a non-existent page, I think) when the device shows up. > It shows as device bge0 but identified as BCM 5701 (iirc). > > Can someone point me in the right direction? Has anyone > gotten this card to work? > With help from the List I got this to work: The answer, maybe not the BEST answer, but the answer that works, is to use the Windows XP driver and FBSD's 'ndis'. My goal was to build a FBSD router with wireless access to my COTS wireless router to provide network access in another part of the house. Get the driver files (.sys & .inf) either from the CD that came with the card or from the Buffalo web site: http://www.buffalotech.com/support/downloads/ Then, per instructions from the Handbook (11.8.2) http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html run 'ndisgen' on the driver files: # ndisgen netg300n.inf cbg300n.sys A .ko file will be generated: cbg300n_sys.ko. It can be loaded using 'kldload ./cbg300n_sys.ko' but I wanted it loaded at boot. So, as 11.8.2 says, copy this file to /boot/modules and add the following line to /boot/loader.conf: cbg300n_sys_load="YES" Also, as I wanted WPA encryption, I added two other lines to loader.conf: wlan_ccmp_load="YES" wlan_tkip_load="YES" The wireless setup instructions are in the handbook section 29; http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html Then in /etc/rc.conf add this: ifconfig_ndis0="WPA DHCP" The device 'ndis0' is created by the ndis driver when it handles a Windows driver. I guess if you have more than one Windows device and driver you get to sort out the various ndis0/1/2/3/4/5/etc. If you don't want WPA just use "DHCP" and you don't need the two extra lines above in loader.conf. For WPA you need to create the WPA config file: /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf: network={ ssid="<your wireless network name>" psk="<your personal access key>" } Somehow, it all magically started working. (No doubt due to the hard work of many FBSD coders.) I hope I didn't leave out any major part. I'm posting this not only so other can benefit if they run into a similar problem, but in case this box burns (HD fails) I'll have a record of what I did to recreate it. <g> Thank you again to those that helped. Walter
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