Talk:Problem with unauthorized MiniPCI network card

Solution for T43, T6x

I hope I'm not breaking rules of this page. I've researched quite a lot on this topic and tried to solve it by editing BIOS. There are quite a lot obstacles, but in the end, I think I've succeeded. Though I'm not exactly that sure to risk a perfectly working machine, so I'd like to ask if anyone has a T43/T6x (perhaps with some motherboard issues, which allow it to power up, but it's unusable for work) which could be flashed with the modified BIOS to see if it still boots up. Thanks for any reply to ender@pikachu.cz (or here).

Affected Models

I am unsure about which models this applies to. I have seen reports of this problem affecting a T41p, T43, X40, R31, X31, and T30; but I do not know how far back this problem goes or if there are exceptions. If anyone has better information, please clarify/specify the "Affected Models" section. --Kevinoid 05:44, 14 Dec 2005 (CET)

I have a R40 model 2681-K9G that came without any mini-pci card so I bought a Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG mini-pci card for it. When I discovered that it would not work in my Thinkpad I came to this site to see if there was a fix. Seemed like there was, so I bought a mini-pci-to-PCI adapter and installed the card(s) in my desktop. Now I need to know what vendor and device ID strings to use when I flash the card's BIOS. Anyone have a list?

Solution on T43?

There were several edits to the previous page to the effect that "this didn't work for my T43". Although I do not weight this as highly credible (please just ask for help on the ML rather than adding random comments to pages), I did feel that it deserved a mention that the solution may not work on the T43. If anyone can confirm or deny this statement, please do so (and possibly ask on the ML for solutions if it does not work for you). --Kevinoid 05:44, 14 Dec 2005 (CET)

Confirmation - patch not working on T43

I can confirm, that a "nvram/cmos" patch is not working on my T43, exact type 1871-A62. I tried several cards (some working without patch in another thinkpads (t40, t42, x40), but no success.--Jap 09:50, 13 June 2006 (CEST)

Hotplugging PCI device

I'd like to send out a BIG FAT WARNING that 'hotplugging' the mini-PCI card can easily lead to frying the system board, mini-PCI bus, or both. Yes, it happened to me... :-( Interrupting the boot process at the lilo boot menu, and then inserting the ipw2915abg card worked as a charm to circumvent the BIOS white list. However, somewhere it must have gone wrong because now the laptop hangs immediately when the IBM/Intel boot logos appear. --LJSBrokken 13:01, 20 July 2006 (GMT+1)

Z60 series

I tried this on a Lenovo Z60t. Bought an Intel Wireless card since the linux drivers for the madwifi are crap. I applied the C-Patch from here. Then after booting with the intel device installed I get some weird broadcom PXE boot messages displayed ontop of the key symbol for startup security. Even if I don't put my finger on the sensor, it continues with GRUB. At this point I can't use the keyboard, the key symbol is still displayed in the upper left corner. After a few secons grub starts with its default entry (Gentoo Linux). It all works, but no Wireless Adapter shows up in lspci.

So, I don't have that 1802 error, but still can't use my wifi card. Any ideas?

G40 series

According to [forum post], the CMOS hack (I assume they are referring to the bit-twiddling code) works. Does anyone else have anything to confirm this? I might well try it myself (in which case I'll update the main table), but I'll have to at least get an aerial first.

lentinj

no dice on T43

Also can confirm the T43 is much more resistant to the unauthorized mini pci card problem. No 1802 didn't work (it worked for my T40). Changing the PCI class id to 0x0280 (networking device - other) also didn't shake the message. Finally, I tried to masquerade the card as a one of the whitelisted ones via the ath_info utility from madwifi. I made a mistake at this point and didn't update the subsystem vendor id / subsystem device id, just the primary pci vendor and device ids. I *still* got the warning message, and now the ath driver doesn't pick up the card, so I can't use ath_info. The card is basically bricked, unless I find time (ha ha) for some kernel hacking. Moral of the story is be careful with ath_info.

IBM R40e

Have an IBM R40 & R40e, R40 - linux no-1802 cd worked flawlessly, r40e - linux no-1802 cd - hangs on confirmation the patching - maybe a keyboard error, but I dont have dock nor USB keyboard to try, the DOS CD, worked perfectly on the r40e (although I was a little nervous about bricking the R40e ;-). A little note - the r40e obviously dont have an antena - i'll have to get some, but its working even without antena for short range indoor (the accesspoint is about 3 meters away)

Other issues with unauthorized cards

I'm not sure if this is common but my Intel Pro 2915ABG (not from IBM) works on my T41 (both from eBay so some patch was probably already applied) except that the WLAN LED on the laptop stays off all the time. If this is common to all non-authorized cards, this wiki article should mention this.