Wireless Network Adapters

This document covers IBM integrated (MiniPCI), Cardbus and PC Card (PCMCIA) Wi-Fi devices.

Finding out which adapter you have

For MiniPCI or Cardbus adapters run the command:

 lspci -n

And compare the PCI IDS with the once below.

MiniPCI adapters

IBM a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter

PCI ID: 168c:1014
Chipset: Atheros
Driver: madwifi
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: MIGR-52623
Users Guide: MIGR-52650
Service Parts: MIGR-52626

IBM a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II

Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: MIGR-57210
Users Guide: MIGR-57217
Service Parts: MIGR-57214

IBM Dual-Band 802.11a/b Wi-Fi Wireless Mini PCI adapter

Chipset: Atheros
Driver: madwifi
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b

IBM 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter

Chipset: Atheros
Driver: madwifi
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b, 802.11g

IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter

PCI ID: 1260:3873
Chipset: Prism 2.5
Drivers: orinoco_pci or hostap
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

Specifications: MIGR-44033
Users Guide: MIGR-44134
Service Parts: MIGR-44051

Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter

PCI ID: 8086:4220
Chipset: Intel
Driver: ipw2200
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: MIGR-54903
Users Guide: MIGR-54910
Service Parts: MIGR-54904

Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI adapter

PCI ID: 8086:1043
Chipset: Intel
Driver: ipw2100
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

Specifications: MIGR-50022
Users Guide: MIGR-50108
Service Parts: MIGR-50032

Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b Mini PCI

PCI ID: 14b9:a504
Chipset: Cisco
Driver: airo
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

Specifications: MIGR-44122
Users Guide: MIGR-44107
Service Parts: MIGR-44128

"Unauthorized" MiniPCI network card

Although the MiniPCI slot is an industry standard and can accept any MiniPCI adapter, the IBM BIOS is set to only allow you to boot with an 'authorized' adapter installed. Attempts to install an unsupported card will result in the following message:

  1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in - Power off and remove the miniPCI network card.

This is because the cards ID(s) (what lspci uses) are checked against a whitelist in the BIOS. IBM's reasoning for this is that the combination of MiniPCI card and the integrated antenna in the ThinkPad needs to be certified by the US FCC (Federal Communications Committee).

Additional Information about "Unauthorised" MiniPCI adapters can be found at: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/thinkpad/

Also see BiosHacking.

Cardbus adapters

Cardbus is a 32bits bus that runs at 33MHz, and is in many ways simular to the PCI bus. In fact under Linux Cardbus adapters are handled by the PCI subsystem.
You can differentiate a PC Card adapter from a Cardbus adapter as the later has a gold coloured grounding strip

IBM 11 a/b/g Wireless Cardbus Adapter

Chipset: Atheros
Driver: madwifi
Supported wireless modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g

Specifications: MIGR-51855
Users Guide: MIGE-51855
Service Parts: MIGR-51874

IBM 802.11a Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter

Supported wireless modes: 802.11a

Specifications: MIGR-42209
Users Guide: MIGR-42233
Service Parts: MIGR-42231

PC Card (PCMCIA) adapters

PC Card or PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) as it used to be called, is an 8 or 16bits bus limited to 8MHz, in many ways simular to the old ISA bus and not suitable for highspeed devices.

Cisco Aironet 350 802.11b wireless PC card with 128bit

Chipset: Cisco
Driver: airo_cs
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b

IBM High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card

Chipset: Prism 2.5
Drivers: orinoco_pci or hostap
Supported wireless modes: 802.11b