ndiswrapper again: symvers problem [solved]

[KVenter]

I see that this is a topic that runs and runs... never a dull moment. I have been trying for two days now to get through it, and now am at the end of the road: HELP.

 

I am running Madriva Free 2006 on a Centrino 2.8GHz PC, it has a Belkin F5D7000 ver 2 PCI wireless card... I downloaded the kernel source using the Control Centre Install Software and all seems fine (the URPMI process did not do the trick... I don't know what it did). I downloaded ndiswrapper ver 1.23 from sourceforge and unzipped, etc, fine. I got into that directory (/etc/ndiswrapper-1.23) and ran in console "make uninstall" then "make" getting a message

 

WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-12mdk/Module.symvers

is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

 

I ran "make install" with the same result

 

I then changed directory to /etc/ndiswrapper and copied in the BCMWL5.INF and -.SYS files. Ran "ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5" to clear the field. When running "ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf" I get an error

 

Installing bcmwl5

couldn't copy bcmwl5.inf at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 144.

 

Any suggestions? Anyone?

 

Karl

[ianw1974]

Your missing your kernel-source, which is why it won't compile. However, a better way is to make sure you have your easyurpmi sources added using the link at the top of this page. Add main, contrib, updates, plf-free and plf-nonfree. Then just get ndiswrapper installed using:

 

urpmi ndiswrapper

 

then you can just continue the installation of your network card using the ndiswrapper -i command in the documentation. That way, saves the hassle of compiling and making things difficult. I never compile unless I *really* have to.

[Qchem]

It's worth making sure that any kernel-source RPM you install (make sure it's not the kernel.srpm) matches the running kernel. You can find out the running kernel with uname -a

[KVenter]

Your missing your kernel-source, which is why it won't compile. However, a better way is to make sure you have your easyurpmi sources added using the link at the top of this page. Add main, contrib, updates, plf-free and plf-nonfree. Then just get ndiswrapper installed using:

 

urpmi ndiswrapper

 

then you can just continue the installation of your network card using the ndiswrapper -i command in the documentation. That way, saves the hassle of compiling and making things difficult. I never compile unless I *really* have to.

********************************************************************************

***********************************

Thanks for your prompt reply.

 

I used easyurpmi to load all the source: I had already loaded main (it turned out), and further loaded contrib, PLF-Free and PLF-nonfree and updates successfully. The command "urpmi ndiswrapper" gave the message

 

package(s) are already installed

 

I had run "make uninstall" from the /etc/ndiswrappr-1.23 directory before doing the urpmi command and it seemed to have uninstalled ndiswrapper. When I type "ndiswrapper" at the console, I get

 

bash: ndiswrapper: command not found

 

which would suggest that it isn't there.

 

I rebooted my machine, and no change.

 

What's the problem?

 

Cheers

 

Karl

[Qchem]

So urpmi says that it's still installed?

 

You can check with

 

rpm -qa | grep -i ndiswrapper

 

and then

 

rpm -ql ndiswrapper-version

 

will list where the files are. You get ndiswrapper-version from the output of the first command.

[KVenter]

Thanks again...

 

I found that ndiswrapper-1.2-3mdk (the version with Mandriva, I presume) was registered as loaded... so I uninstalled it using the COntrol Centre Software Uninstall tool. I ran urpmi ndiswrapper and it went in this time. I was able to create the driver using ndiswrqpper -i, and can see the driver as present and the hardware also with "ndiswrapper -l".

 

No to be outdone, Murphy is there, and when I use "modprobe ndiswrapper" I get the error:

 

[root@localhost ndiswrapper-1.23]# modprobe ndiswrapper

FATAL: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.12-12mdksmp/misc/ndiswrapper.ko': No such file or directory

 

When I try the Control Centre Hardware Config tool, it sees the driver, but comes back with "cannot find the ndiswrapper interface". I see that the ndiswrapper.ko is not in .../misc.

 

What now?

 

Cheers

 

Karl

[Qchem]

Try listing the rpm's files to see if you can find ndiswrapper.co

 

rpm -ql ndiswrapper-1.2-3mdk | grep ndiswrapper.co

 

should hopefully do the trick

[KVenter]

Try listing the rpm's files to see if you can find ndiswrapper.co

 

rpm -ql ndiswrapper-1.2-3mdk | grep ndiswrapper.co

 

should hopefully do the trick

Thanks for this

 

the rpm command gives no return, just the command line again.... I assume this means that the *.ko file is not there isn't there. I found a ndiswrapper.ko file from the ndiswrapper-1.23 downlod from SourceForge, but sneaking that into the .../misc directory just changed the error to an "invalid argumnet" one for ndiswrapper.ko

 

I have the feeling that the grmlins have it really in for me!

