[ltp] Cisco firmware again

[Joel Ebel]

I do use Fabrice's driver already, and no, it doesn't work with the 
latest firmwares.  It at least loads, but nothing works.  The cisco 
driver, on the other hand, segfaults if you try to load it with a newer 
firmware, so there's no way to load firmware in linux if you don't 
already have 5.00.03 installed.  It does make me wonder if I could find 
a way to make windows downgrade the firmware when shutting down though. 
  Anyone know if there's a way to do that?  I'd be a little worried 
about wearing it out by loading firmware twice for every windows session 
though.

Thanks for the help,
Joel

Dimitris Kogias wrote:
> Hi Joel,
> 
> Cisco's Linux driver - mpi350 - does allow you to
> update the firmware.  I haven't run ACU under Linux
> for ages so I don't remember whether it's a
> command-line utility or you have to do it through ACU.
> 
> The Windows driver will auto-update to the newest
> firmware when it initializes.  There is actually an
> option in the Windows ACU that toggles this feature.
> 
> Given the above, you might be able to let the Windows
> driver do its auto-update and, under Linux, run a
> command-line utility before bringing up the interface
> that loads the older, Linux-friendly firmware before
> loading the driver.
> 
> All of the above assume you're using Cisco's Linux
> driver, mpi350.  I haven't used that for a while, I'm
> now using Fabrice Bellet's airo_mpi which, at least on
> my X31, works flawlessly with the 5b.00.08 firmware on
> the card.  Much better choice IMO, no need for the
> cruddy ACU, works with the standard wireless-tools. 
> If you haven't already, perhaps you should try using
> that driver instead.  It may simply work with the
> latest firmware and all will be good.  Fabrice's
> driver can be found at
> http://bellet.info/~bellet/laptop/.
> 
> One caveat, do NOT try updating the firmware under
> Linux using airo_mpi.  Use the Cisco driver instead.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Dimitris.
> --- Joel Ebel <jbebel@ncsu.edu> wrote:
> 
>>I've got a problem with my Cisco wireless card.  It
>>works ok in Linux 
>>using firmware 5.00.03, and it works great in
>>Windows XP using newer 
>>firmwares, but as many of you know, the newer
>>firmwares don't work with 
>>Linux.  My problem is that the older firmwares
>>aren't working well in 
>>Windows.  I've even tried installing older drivers
>>to match the 5.00.03 
>>firmware in Windows, but still, every few hours, my
>>wireless will stop 
>>working, and if I don't shutdown on my own very
>>quickly, I will actually 
>>get a blue screen.  I realize this is an issue with
>>Windows, and a 
>>Windows driver, and this is a Linux list, but only
>>Linux users would 
>>respect the need to use the older firmwares.  Anyone
>>else would just say 
>>"Upgrade your firmware."  And don't tell me to stop
>>using Windows.  I'd 
>>like to.  I respect Linux just as much as the rest
>>of you, but I still 
>>have reasons I must use Windows on occasion.
>>
>>My question is just if anyone else has experience
>>this, and what you did 
>>about it?  Have other people not had problems using
>>5.00.03 in Windows 
>>XP?  It seems like a pretty serious problem, so I'm
>>surprised Cisco 
>>would have a released firmware that does this.  I
>>guess I just wish 
>>Cisco would provide more details so we could have
>>good linux drivers 
>>that work with the newer firmwares.
>>
>>Joel
>>-- 
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