Replacing Broadcom miniPCI with Atheros

[Satish Balay]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004, Alan Cox wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 21, 2004 at 12:42:27PM -0400, Brian Stretch wrote:
> > I have a new HP zv5000z Athlon 64 notebook.  It came with one
> > of the hated Linux-hostile Broadcom wireless cards.  I tried swapping
> > in an Atheros wireless card, which fits... but the BIOS says:
> > 
> > "104-Unsupported wireless network device detect"
> > 
> > and I have to shut down and remove the card to get any futher.  It
> > sure looks like HP is deliberately disabling non-HP wireless cards,
> > given that explicit message. 
> 
> It isnt about non HP products. The mini-pci slot has the antenna
> seperate from the slot. When approvals are done for wireless they have
> to be done including card and antenna, as a result vendors using this
> setup have to lock to 'approved' products.

This is good info. Thanks.

For what its worth - IBM thinkpads do the same bios rejection of
non-IBM cards.

And I couldn't get madwifi working with rawhide (works prettywell with
FC1) Others have success with madwifi and rawhide. Just wanted to
mention atheros card might still give you problems (hopefully not for
long).

Satish