 

Cheers

 

Karl

[KVenter]

As a further fiddle, I uninstalled ndiswrapper-1.2-3mdk using the Control Centre Uninstall Tool, and then used the Install Tool to install it again... this time there is a file ndiswrapper.ko in /lib/modules/..../misc! Mystery... But the modprobe still fails with "invalid argument" for the ndiswrapper.ko... Using the Control Centre Hardware Configuration Tool, I tried to assign the ndiswrapper drivers that it could see, and got a different error message than before: "could not load ndiswrapper modules".... I don't know why, and what this has to do with modprobe???

 

I'll keep bashing on

 

Cheers

 

Karl

Edited August 23, 2006 by KVenter

[Qchem]

When you try the modprobe command (which is trying to insert a module (driver) into the kernel) you can look at the kernel output with dmesg, perhaps there will be a clue in there.

 

To be honest, I'm getting quite confused about what versions of ndiswrapper are installed where. If that's the case for you it may be an idea to either reinstall the OS (depending on how much free time you have B) ) or hunt down all versions of ndiswrapper and remove them.

[KVenter]

I have checked the installed software using the COntrol Centre Uninstall Tool, and only ndiswrapper-1.2-3mdk is listed. dmesg has the follwing to say about the modprobe event:

 

ndiswrapper version 1.23 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)

ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:129): loadndiswrapper failed (1536); check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:136): ndiswrapper: initialization failed

 

So I looked in the systems logs (the Control Centre is a mine of useful stuff!!!0 and there was:

 

Aug 24 13:31:42 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:129): loadndiswrapper failed (1536); check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

Aug 24 13:31:42 localhost loadndisdriver: loadndisdriver: main(629): version 1.2 doesn't match driver version 0

 

Now, the driver ver is 0!???? So I looked in the /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/14e4:4320.5conf (which relates to the PCI card I have and this is the first para

 

NdisVersion|0x50001

Environment|1

BusType|5

mac_address|XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

ndis_version|Broadcom,12/29/2002, 3.10.36.0

 

This may be of no interest and refer to the Windows thing, but it is the closest that I get to the version number of the "driver".

 

Does this provide enough info to take another step in the right direction?

 

Cheers

 

Karl (it feels as if I am being a great pain, but I am trying my best to understand how things work. By the way, I am exploring Linux out of rage with Microsoft, which forced me to buy a new licence for Windows because I installed a new motherboard when my existing one died.)

[Qchem]

it feels as if I am being a great pain, but I am trying my best to understand how things work.

 

Don't worry about asking questions, that's what we're here for.

 

What driver are you trying to load with ndiswrapper? Have you checked the ndiswrapper database (see pinned information at the top of the networking forum). It lists what success people have had with various drivers.

 

Note, you should find the PCID of the wireless chip as many manufacturers have different names for essentially the same cards.

[KVenter]

it is the Belkin F5D7000 ver 2, which uses the Braodcom driver bcmwl5... in the list of PCI cards discussed, this comes up, and there seems to be variation as to whether to use the bcmwl5 or the bcmwl5a drivers. I thought I would use the one shipped with the card, bcmwl5 first, and see.

 

the PCIID and vendor codes are 14e4 and 4320 (or it may be the other way round... lspci gives this:

 

00:07.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

 

 

Cheers

 

Karl

[Qchem]

do a lspci -n and look for the entry with 00:07.0 in, what does that return?

[KVenter]

do a lspci -n and look for the entry with 00:07.0 in, what does that return?

 

00:07.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 02)

 

I have uninstalled the mdk version of ndiswrapper, and deleted all files I could that were left around the place. I installed the ndiswrapper-1.23 that I got from SourceForge, and got the symvers warning of post #1. I made the driver again using ndiswrapper -i BCMWL5.INF, and it went through, but ndiswrapper -l, showed an "invalid driver!" message with the driver identification.

 

So, I uninstalled the 1,23 version and deleted all trailing files, and re-nstalled the 1.2-3mdk version... this time, there is no sign of the ndiswrapper.ko file in the ...../misc/ folder. I do not know if it is a bug with the mdk version of ndiswrapper that it doesn't put the right .ko file in .../misc/

 

So, it may be that the ndiswrapper.ko version was what was out of synch with the loadndisdriver.

 

It all seems a little bit flaky.

 

Is there no way we can get symvers up and running and then get the ndiswrapper-1.23 up and runing? Then we'll have the .ko and all that.

 

I am a bit reluctant to start again, and spend hours on DSL loading the updates and source.

 

Cheers

 

Karl