Firmware -- where does it go?

Forum: Networking
Topic: Firmware -- where does it go?
started by: cconly

Posted by cconly on Oct. 16 2006,16:57

I have a wifi card that uses the prism54 drivers. When DSL boots, I see a message from prism54 saying it couldn't load the card's firmware.

I have the firmware (tested on my Suse 10.1 partition on the same laptop, so I know it works). Where should I put it so DSL can find it on boot? Is there a boot script that I need to modify?

Thanks.

cc, Seattle

PS: I should add that I'm using a frugal instal on hda6. DSL 2.4.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Oct. 16 2006,17:14

Can you paste the exact output when you type in

Code Sample

# modprobe prism54

Also, which NIC model/chipset do you have?

Posted by cconly on Oct. 17 2006,00:51

Thanks for answering.

When I type "sudo modprobe prism54" (and hit enter) there is no output. I think this means that the prism54 module is already loaded.

If I do "lsmod" I get this:
prism54 38716 0
firmware_class 3388 0 [prism54]

By comparison, I get this with Suse 10.1 (which, you remember, is on the same PC and works correctly):
prism54 47880 0
firmware_class 9856 2 pcmcia,prism54

The wifi card is not pcmcia, by the way, but is built in and on the pci bus.

As for the chipset, lspci -v gives me this:
0000:00:06.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette] (rev 01)
Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp.: Unknown device 0210
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 4
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

(And lspci under Suse says the same.)

I'd like to be sure we're talking about the same thing. In order to make Suse work, I copied the firmware that I found on the Net into a specific directory: /lib/firmware. Before that Suse gave me the same message at boot that I now see with DSL, namely, "unable to load firmware" (or words to that effect).

What I wonder is whether with Debian (and DSL) there is not some comparable directory, or alternatively a parameter to use in a startup script to tell prism54 and firmware_class where to load the firmware from.

Thanks again for your help.

Chris

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Oct. 17 2006,15:01

Sure, you could try that directory.

If you still want to post your error output, you can use 'rmmod' to unload those modules then use 'modprobe' again.

Did you check out prism54.org? See < http://prism54.org/fullmac.html >

Posted by cconly on Oct. 17 2006,15:49

Both good ideas, thanks. I'll do them. (I'd forgotten about rmmod.)

Chris