[coreboot] Modem - should work with appropriate drivers

[Charles Devereaux]

Hello

The modem is listed as "untested" on the X60 page, so I tried to explore
that a bit further.

On Windows, its hardware info is
"HDAUDIO\FUNC02&VEN_14F1&DEV_2BFA&SUBSYS_&REV_0900"

Some googling confirmed it was a Conexant, device ID 0x14f1,0x2bfa that was
connected as the 2nd device of the HDA bus and should show as the 2nd codec
of the audio card.

However it was never detected! (which may or may not be related to ACPI
tables - I don't know if they contain HDA bus info)

After reading the HDA-Intel kernel documentation, I could successfully
detect it with the kernel options : snd_hda_intel.model=thinkpad
snd-hda-intel.probe_mask=0x103

Basically, the current hardware tables do not expose it to the OS, so you
have to boot with manual probe instead of autodetection.

The modem is then detected as:

$ cat /proc/asound/Intel/codec#1
Codec: Conexant ID 2bfa
Address: 1
MFG Function Id: 0x2 (unsol 1)
Vendor Id: 0x14f12bfa
Subsystem Id: 0x14f10000
Revision Id: 0x90000
Modem Function Group: 0x2

Then, problem is that very codec is not supported with slmodem :
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=244436

"Some HD-modem codecs (e.g. Conexant ones) don't work with slmodemd."

So I tried to fix hsfmodem to have it compile under a recent kernel 3.x (cf
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1903439.html) but gave up.

At the moment the best option for those who need a working modem seems to
get a MDC card that works, like the Si3054, to replace the Conexant MDC.

Cf:
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/si3054-18.pdf
http://www.futurel.bg/datasheets/2/3054_PB.pdf

Even them, it will be far from perfect, cf
https://freemor.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/si3054-and-hardy-heron-the-saga-continues/

Anyway, if you want to get one, search for "Modem 3054" on ebay  : you will
find many ML3054. As per the specsheets, it needs revE or later to be
compatible with the HDA-Intel "Azalia" interface. Basically, make sure the
original computer it was pulled from used snd-intel-hda instead of
snd-intel8x0m (ex: lenovo y510 is ok) and you should be good.

I'm waiting for such a card, I will let you know if the modem works, but
everything indicates it should. The modem could then be indicated as
"working", but it will require a blob (for slmodem compilation) so
personally I don't think I'll use the modem functions, but someone might be
interested.

Charles
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