VOGONS


First post, by stanwebber

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i've got this gateway dvd player wireless pc card that probably never had drivers released for it. i've identified that it uses a broadcom bcm4306 chipset and have obtained windows drivers for a trendnet tew-401 card that uses the identical chipset. i modified the .inf and the card is now working beautifully under windows xp sp2, but i'm not having any luck with windows 98 se. i'm only guessing at what changes are needed in the .inf so there's still something i don't understand because the device refuses to start in device manager. could someone who understands the structure of the windows .inf driver model take a look and tell me what i'm getting wrong for windows 98 se? thanks!

the vid:pid of the target device is 02d0:0425 (i added all 3 listed hardware ids as win9x didn't always pick up on a single id as reliably as winxp) i've tried multiple bcmwl5.sys versions ranging from 3.10.xx - 3.100.xx all with the same failed result.

Reply 1 of 19, by stanwebber

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is it possible bcmwl5.sys is just incompatible with win9x? shouldn't it just work with ndis v5? i have since gotten this card to also work with win2k (no sp) and my understanding from online microsoft whitepapers is that win98se is at the same ndis revision as win2k.

Reply 2 of 19, by myne

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Is it pcmcia?

Show the exact device string in 2k/XP's device manager.

eg:

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Reply 3 of 19, by stanwebber

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yes, it is a 16bit pcmcia card. there are 3 hardware ids listed in device manager:

PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-1509
PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-02D0-0425
PCMCIA\Gateway-02D0-0425

Reply 4 of 19, by stanwebber

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i've come to the conclusion that this gateway card is just plain incompatible with win9x. i've tried over a dozen broadcom inf driver packages (bcmwl5.sys & oem variants) and it's clear that driver versions up to 3.94.xx are intended to be run under win98/me. it's just inconceivable that so many other bcm4306 cards wouldn't have win9x support during that era.

it's just odd that i can get this card working with these exact same drivers (& later) under both win2k & winxp using wpa or wpa2. the driver won't even start for me in device manager under win98se.

linux is a dead end as well. the card should be supported by the b43legacy driver, but i can't get the device id recognized no matter what i try. the 16bit pcmcia architecture is not the same as pci or usb in terms of injecting unknown device ids via /sys/bus/{pci/usb/pcmcia}/drivers/{driver}/new_id. i've even gone so far as to recompile the entire linux kernel after replacing every instance of the broadcom vendor id 0x14e4 with 0x02d0 (broadcom produced a near identical bcm4306 in a cardbus form factor with the same product id 0x0425). no one is working on these drivers anymore so there's no help in the b43-dev mailing list.

Reply 5 of 19, by wierd_w

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Have you looked at the cisco aeronet card drivers?

Some of their cards were 16bit pcmcia, and bcm43x flavored

Reply 6 of 19, by myne

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I can't get to a pc for a bit, but I will attempt a crash course in inf files.

They do 4 basic tasks.

1 copy files into the right folders
2 add reg keys
3 delete files
4 delete reg keys

That's it.

Obviously there is logic to match windows versions, and hardware ids, to make decisions on which sections to run, but the ultimate end result is always those 4 tasks.

I'll attempt to run through what is run.

"[Wireless]
%BCM430B.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XX, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4301&SUBSYS_040714E4
%BCM430B.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XX, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4301&SUBSYS_040614E4
%BCM430G.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XG, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4320&SUBSYS_041714E4
%BCM430G.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XG, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4320&SUBSYS_041814E4
%BCM430A.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XA, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4321
%BCM430M.DeviceDesc% = BCM43XM, PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4324
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Broadcom-02D0-0406
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Broadcom-802.11b_PCMCIA-02D0-0406"

So that looks mostly unintelligible but it's not that hard.

The first part is a variable. % anything % is always a variable. It will match something in the strings section of the inf.
The second part says what section to run for that device.
The 3rd as you've figured out is the hardware identifier

The important part is looking at the correct section for your thing to see what it does next.
The last one leads to this:

[BCM43PCM]
AddReg = BCM43XX.win.reg, BCM43XX.win.brcm.reg, common.reg, b.options.reg, bg.options.reg
CopyFiles = BCM43XX.sys.files
DriverVer=06/13/2003, 3.20.23.0

The addreg basically says as these 5 sections to the registry.
Copy files says copy this section

There are no delreg or defiles sections.

