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 You can publish my name, but please do not publish mayemail address.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.