Re: wpi0: fatal firmware error

[Béla <bela.nam.bsd%gmail.com@localhost>]

On 11/06/2013 07:32, Dave B wrote:> On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 04:38:35AM
+0100, B?la wrote:
> ...
>>> Are the firmware files really installed where they are expected to be?
>>> The path is either "/usr/pkg/libdata/firmware/if_wpi" or
>>> "/usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi", the latter being where the package
>>> effectively installs the files. See also the output of "sysctl
>>> hw.firmware.path" to confirm.
>>
>> sysctl hw.firmware.path outputs: hw.firmware.path =
>>
/libdata/firmware:/usr/libdata/firmware:/usr/pkg/libdata/firmware:/usr/pkg/libdata
>>
>> the iwlwifi-3945.ucode firmware file is in /usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi
> ...
>
>   The wpi firmware has been included in the NetBSD core
> distribution for awhile; or at least it's present--without any
> pkgsrc version installed--on my 5.2_STABLE i386 and 6.1_STABLE
> amd64 machines in
>
>     /libdata/firmware/if_wpi/*iwlwifi-3945.ucode
>
>   Do you have it too?  What files do you have in that directory, if
> any?

Yes firmware files are also installed in /libdata/firmware/if_wpi(by
default maybe, the binary package is then quite superfluous).

>
>> Also, I noticed something odd, when I remove the firmware, I still get
>> "wpi0: fatal firmware error" instead of "wpi0: could not read firmware
>> file" or "wpi0: could not load firmware" as the manuel suggest error
>> messagges should be...
>
>   Was this with the pkgsrc package entirely and cleanly removed?
> (Or just with the iwlwifi-3945.ucode file manually deleted from the
> /usr/pkg/libdata/firmware/ directory)?

Yes I had cleanly removed the package with pkg_delete, then rebooted.

>
> Cheers, -Dave
>


On 11/06/2013 07:08, Robert Elz wrote:
>     Date:        Wed, 06 Nov 2013 04:38:35 +0100
>     From:        =?UTF-8?B?QsOpbGE=?= <bela.nam.bsd%gmail.com@localhost>
>     Message-ID:  <5279B9BB.5030901%gmail.com@localhost>
> 
> I have a Dell laptop with that card...
> 
>   | sysctl hw.firmware.path outputs: hw.firmware.path =
>   | 
> /libdata/firmware:/usr/libdata/firmware:/usr/pkg/libdata/firmware:/usr/pkg/libdata
>   | 
>   | the iwlwifi-3945.ucode firmware file is in /usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi
> 
> but I put (manually copied/moved) the firmware to /libdata/firmware/if_wpi
> 
> The reason is that /usr/pkg (for me) isn't mounted when the firmware load
> is performed, so it doesn't get found there.   If your /usr/pkg isn't on
> the root filesystem, and you don't have its filesytem (and any others needed,
> which would mean /usr if /usr/pkg is separatly mounted) listed in
> critical_filesystems_local in /etc/rc.conf then you'll most likely need
> to do the same - it can be the easy way to be safe anyway (stuff needed
> to make the hardware work is better placed on the root filesystem than
> anywhere else, regardless of how you attempt to force early mounting.)
> 
> You can verify if this is likely to be the problem easily, just
> 
> ls -lu /usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi

I tried ls -lu on both /usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi and
/libdata/firmware/if_wpi. You are right, only /usr/pkg/libdata/if_wpi
seems to be accessed. Anyway, I still get wpi0: fatal firmware error.

> 
> then reboot, and repeat the ls.   If the access time (which is the time shown
> with ls -lu) hasn't altered, then the file is not being accessed, which almost
> certainly means that it isn't present when the access is attempted.
> 
> kre
> 
> ps: for me with that card (and often slightly flakey wireless access - I
> push the distance limits sometimes) I tend to need to restart wpa_supplicant
> from time to time, I have a script that watches if the wireless network
> is connected, and if not, restarts wpa_supplicant, and if needed dhclient
> (dhcpcd would probably notice the link down/up and do its thing itself,
> but I haven't switched that system to dhcpcd yet.)
> 

In conclusion, I guess the system does manage to locate the necessary
files but for some reason loading it crashes every time. Any ideas why
this could happen?