Those are the only 6 parts of the whole file that matter for that device.

If you want to strip it down to read it better, you can pretty much just delete everything else except the strings section. Though you can manually replace the variables with their string and cut that too if you want.

The registry sections are near enough to exactly a registry path/key/type/value that it shouldn't really be hard to figure out.

The main bit is abbreviated though. Hklm =hkey local machine. Etc.

Aside from that, it should be relatively trivial to convert those sections into a single reg file.

The copy files sections have some options that aren't often used, so there seem to be commas for no reason. In the inf they need to be there.

In this one, it's straightforward. There's only one file and it goes into folder 11.
There's a list of the special numbers as nicknames Ms uses for folders, but unless I hit my head 11 =windows\system

So your copy files amounts to copy that sys file to Windows\system.

I haven't nutted yours out exactly, and how you've modded it, but go have a look again and check that the ones you chose to mod are adding reg sections that make sense to you.

Good luck

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Reply 7 of 19, by stanwebber

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yeah, i looked over every bcmwl5.inf & oem variant i could find. the inf i uploaded is correct for win98/2k/xp. in fact, all the inf files used across every vendor were nearly identical (if you exclude the manufacturer specific strings section). the only significant departure is that some inf files included an additional bwcdrv.vxd instead of just bcmwl5.sys alone. the bcmwl5.cat is just a driver signing file that can be skipped entirely without affecting function (some inf files even comment it out).

ultimately, the changes i made to the uploaded inf to get it working in win2k/xp were minimal. i added the 3 new hardware ids (1 was probably sufficient):

%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-1509
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-02D0-0425
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-02D0-0425

i assigned them to the BCM43PCM section. this was important because the nt section differentiates which system bus the device is on (win9x doesn't use this):

BusType = 8 ; PCMCIA bus

because my card is 802.11g i also edited the BCM43PCM section (under both win9x/nt), originally intended for 802.11b, to use the g.options.reg registry keys instead of b.options.reg:

AddReg = BCM43XX.reg, BCM43XX.brcm.reg, common.reg, g.options.reg, bg.options.reg

the inf is correct for win98 and versions of bcmwl5.sys before 3.100.xx are backwards compatible. my card is just incompatible for whatever reason...perhaps bcmwl5.sys just doesn't look to initialize bcm4306 devices on the pcmcia bus since none existed at the time.

yes, i'm sure many other 16bit pcmcia 802.11b cards would work (even in win95, win3x & dos), but i'm putting so much effort into this because the gateway card is 802.11g in a 16bit pcmcia form factor that can operate in a 5v non-cardbus slot.

the target hardware is a pentium 75mhz laptop maxed out with 40mb of ram so it would have been great if i could have gotten the card working in win95 rtm with at least wpa (maybe even pushed it to win98 & wpa2). an early linux distribution e.g. damn small linux would have been perfectly acceptable as well, but i found out that ndiswrapper doesn't support ANY 16bit pcmcia devices so that leaves me with b43/b43legacy drivers which require newer 2.6.x & up kernels. i might make that work, but b43legacy refuses to recognize any vendor id other than ox14e4.

Reply 8 of 19, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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stanwebber wrote on 2025-06-07, 00:13:
yeah, i looked over every bcmwl5.inf & oem variant i could find. the inf i uploaded is correct for win98/2k/xp. in fact, all the […]
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yeah, i looked over every bcmwl5.inf & oem variant i could find. the inf i uploaded is correct for win98/2k/xp. in fact, all the inf files used across every vendor were nearly identical (if you exclude the manufacturer specific strings section). the only significant departure is that some inf files included an additional bwcdrv.vxd instead of just bcmwl5.sys alone. the bcmwl5.cat is just a driver signing file that can be skipped entirely without affecting function (some inf files even comment it out).

ultimately, the changes i made to the uploaded inf to get it working in win2k/xp were minimal. i added the 3 new hardware ids (1 was probably sufficient):

