# Network card isssues (Broadcom)



## zdannar (May 2, 2009)

Hello,

I took the plunge the other day and decided to convert my laptop to BSD, specifically pcbsd.  The laptop is a dell studio 15 with PC-bsd 7.1(FreeBSD 7.2-PRERELEASE).  

The specific problem that I am having is related to the network cards.  At this point, I am just trying to get any card working so that I don't have to transfer files via USB stick.  After roaming the internet for hours I decided that the best option I had getting the networking working was to use ndis to build a driver.  According to dmesg, the driver attempts to load but errors.  ifconfig can see the interface, but if you attempt to scan for wireless networks... The whole system crashes.  Can someone provide some guidance to further diagnosing the issue. Any input at this point is helpful. 

Any help that you can provide would be helpfull.

[ SUMMARY OF ERROR from dmesg ]

```
ndis0: NDIS API version: 5.1
ndis0: NDIS ERROR: 400500f (unknown error) 
ndis0: WARNING: using obsoleted if_watchdoc interface
ndis0: Ethernet adress: blah.blah
```


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## vivek (May 2, 2009)

Can you specify network card make?


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## richardpl (May 2, 2009)

Could you provide backtrace from panic?
If you load module inside console instead of X11 you should see ddb prompt.


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## zdannar (May 6, 2009)

Sorry for the delay, but I have been gone for a while.

The two NICs are:
- Dell wireless 1510 802.11n Half mini card
- Broadcom gigabit Ethernet (BCM5784M)

Thanks.


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## zdannar (May 6, 2009)

richardpl,

In linux I am used to seeing a message regarding kernel panics, but in this case the laptop just freezes for a short term then reboots.  

I am now back where I started with the laptop.  I reworked the slicing and reinstalled pc-bsd.  Of course there were no changes with the current network card issues.  Now that I have provided the hardware, maybe this issue can be resolved.


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## richardpl (May 6, 2009)

zdannar said:
			
		

> Now that I have provided the hardware, maybe this issue can be resolved.


Unlikely that someone else will have same hardware configuration like you.

Really, providing backtrace is only real way for fixing it.

Is /var/crash/ empty?


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