[phatsteve]

I've just switched to Mandriva from a number of different distros, I'm using Spring 2007-1. I have a Buffalo Airstation WiFi card that works fine with the broadcom driver in ndiswrapper, the problem is I have to set it up every time I re-start the laptop, this is getting tedious in the extreme! My /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 contains this:-

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
METRIC=35
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
USERCTL=yes
RESOLV_MODS=no
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
WIRELESS_ESSID=####
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY="open s:########"
WIRELESS_WPA_DRIVER=wext
IPV6INIT=no
IPV6TO4INIT=no
DHCP_CLIENT=dhclient
NEEDHOSTNAME=yes
PEERDNS=yes
PEERYP=yes
PEERNTPD=no

(sensitive parts hashed out)
I've read another post recommending locking xorg.conf file, but this seems a bit drastic.
Can anybody please help? Thankyou

[pmpatrick]

Is your ndiswrapper module loading on reboot? Check the output of:

$ lsmod

If ndiswraper is there, try starting from the command line and see what you get. As root run:

# ifup wlan0

Unless your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 file is disappearing on reboot, it should bring up wlan0. If your ifcfg-wlan0 file is surviving a reboot and you can bring up the network with ifup wlan0, there is probably some timing problem. Post back your results.

[phatsteve]

Thanks for the reply, here is the output from your instructions:-

root@ntlworld mario]# lsmod
Module Size Used by
ipt_IFWLOG 3524 2
ipt_psd 44392 1
ip_set_iptree 7080 2
eth1394 17092 0
iptable_raw 2336 0
xt_policy 4320 30
xt_multiport 3744 4
ipt_ULOG 6916 0
ipt_TTL 2624 0
ipt_ttl 2336 0
ipt_TOS 2528 0
ipt_tos 2144 0
ipt_TCPMSS 4192 0
ipt_set 2848 2
ipt_SAME 2848 0
ipt_REJECT 4736 4
ipt_REDIRECT 2656 0
ipt_recent 10380 0
ipt_owner 2432 0
ipt_NETMAP 2624 0
ipt_MASQUERADE 3744 0
ipt_LOG 6912 9
ipt_iprange 2336 0
ipt_hashlimit 7912 0
ipt_ECN 3264 0
ipt_ecn 2592 0
ipt_DSCP 2560 0
ipt_dscp 2176 0
ipt_CLUSTERIP 7172 0
ipt_ah 2336 0
ipt_addrtype 2304 0
ip_set_portmap 4672 0
ip_set_macipmap 4580 0
ip_set_ipmap 4576 0
ip_set_iphash 7716 0
ip_set 18812 11 ip_set_iptree,ipt_set,ip_set_portmap,ip_set_mac
ipmap,ip_set_ipmap,ip_set_iphash
ip_nat_tftp 2144 0
ip_nat_snmp_basic 9348 0
ip_nat_sip 3872 0
ip_nat_pptp 5444 0
ip_nat_irc 2752 0
ip_nat_h323 6176 0
ip_nat_ftp 3360 0
ip_nat_amanda 2464 0
radeon 110208 2
drm 59764 3 radeon
ip_conntrack_tftp 3928 1 ip_nat_tftp
ip_conntrack_sip 6544 1 ip_nat_sip
ip_conntrack_pptp 9808 1 ip_nat_pptp
ip_conntrack_netbios_ns 2976 0
ip_conntrack_irc 5776 1 ip_nat_irc
ip_conntrack_h323 45340 1 ip_nat_h323
ip_conntrack_ftp 6640 1 ip_nat_ftp
ip_conntrack_amanda 4008 1 ip_nat_amanda
xt_tcpmss 2688 0
xt_pkttype 2368 4
xt_physdev 2928 0
xt_NFQUEUE 2528 0
xt_MARK 2816 0
xt_mark 2400 0
xt_mac 2400 0
xt_limit 2912 0
xt_length 2464 0
xt_helper 2720 0
xt_dccp 3684 0
xt_conntrack 2848 0
xt_CONNMARK 2752 0
xt_connmark 2496 0
xt_CLASSIFY 2368 0
xt_tcpudp 3648 11
xt_state 2560 18
iptable_nat 7140 0
ip_nat 15404 12 ipt_SAME,ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE
,ip_nat_tftp,ip_nat_sip,ip_nat_pptp,ip_nat_irc,ip_nat_h323,ip_nat_ftp,ip_nat_ama

nda,iptable_nat
ip_conntrack 46560 24 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_nat_tftp,ip_nat_snmp_basic,ip
_nat_sip,ip_nat_pptp,ip_nat_irc,ip_nat_h323,ip_nat_ftp,ip_nat_amanda,ip_conntrac

k_tftp,ip_conntrack_sip,ip_conntrack_pptp,ip_conntrack_netbios_ns,ip_conntrack_i

rc,ip_conntrack_h323,ip_conntrack_ftp,ip_conntrack_amanda,xt_helper,xt_conntrack

,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_nat
iptable_mangle 2912 1
nfnetlink 5656 2 ip_nat,ip_conntrack
iptable_filter 3040 1
ip_tables 12484 4 iptable_raw,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_f
ilter
x_tables 11780 47 ipt_IFWLOG,ipt_psd,xt_policy,xt_multiport,ipt_U
LOG,ipt_TTL,ipt_ttl,ipt_TOS,ipt_tos,ipt_TCPMSS,ipt_set,ipt_SAME,ipt_REJECT,ipt_R

