[ltp] T40: installation report

[Joel Ebel]

2 things... First, Fabrice, how did you patch memtest?  I'm also having 
strange problems and I'd like to run memtest on it.  Especially trying 
it on individual modules now.  Do you have a link, or could you send me 
a patch?  Thanks.

Secondly, regarding wireless.  Do NOT get a prism based card, as there 
is nothing prism based that the BIOS will accept.  I just sent an email 
to Ted requestign he remove that line from his page, as I'd rather not 
have mroe people wasting money on a card that won't work.  I got the 
prism card for the T30, and the BIOS Lock out won't let it work.  The 
three authorized cards are the only cards that will work.  I'm going to 
test my theory tonight, but I don't even think that another intel 2100 
card will work if it's not the IBM branded one.  The IBM model has a 
unique FCC ID, and the FCC database refers to the only difference being 
the presence of the BIOS Lock out feature on the IBM model. 
Unfortunately details about the BIOS Lock out are confidential and not 
available in the FCC database.  The only card worth having right now is 
the Cisco card from IBM.  According to Ted, it works well with the cisco 
driver, and hopefully soon it will be supported by the aironet driver. 
6 weeks ago Benjamin Reed made a checking to CVS saying receive was 
workign and Transmit was almost there.

Here's the email I sent to Ted and Klaus regarding my findings about 
wireless.  Many of you may find it itneresting.

Joel

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Klaus and Ted,

I've been doing some research on wireless on the T40, and since both of 
you have pages on the T40, I thought I'd let you know what I've learned. 
  The wireless card that came in my T40 (2373-92U), as well as both of 
yours, is IBM labelled, manufactured by Philips, and uses a Atheros 5211 
chip.  Atheros is being very stingy about details with this device, but 
some development on atheros chips has been done.  Maybe the philips card 
will be supported someday soon.  What is available is maintained here:

http://team.vantronix.net/ar5k/

The other two options are an intel pro/wireless 2100 and a cisco 350. 
The intel card is the centrino wireless card which really has no support 
at the moment.  Apparently intel is guaging internally the value of 
devolping a linux driver or making the info available to do it.  Perhaps 
someday this card will have a driver, but not yet.  I noticed in the FCC 
database that the card uses a symbol chip on it, so I'm curious about 
the similarity between it and the current symbol based cards, or if it 
would be possible to modify the crrent driver to work with it.  Probably 
intel has provided their own firmware, or the symbol chip is completely 
different, and thus no current driver would come close to working.

The Cisco card, which Ted has and is familiar with, is similar to the 
well supported cisco PCI and PCMCIA cards, however, the current aironet 
driver doesn't support it.  Cisco provides linux drivers, but you must 
use their own interface to control it.  The drivers are GPLed, and 
Benjamin Reed stated in the mailing list that he was working on 
including it, but that was in January, and he said he was short on time 
to work on it.  6 weeks ago he made a CVS commit that receive was 
working and transmit is almost there.  Currently though, it seems to be 
only supported by cisco's own drivers and configuration tools.

IBM has done a few unfortunate things with the T40, and most other 
thinkpads for that matter.  First of all, they have a BIOS lock out 
preventing any unauthorized wireless cards from working at all.  They 
say this is for FCC regulations, but there are laptops that have no such 
restriction, so it can't be required by the FCC.  Unfortunately I 
learned about this after I purchased a T30 prism based wireless card. So 
Ted, you may want to remove the note about getting a prism based card. 
It won't work.  There are some actions being taken against IBM to allow 
other cards to work, including Alan Cox mentioning that The Register may 
be interested in the story, but I doubt anything useful will come of it. 
  You can read the conversation in the Linux-Kernel mailing list. 
Lincoln Durey of Emperor Linux began the thread on June 3

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0306.0/0637.html

Secondly, the T40's that come with the philips card use special screws 
they call TR7 that are like a torx with a pin in the middle, to prevent 
it being removed.  I'm sure you've both seen them.  The intel and cisco 
cards don't have this issue.  The right sized flathead screw driver can 
get around this, but it is strange that IBM didn't want us fiddling with 
only the Philips card.

You are welcome to include any of this information on your pages if you 
wish.  And if you like, I can update you if I learn any new information.

Joel Ebel
NC State University,
jbebel@ncsu.edu
http://www.ncsu.edu/resnet/runt