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Wireless network stopped working [solved]


mystified
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I had a lot of trouble getting wireless working in my laptop when I installed Mandriva 2007. Today it stopped working all together. I tried reconfiguring with no luck. So I decided to remove the ndiswrapper rpm and compile it myself.

 

I'm getting the following error:

[FATAL: ERROR inserting ndiswrapper]

I did modprobe ndiswrapper and got the following:

(/lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/kernel/3rdpartyndiswrapper/ndiswrapperko.gz): INVALID arguement

 

Any idea what could be wrong or why my wireless would suddenly stop working?

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Hey, the error you gave - that's not the exact error is it? I ask cos on my box the path is

 

/lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/kernel/3rdparty/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko.gz

 

with the following attributes

 

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 81305 Sep 13 19:33 ndiswrapper.ko.gz

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I'm getting the following error:

[FATAL: ERROR inserting ndiswrapper]

I did modprobe ndiswrapper and got the following:

(/lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/kernel/3rdpartyndiswrapper/ndiswrapperko.gz): INVALID arguement

Were you using the mmc or terminal to set up your wireless?

 

Did you do the:

ndiswrapper -i driver.inf

after you compiled your new ndiswrapper?

 

Just for the heck of it... what wireless card are you using? :mysti2:

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My card is a broadcom bcm4318 air force one 802.11 wireless lan controller

 

Driver installed is bcmwl5.

 

ndiswrapper -i driver.inf gives me

couldn't open driver.inf

/usr/bin/ndiswrapper line 172

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ndiswrapper -i driver.inf gives me

couldn't open driver.inf

/usr/bin/ndiswrapper line 172

You were supposed to replace the 'driver.inf' with your driver, that now I know would be

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

you also should have the bcmwl5.sys file in the same directory as the bcmwl5.inf driver.

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ndiswrapper -i driver.inf gives me

couldn't open driver.inf

/usr/bin/ndiswrapper line 172

 

The ndiswrapper -i should have been ndiswrapper -l Sorry a bit difficult to distinguish. The '-i tries to install the driver you give, which in your statement is 'driver.inf' of course there will be no such file.

The ndiswrapper -l will give you a list of drivers installed and tell you if the hardware is present.

 

E.G.

Installed drivers

bcmwl5 driver Installed,hardware present

 

If you do not get output like that then either the driver is not installed, the card has not been detected or ndiswrapper would appear to have been corrupted.

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My card is a broadcom bcm4318 air force one 802.11 wireless lan controller

I have the BCM4318 working with the Linux driver using Debian. I had to check on this for you before I posted... that driver is also in Mandriva 2007, if you would like to try it.

 

You would have to install the bcm43xx-fwcutter to extract the firmware from the bcmwl5.sys to /lib/firmware that is needed for the use of this driver. Alternately I could make the 'latest' bcm43xx-fwcutter version and extract it for you on my Mandriva box? I don't think it would be legal for me to attach it here, but I could pm it to you. Then you would simply copy it to your /lib/firmware directory and do:

modprobe bcm43xx

and set it up with your gui.

 

Let me know?

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Greg where did you find the linux driver?

It's been in the Linux kernel since 2.6.17-2 you will find it here:

/lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx.ko.gz

or replace '2.6.17-5mdv' with your kernel version, if it's different?

 

but it needs the firmware to work.

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My thoughts on this.

 

I did email you the results that what I think will work best with ndiswrapper.

 

If you want ndiswrapper, remove the source and use the rpm. I don't see the need for compiling if the app is already there and helps reduce the amount of problems, in case something not working with compiling.

 

Since it stopped working, I would remove all drivers from the /etc/ndiswrapper directory and install them again. Perhaps there's a problem here.

 

Also, with ndiswrapper, you just need to follow the ndiswrapper wiki install guide from ndiswrapper -i downwards.

 

Extra consideration for mandriva is adding to /etc/modprobe.preload the word:

 

ndiswrapper

 

this will ensure the module loads at boot. It's supposed to do it with just the entry in /etc/modprobe.conf but it doesn't seem to.

 

If you want to try the module within the kernel, it should be just a case of modprobe as Greg says. However, you might need to ensure you have all your easyurpmi sources for main/contrib/main_updates/contrib_updates/plf-free/plf-nonfree. And then do a:

 

urpmf --name bcm

 

and see what comes back. One of these might be the firmware, and then all you need to do is install this. It could be a dkms package, or it could be something completely separate. I know with the ipw3945 card that I had difficulty with Mandriva because one of the packages wasn't there, and I had to compile it manually.

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urpmi shouldnt return anything for a search for broadcom, as the firmware is licensed etc.

 

To use broadcom, follow the instructions on it's site (easily found with google) and use their fwcutter tool to cut the firmware out of the windows drivers where it is embedded.

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