%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-1509
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-02D0-0425
%BCM43pc.DeviceDesc% = BCM43PCM, PCMCIA\Gateway-02D0-0425

i assigned them to the BCM43PCM section. this was important because the nt section differentiates which system bus the device is on (win9x doesn't use this):

BusType = 8 ; PCMCIA bus

because my card is 802.11g i also edited the BCM43PCM section (under both win9x/nt), originally intended for 802.11b, to use the g.options.reg registry keys instead of b.options.reg:

AddReg = BCM43XX.reg, BCM43XX.brcm.reg, common.reg, g.options.reg, bg.options.reg

the inf is correct for win98 and versions of bcmwl5.sys before 3.100.xx are backwards compatible. my card is just incompatible for whatever reason...perhaps bcmwl5.sys just doesn't look to initialize bcm4306 devices on the pcmcia bus since none existed at the time.

yes, i'm sure many other 16bit pcmcia 802.11b cards would work (even in win95, win3x & dos), but i'm putting so much effort into this because the gateway card is 802.11g in a 16bit pcmcia form factor that can operate in a 5v non-cardbus slot.

the target hardware is a pentium 75mhz laptop maxed out with 40mb of ram so it would have been great if i could have gotten the card working in win95 rtm with at least wpa (maybe even pushed it to win98 & wpa2). an early linux distribution e.g. damn small linux would have been perfectly acceptable as well, but i found out that ndiswrapper doesn't support ANY 16bit pcmcia devices so that leaves me with b43/b43legacy drivers which require newer 2.6.x & up kernels. i might make that work, but b43legacy refuses to recognize any vendor id other than ox14e4.

The Broadcom driver pack Gateway were shipping around the time of these connected DVD players certainly states 98SE / ME support amongst others (these units were 2003 / 2004 vintage and were actually rebranded GoVideo products). It's also possible that the network installation on these units was rolled into the 'D5 Media Server' software that they came with... https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … driverid=434845

Assuming you haven't already seen it, I've attached the separate Gateway Broadcom package just in case it's any help

The attachment 9528289.exe is no longer available

Reply 9 of 19, by myne

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The only thing that stands out to me at the moment is whether 3 thinks are in the registry.

HKR, , DevLoader, 0, "*ndis"
HKR, , DeviceVxDs, 0, %DEFAULT_WIN9X_SYS%

Which should be the bit that actually boots the driver

And this seems hardcoded instead of a variable which might be a problem

HKR, Ndi, DeviceID, , "PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-1509"
; Ndis Info

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Reply 10 of 19, by stanwebber

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-07, 01:40:

Assuming you haven't already seen it, I've attached the separate Gateway Broadcom package just in case it's any help

yeah, i got a hold of that driver package. it's identical to a number of other oem packages; however, this time i took the time to look at the broadcom release notes (v3.30.15.0) included. i never bothered with them before because they're html & i was loathe to spin up a browser on the low-end systems i was working on. there's some very enlightening information i gleaned:

The following revision chipset and boards are no longer supported:
4306 Chipset Revision A0
4306 Chipset Revision A1
All 4306MP board revision less than 4.0
All 4306CB board revision less than 4.0

it also makes mention of versions prior to 3.10.39.0. i have literally spent days scouring the internet for driver versions and I HAVE NEVER FOUND A BCMWL5.SYS VERSION PRIOR TO 3.10.xx:

In releases prior to 3.10.39.0, when an AP in a BSS network enables g-protection via Info Element 47, throughput will be very low. Connectivity is still enabled so that a user may upgrade to a later driver.

in fact, i think there's only ever 1 driver package i've run across that had a 3.10.xx bcmwl5.sys which i need to go back and look for now. if there are more 'prior to 3.10.39.0', i'd love to get my hands on these mythical driver versions.

edit: this is the driver package from fujitsu; bcmwl5.sys version is 3.10.39.7: https://download.cnet.com/broadcom-bcm4306-wi … 2_4-130208.html
i have NEVER seen a version that predates this

Last edited by stanwebber on 2025-06-07, 03:23. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 19, by stanwebber

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myne wrote on 2025-06-07, 03:03:
The only thing that stands out to me at the moment is whether 3 thinks are in the registry. […]
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The only thing that stands out to me at the moment is whether 3 thinks are in the registry.

