Rebranding the Atheros 928x cards - The guide

[RehabMan]

Something that raw99 didn't mention (I've figured it out myself) is step 4 in my guide. That step is a must. In order to use the iwleeprom tool, the card must be fully operational, even with the wrong IDs it currently has. For that purpose, the ath9k code should be tweaked to accept the wrong IDs and all other WiFi kernel modules (the Intel ones in your case) should be unloaded with modprobe -r.

I thought that maybe the Intel drivers could be interfering. But I could not figure out what their name is so I could use modprobe -r to unload them. Is there a way to list the modules currently providing WiFi? I don't know much about Linux...

 

[philip_petev]

Sure, just issue lsmod in Terminal and you'll see all currently loaded modules along with their dependencies, written right after the module name. All Wifi modules work through the mac80211 module, so that's the name you should see in the right column. All modules with mac80211 as a dependency are WiFi-related.
However, I doubt that the Intel kernel module will be loaded at all in your case. In my case (using the Broadcom IDs), the b43 module wasn't loaded. As far as I know, if the module can't bring up the hardware (recognized by its IDs) and it won't bring it up, because it's not really an Intel card, it will be unloaded by the kernel.

 

[RehabMan]

Sure, just issue lsmod in Terminal and you'll see all currently loaded modules along with their dependencies, written right after the module name. All Wifi modules work through the mac80211 module, so that's the name you should see in the right column. All modules with mac80211 as a dependency are WiFi-related.
However, I doubt that the Intel kernel module will be loaded at all in your case. In my case (using the Broadcom IDs), the b43 module wasn't loaded. As far as I know, if the module can't bring up the hardware (recognized by its IDs) and it won't bring it up, because it's not really an Intel card, it will be unloaded by the kernel.

No dice. I submit my AR5B195 to the rubbish bin...

 

[mcfly26]

I have a question. I wont to rebrand my 9280 card in a 9285 last weekend. But: When i install the 9280 in the Probook 4530s an i boot the system - the bios called that the card don´t supported and the card disabled - then i had the problem, that i don´t find the WiFi card in the hardware manager. I can´t select the card to followed the steps.... can you help me please?

 

[philip_petev]

I have a question. I wont to rebrand my 9280 card in a 9285 last weekend. But: When i install the 9280 in the Probook 4530s an i boot the system - the bios called that the card don´t supported and the card disabled - then i had the problem, that i don´t find the WiFi card in the hardware manager. I can´t select the card to followed the steps.... can you help me please?

Changing the Vendor/Product IDs is not enough, you should change the SubVendor/SubProduct IDs as well, because the only Atheros card, accepted by the 4x30s models has the following IDs:

Atheros 9285
Vendor ID: 168C
Product ID: 002B
SubVendor ID: 103C
SubProduct ID: 1461

 

[RehabMan]

A word of warning...

I knew this was possible, but I recently bricked an AR5B195 (for HP 4530s) when I rebranded as Intel (vendor-id 8086).

I was attempting to re-brand the AR9285-based card as an Intel 7260 so that I could use it in my Lenovo U430 (with plans to remap back to Atheros via DSDT).

I did all rebranding via Linux, as I could not get Windows to work (problem with loading unsigned drivers, etc). I didn't want to install Windows XP...

Two notes:
- rebrand worked (it passed the Lenovo whitelist)
- the card did not work, even with all the DSDT magic/kext patching I could think of

In the end, I was also unable to rebrand back to the HP original IDs. Although I could read the eeprom data (in Linux), I could not write the corrected values back.

It was ok with me... I knew a brick was likely and that the rebrand to Intel was likely a one way trip, and I was ok with the sacrifice as an attempt to work around the BIOS whitelist in the Lenovo. And I plan to replace it with an AR9280 anyway ($5.99 free shipping, ebay)... rebranded as HP AR5B195, of course...

I finally recovered this card...

The issue was I had to modify the second section of code as follows:

...
// reading EEPROM size and setting it's base address
// thanks to Inv from forum.ixbt.com
            if (dev->ops->eeprom_read16(dev, 128, &data) && (376 == data)) {
[B]                        short_eeprom_base = 0;
                        short_eeprom_size = 512;
[/B]                        goto ssize_ok;
            }
            if (dev->ops->eeprom_read16(dev, 512, &data) && (3256 == data)) {
[B]                        short_eeprom_base =  0;
                        short_eeprom_size = 512;
[/B]                        goto ssize_ok;
            }
            if (dev->ops->eeprom_read16(dev, 256, &data) && (727 == data)) {
                        short_eeprom_base = 256;
                        short_eeprom_size = 727;
                        goto ssize_ok;
            }
...

 

[piojofafner]

Hello Phillip Petev. I was wondering if somebody can help me. I am trying to follow the guide but I got stuck at the step 2. After entering in CMD "atheros_eeprom_tool.exe /r512", I get that "atheros_eeprom_tool.exe is not recognized as a internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Any advise?

Thanks

 

[RehabMan]

Hello Phillip Petev. I was wondering if somebody can help me. I am trying to follow the guide but I got stuck at the step 2. After entering in CMD "atheros_eeprom_tool.exe /r512", I get that "atheros_eeprom_tool.exe is not recognized as a internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Any advise?

Thanks

As step #2 states, you need to set your current directory to where the tool is downloaded/extracted.

 

[piojofafner]

Thanks Rehabman but I have done that correctly. One thing I have noticed is that when I downloaded the Eeprom tool, I get a folder in which the msvcr100d.dll is missing. I read before that this dll is mandatory? Could this be the problem? Any solution? I am following the guide up to the last coma, but I am stuck at step 2!

 

[RehabMan]

Thanks Rehabman but I have done that correctly.

If you're getting the error you mention in post #78, then, no, you have not done it correctly.

One thing I have noticed is that when I downloaded the Eeprom tool, I get a folder in which the msvcr100d.dll is missing. I read before that this dll is mandatory? Could this be the problem? Any solution? I am following the guide up to the last coma, but I am stuck at step 2!

I think it is because the code is built as debug build, and therefore you need msvcr100d.dll which only comes with Visual C++, therefore only available if you have it installed.

I didn't bother using Windows for this... I did my rebrand using Linux only.