WL-138gE Wireless Card Recognition/Configuration

[Ixthusdan]

First remove all ndiswrapper by

urpme ndiswrapper

 

Then, Get this file

 

Unpack with the command

tar zxvf ndiswrapper.blah.blah.tar.gz

 

Go into the directory and

make

 

su to root and

 make install

 

Follow the steps you already know to put it into the system. The notes indicate that ndiswrapper was crashing with Broadcom 64 bit drivers. I have used 64 bit drivers that would not work in windows, but worked fine in Linux!

[Orann]

Thats sounds about right, as to what I should do, but I've been getting an error in the installation:

 

 
[root@localhost ndiswrapper-1.47]# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/matt/Documents/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
Can't find kernel build files in /lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/build;
 give the path to kernel build directory with
 KBUILD=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/matt/Documents/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

 

From what I can fathom, it's from my having not installed the kernel source in the initial installation, but seeing as it's not on my CD's, I couldn't possibly have done so. Any ideas on where I might be able to download a replacement or some kind, or generate one?

Am I on track here?

 

If anyone has one, could they send it to me so I can try plugging that in and seeing how it goes?

 

Edit: Just a reminder that I have actually installed the kernel source RPM which I downloaded externally and installed seperatley. It did not create the file, oddly enough. Anyone?

[Ixthusdan]

Your kernel sources must match the running kernel. Whether they are "stripped" or not is not relevant. Did you upgrade the kernel without upgrading the sources? The stock kernel is 2.6.17-13mdv, therefore your sources should be kernel-source-stripped-2.6.17-13mdv.

If you have configured urpmi properly, then you can simply as root enter in a console

 urpmi kernel-source

If it gives you choices, choose. B)

[Orann]

Unfortunatley, I haven't configured urpmi at all, so when I type that, it finds nothing. I ran rpmdrake as root, and uninstalled my kernel source package (you were right, it was upgraded prematurely), so now I need a 2.6.17-13 version. ugh.

[Ixthusdan]

At the top of our board is a link called "Easy-Urpmi." Go there.

First, select the appropriate version in the drop downs.

Next, find mirrors that are close to you geographically. Despite this note, I used to always use ftp.nluug.nl because their bandwidth was better than some mirrors in the US. You will configure 5 sources: Main, contrib, updates, plf-free, and plf-nonfree.

At the last, you will get a rather lengthy text to enter into a console.

Open a console, su to root. type

urpmi.removemedia -a

Then copy all the text from the Easy-Urpmi sight and paste it into the console. It will automatically contact each mirror and get the list of rpms on that mirror. I ususally have to hit enter before the last line will go in.

Now your urpmi is properly configured, eliminating the need to hunt for anything.

[Orann]

Thanks, I'll try that, but I dont think it's going to work, because on my linux box I don't have any internet at all until I can get wireless, and for some reason (Why?!) there's no kernel source on my CD's.

 

Here's a sort of list showing where my problems are and what I am thinking they are because of and how I need to fix them:

 

Wireless Connection:

 

Card:

 

Get card recognised - Solution: Drivers.

 

Drivers:

 

Blacklist bcm43xx - Solved.

Ndiswrapper: -Get a working version of Ndiswrapper (I assume it's because the one I have is 32 bit, where I need the 64 bit version. Solution: Compile from source)

 

Compiling Ndiswrapper from source:

-Require commands to do so (Solved)

-Get Kernel source and install

 

Getting kernel Source and Installing:

 

Kernel source not on CD's (Wtf btw), Need to find a kernel source for a vanilla installed version of Mandriva Free 64 bit edition.

 

Possible solution: Urpmi (Still have to try).

 

 

Other possible problems: 64 bit drivers. Though they say they are, I am not 100% positive that the drivers I have are in fact usable for my 64 bit computer, and my card's chipset.

 

 

So what I need to do:

Find, download and install the kernel source for the vanilla install of mandriva free x86_64

Using this, (And making sure there's that build file), compile the latest Ndiswrapper from source

After getting that, I'll need to try out and use 64 bit windows drivers to associate them to the correct PCI card in Terminal with Ndiswrapper

Then, ensuring that bcm43xx is blacklisted, I should be able to go into the GUI and configure my wireless connection from there.

 

Ugh. I know all of the Konsole commands that I need, and I know what I need to do, now I just need the correct files, and hope that it works.

 

Does this sound about right to you all? And could someone help me find the files?

 

Thanks all for helping me, I do appreciate the time and effort spent in trying to help me out.

[adamw]

you don't necessarily need to compile ndiswrapper from scratch. The in-kernel version does work. It's just a bit outdated, so sometimes installing a newer version helps.

 

I think it would be a really good idea for you to update to the latest kernel...kernel updates happen for a reason :) so if I were you I'd install kernel-2.6.17-14mdv and kernel-source-2.6.17-14mdv .

 

My favourite way to really truly and finally disable a driver is just to delete the damn thing. Modules are .ko.gz files inside the /lib/modules/<kernel version>/ tree. Find the bcm43xx.ko.gz files inside all the /lib/modules/ directories, and delete the things (or just move them to your home directory, if you want to be less destructive). Then run this command as root:

 

depmod -a

 

bcm43xx won't be coming back after that...

[Orann]

Well, I did a fresh install of mandriva, Blacklisted and deleted bcm43xx, added an alias wlan0 ndiswrapper line to modprobe.conf and installed the kernel and source updated you listed above, restarted, tried to compile the new version of Ndiswrapper from source, failed miserably for some reason, got some errors (I'll past them in here later), so I decided just to install the versions on the CD's. ent into package manager and installed ndiswrapper and the ndiswrapper kernel.

 

After this, I went into Konsole and installed the 54 bit XP drivers manually, and configured them to work with my wireless card device via -d.

After doing this, I went into configuration/Network and tried to install a new network connection. I chose wireless, then hit "use a windows drivers (with ndiswrapper)". I elected the driver, hit Next, and...

 

Lo and behold, The same error comes up. Ndiswrapper interface not found.

 

I'm not sure what I should do from here, I'm completely lost as to where I should look to get this working now.

[Ixthusdan]

What does ndiswrapper -l report?

When you say you "configured" your drivers, what do you mean?

The list of steps I gave was intended to be explicitly followed, without any additional steps thrown in. ;)

[willie]

The same error comes up. Ndiswrapper interface not found.

This looks like the same problem i have with my IBM R31 and Broadcom w-lan, i don't got is work with 2007(1) he doesn't see the card. But it works fine with 2006, iv'e got it working under 2007(1) with the latest kernel 2.6.20 which is in contrib

What is the output of lspci.