HKR, , DevLoader, 0, "*ndis"
HKR, , DeviceVxDs, 0, %DEFAULT_WIN9X_SYS%

Which should be the bit that actually boots the driver

most inf files use that syntax; a few others actually define bwcdrv.vxd which is included in the driver package.

myne wrote on 2025-06-07, 03:03:

And this seems hardcoded instead of a variable which might be a problem

HKR, Ndi, DeviceID, , "PCMCIA\Gateway-802.11g_PCMCIA-1509"
; Ndis Info

i caught this as well and tried hardcoding (all 3) device ids as you suggest.

Reply 12 of 19, by myne

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Yeah, I mean actually open regedit and look.

Also, the 5 in the sys file name might imply ndis5.

Look for the same filename with a 3 or 4.

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Reply 13 of 19, by stanwebber

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myne wrote on 2025-06-07, 03:26:

Yeah, I mean actually open regedit and look.

Also, the 5 in the sys file name might imply ndis5.

Look for the same filename with a 3 or 4.

i'll have a look in the registry the next chance i get. bcmwl5.sys is most definitely ndis5. the broadcom release notes explicitely state so: "NDIS 5.0 miniport driver", but this shouldn't present a problem should it? microsoft's own white papers indicate that xp is ndis5.1 capable and later versions of win98, win2k and winme are ndis5 compliant, but out of desperation i did do searches for bcmwl3/4.sys.

Reply 14 of 19, by myne

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The only other thing I can think of off hand is whether there were ever any dos packet drivers.
If they exist some "ultimate network boot floppy" is the most likely place to find it.
Better than nothing.

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Reply 15 of 19, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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stanwebber wrote on 2025-06-07, 03:08:
yeah, i got a hold of that driver package. it's identical to a number of other oem packages; however, this time i took the time […]
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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-07, 01:40:

Assuming you haven't already seen it, I've attached the separate Gateway Broadcom package just in case it's any help

yeah, i got a hold of that driver package. it's identical to a number of other oem packages; however, this time i took the time to look at the broadcom release notes (v3.30.15.0) included. i never bothered with them before because they're html & i was loathe to spin up a browser on the low-end systems i was working on. there's some very enlightening information i gleaned:

The following revision chipset and boards are no longer supported:
4306 Chipset Revision A0
4306 Chipset Revision A1
All 4306MP board revision less than 4.0
All 4306CB board revision less than 4.0

it also makes mention of versions prior to 3.10.39.0. i have literally spent days scouring the internet for driver versions and I HAVE NEVER FOUND A BCMWL5.SYS VERSION PRIOR TO 3.10.xx:

In releases prior to 3.10.39.0, when an AP in a BSS network enables g-protection via Info Element 47, throughput will be very low. Connectivity is still enabled so that a user may upgrade to a later driver.

in fact, i think there's only ever 1 driver package i've run across that had a 3.10.xx bcmwl5.sys which i need to go back and look for now. if there are more 'prior to 3.10.39.0', i'd love to get my hands on these mythical driver versions.

edit: this is the driver package from fujitsu; bcmwl5.sys version is 3.10.39.7: https://download.cnet.com/broadcom-bcm4306-wi … 2_4-130208.html
i have NEVER seen a version that predates this

These are the versions I've seen mention of, prior to those already covered...

bcmwl5.sys 3.8.28.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.8.37.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.10.8.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.10.36.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.10.39.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.10.39.7

I also checked the Gateway connected DVD support pages on IA, and none of the driver pages listed a support pack for these wifi cards (even the ones which were bundled with said cards)

Reply 16 of 19, by myne

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https://archive.org/details/belkin-f-5-d-7010ea

File date looks promising.

Can't hurt to ruin the full setup program. Maybe it does more than just the inf

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Reply 17 of 19, by stanwebber

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i would be very interested to obtain these versions:

bcmwl5.sys 3.8.28.0
bcmwl5.sys 3.8.37.0

either the full driver packages or the bcmwl5.sys file alone.

Reply 19 of 19, by myne

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Did you try running the installer?
The next place I'd look is a Windows me iso.

Not kidding.

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Re: The thing no one asked for: KICAD 440bx reference schematic