EDIRECT,ipt_recent,ipt_owner,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_LOG,ipt_iprange,ipt_h

ashlimit,ipt_ECN,ipt_ecn,ipt_DSCP,ipt_dscp,ipt_CLUSTERIP,ipt_ah,ipt_addrtype,xt_

tcpmss,xt_pkttype,xt_physdev,xt_NFQUEUE,xt_MARK,xt_mark,xt_mac,xt_limit,xt_lengt

h,xt_helper,xt_dccp,xt_conntrack,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt_CLASSIFY,xt_tcpudp,x

t_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables
ndiswrapper 159792 0
snd_seq_dummy 3364 0
arc4 2528 0
snd_seq_oss 29088 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6880 1 snd_seq_oss
ieee80211_crypt_wep 4608 0
snd_seq 46576 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 6892 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 38880 0
snd_mixer_oss 15072 1 snd_pcm_oss
natsemi 24704 0
af_packet 17320 2
snd_ali5451 19020 0
snd_ac97_codec 91332 1 snd_ali5451
snd_ac97_bus 2688 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 65956 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 18692 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 8136 1 snd_pcm
snd 44228 9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,s
nd_mixer_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
ipv6 228576 14
soundcore 7648 1 snd
video 13796 0
thermal 11080 0
processor 21256 1 thermal
fan 3908 0
container 3840 0
button 5648 0
battery 8132 0
ac 4164 0
ide_cd 34912 0
binfmt_misc 9480 1
nls_utf8 2464 1
ntfs 248380 1
bcm43xx 417376 0
ieee80211softmac 25952 1 bcm43xx
loop 14248 0
ieee80211 30248 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 5248 2 ieee80211_crypt_wep,ieee80211
dm_mirror 18192 0
dm_mod 47672 1 dm_mirror
pcmcia 30444 0
yenta_socket 22924 2
rsrc_nonstatic 11232 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 33268 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
cpufreq_ondemand 6828 1
cpufreq_conservative 6824 0
cpufreq_powersave 2240 0
p4_clockmod 5412 0
speedstep_lib 4388 1 p4_clockmod
freq_table 4704 1 p4_clockmod
ati_agp 7436 1
agpgart 26088 2 drm,ati_agp
nvram 7688 0
ohci1394 30736 0
ieee1394 282200 2 eth1394,ohci1394
ohci_hcd 18532 0
usbcore 107616 3 ndiswrapper,ohci_hcd
evdev 8416 2
joydev 8480 0
tsdev 6720 0
ext3 119176 2
jbd 48404 1 ext3
ide_generic 1824 0 [permanent]
[root@ntlworld mario]# ifup wlan0
ndiswrapper device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
[root@ntlworld mario]#

[pmpatrick]

It's a conflict issue with the open source wireless driver "bcm43xx". Once this thing loads, it prevents ndiswrapper from creating the wlan0 interface. I had the identical problem on my laptop. You can see the bcm43xx driver listed in your lsmod output so it's loading at boot. The problem is bcm43xx loads by default and is set by mandriva and other distros as the default driver for all broadcom chipset wireless cards. Unfortunately, bcm43xx is very buggy in my experience and doesn't work on many boadcom based wireless cards, mine included. Ndiswrapper works much better in my experience.

So much for the diagnosis; now for the cure. You have to stop bcm43xx from loading at boot. Then when ndiswraper loads, it usually creates the wlan0 interface(sometimes it's designated as "ethx" depending on which version of ndiswrapper and udev rules) and your network will come up without having to recreate everything every time you boot. This is called blacklisting a driver and different distros have different ways of blacklisting. In mandriva, you have to edit /etc/modprobe.conf and you need to be root to do that. Open a console, and run:

$ kdesu kwrite /etc/modprobe.conf

Enter your root password when prompted and kwrite will come up with root privileges displaying modprobe.conf. Add this line to modeprobe.conf:

blacklist bcm43xx

Save the changes, reboot and see if the bcm43xx driver is not loaded by running:

$ lsmod | grep bcm

If successful, run as root:

# iwconfig

that will list all network interfaces and tell you which one(s) have wireless extensions. It'll probably show wlan0 but on my laptop the wireless interface on mdv2007.1 is listed as eth1 when using ndiswrapper with broadcom . I'm curious to see what yours shows. At any rate, once you know the wireless interface name you can reconfigure it if necessary in mcc and it should stick. It may work fine without doing anything further since you already have a ifcfg-wlan0 config file but you may have to reconfigure if the wireless interface has changed names.

This post has been edited by pmpatrick: 19 June 2007 - 06:34 PM

[phatsteve]

Absolutely spot on! I amazed at how much you guys know about the workings of Linux! Thankyou very much, this completely solved the problem, my network was up immediately on re-boot.It's shown as eth3 now, not wlan0 but who cares? it works! Thankyou again.