Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:31:41 +0100 From: Gökhan Akca To: jsun@junsun.net Subject: success story IBM Thinpad R32 MiniPci Organization: http://freemail.web.de/ Hello junsun, here is my success story. You can publish my name, but please do not publish mayemail address. Please note that the netgate driver does not upgrade the firmware as told by Post (losiu@post.pl). first of all, thanks to junsun and all those who have published their success and failure stories. It is essential to share these experiences. This is my success story with the following components: IBM Thinkpad R32 (2658-BQG) This notebook has a WLAN Mini PCI Combo Card with PRISM 2.5 Chipset integrated. HEX files used: PK010101.HEX SF010704.HEX before upgrade: NICID: id=0×8013 v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) Mini-PCI (SST parallel flash)) PRIID: id=0×0015 v1.1.0 STAID: id=0×001f v1.3.6 (station firmware) after upgrade NICID: id=0×8013 v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) Mini-PCI (SST parallel flash)) PRIID: id=0×0015 v1.1.1 STAID: id=0×001f v1.7.4 (station firmware) driver with WPA support used after firmware upgrade: fujitsu-siemens lifebook P2120 Detailed Version: ============ 1. Firmware Diagnostics under Windows I installed the PRISM WinUpdate tool which is included in the PRISM test utilities. When I ran the WinUpdate tool and selected query firmware version I got the following information: Firmware version: 1.4.9 Although I could not backup the current firmware, I decided to run the firmware upgrade under windows using the prism flash tool. The software hung. So I followed the instructions on http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/windupdate-QnA.html and disabled the firmware download feature in the hardware manager and got a bluescreen (the first time ever under Windows XP!). So I followed the hint provided by Post (losiu@post.pl) who states that the firmware is automatically upgraded when using the netgate driver. After overriding my original IBM drivers with the netgate drivers, the PRISM diagnostic tool indeed displayed a higher firmware version. But WPA still did not work. So I installed my old IBM drivers again and ran again the PRISM diagnostic tool.Big surprise: the firmware looked like downgraded again although I was sure the IBM drivers did not include any firmware files. So I assumed that the diagnositc tool did not tell the truth. Further I was confused when I saw an obvious older firmware version (1.04.02.01)on the IBM site (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-40236) since I bought my notebook before 2003 but had a more recent firmware version. Why should IBM release a firmware that is older than mine? Perhaps the hostap_utils would provide me the true information. 2. Firmware Diagnostics under Linux - the only correct way Since I didn't want to install a Linux system on my notebook, I used the linux live cd Knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/). Download the host_utils, unzip, and compile by typing make in the console. Don'tforget to run that make file as root user by typing make within the directory that contains the file named "make". Novices: Don't fear linux. It is extremely easy to compile and use the hostap_diag tool. Run the hostap_diag tool typing $ hostap_diag wifi0 The diag tool provided me the following information: NICID: id=0×8013 v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) Mini-PCI (SST parallel flash)) PRIID: id=0×0015 v1.1.0 STAID: id=0×001f v1.3.6 (station firmware) So this was the proof that the PRISM diagnostic tool is displaying useless information - retrieved from the driver instead of directly from the firmware itself. Further this meant that the firmware provided by IBM was more recent than mine (that made sense!). I was not able to compile prism2_srec because the Knoppix Linux live CD did not contain the linux source files. So I decided first to upgrade to that newer IBM firmware version under Windows and see what happens. 3. Upgrading under Windows Upgrading to the newer IBM firmware was easy: I just had to run the exe file andeverything else (reboot and firmware flash) worked automatically. I was a little bit afraid of upgrading to the unofficial firmware because I was not able to create an image of the current firmware neither under DOS nor Windows. Further the IBM Mini PCI Combo card is a WLAN and modem combo card. So what would happen if the upgrade failed? Would it still be possible to use the modem? And what would happen if the unofficial firmware would overwrite my modemfirmware? Nevertheless, I decided to apply the unofficial firmware upgrade sinceI still had that original firmware from the IBM site. This time the PRISM firmware flash tool worked correctly - no bluescreen. But again I followed the instruction for disabling firmware download. It seems that the new IBM firmware corrected some symptoms so that a firmware flash was possible, now. 4. Recheck firmware version under Linux I ran again the hostap_diag tool under linux. This time I got the following information: NICID: id=0×8013 v1.0.0 (PRISM II (2.5) Mini-PCI (SST parallel flash)) PRIID: id=0×0015 v1.1.1 STAID: id=0×001f v1.7.4 (station firmware) So this time the firmware was really upgraded. 5. Activate WPA under Windows Since the original IBM drivers do not support WPA regardless of the firmware version, I had to install the fujitsu-siemens PRISM driver with WPA support. I was able to connect to a network that used WPA. Note that you need Windows XP SP2 for using WPA. SP1 has no WPA support. My modem still works fine. It is not affected by the PRISM firmware upgrade. 6. Drawbacks - Since I do not use original IBM WLAN drivers anymore, I cannot use IBM Access Connections for switching wireless networks. - I cannot disable the WLAN adapter by selecting "disable" from the adapters contextmenu under Windows. I always get the error message that the adapter is inuse and cannot be disabled right now. If I had spent that flashing time on a customer's project, I would have gained enough money to buy an adapter that supports WPA ex works. But by flashing manually you experience a glorious satisfaction.