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atrus123
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: Annapolis, MD
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 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:12 pm Post subject: iwconfig and ndiswrapper (increasingly stumped) |
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I can't seem to find a thread that addresses this specific problem, so here goes.
I've got an integrated broadcom wireless card, and to my knowledge, the only way to use it would be through beloved Ndiswrapper.
That said, Ndiswrapper seems to be malfunctioning or something. I installed the driver (bcmw15a.inf, with bcmw15.inf present in the directory) and immediately checked it with:
But rather than a nice, clean list of installed drivers, it spewed out a loathesome:
| Code: |
Unknown line at line 5586
Unknown line at line 5587
Unknown line at line 5588
Unknown line at line 5589
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And so on until line 5603 and ultimately:
| Code: |
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmw15a invalid driver!
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Better yet, there is no way to remove the driver. Whenver I try, it tells me it isn't installed and whenver I attempt to reinstall, it tells me the driver is already installed.
I'm guessing this is a kernel issue? What all do I need to build to get ndiswrapper working? Also, is there a way to reinstall ndiswrapper? Maybe it just didn't emerge properly.
Thanks again and forgive my idiocy!
J.
Ps. I'm really impressed with all the help I've recieved on this board so far. This is a learning experience for me, and I'm learning a great deal from you.
Last edited by atrus123 on Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:43 am; edited 4 times in total |
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niffs
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Joined: 25 Apr 2004
Posts: 212
Location: The Wired
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| Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:09 am Post subject: |
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I've had my share of annoyances with ndiswrapper... Basically (correct me if I'm wrong) the "invalid line"s are from either lspci or lsusb (can't remember which). Some versions of that program have incompatibilities with the corresponding .ids file in /usr/share/misc. I think those lines are unnesessary and can be deleted. It's not an ndiswrapper problem...
If you want to remove the driver, delete its directory from /etc/ndiswrapper.
Did you use "ndiswrapper -i" to install the drivers, or did you manually install? A lot of drivers require additional .sys files in order to function...
Another thing: sometimes companies will switch the chipset in wireless cards out for another... Find out what chipset you're using. Does broadcom use athereos? If so, look into madwifi.
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atrus123
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
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Location: Annapolis, MD
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| Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:56 am Post subject: |
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Cool, I'll give that stuff a shot.
I just pulled the driver off my HP restore disk. Would it be wiser to just drag and drop the driver, along with a bunch of other possibly useful files, into the ndiswrapper directory? I think there are two important files, but it was unsucessful to ndiswrapper -i both files. Both installed, but without the desired effect.
Thanks!
J. |
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niffs
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Joined: 25 Apr 2004
Posts: 212
Location: The Wired
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm... I know that the ndiswapper folk recommend downloading the driver from the distributor's page, extracting the .exe file, and using that, but getting the files off the disk ought to work.
To install, you should run "ndiswrapper -i <insert .inf file here>"
Ndiswrapper _SHOULD_ check the .inf file and copy any other files it needs into the right place...
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atrus123
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Location: Annapolis, MD
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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I'm back to working on this issue, and your suggestion seemed to have installed the driver. Thanks much  |
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atrus123
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: Annapolis, MD
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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Ok, so now that I've got the driver installed, #ndiswrapper -l produces:
| Code: | Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwa driver present, hardware present
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then I type "#modprobe -a ndiswrapper", and nothing complains.
iwconfig, however, still produces the same old:
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lo no wireless extentions
eth0 no wireless extentions
sit0 no wireless extentions
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Shouldn't I be getting something different in there by now?
This is a laptop with an integrated *blech* broadcom wireless card. There is also a button to activate the wireless card, but when I push it, nothing happens.
Might that button be the root of all this evil?
J. |
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niffs
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Joined: 25 Apr 2004
Posts: 212
Location: The Wired
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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Well... My laptop has a broadcom too... That button might be causing some problem, but I doubt it (my laptop has something like that too). Are you sure you have the right driver? My linksys usb adapter-thing came with multiple drivers, and two of them said "hardware present", but only one actually worked...
Also, you might want to check the "dmesg" output...
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atrus123
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Location: Annapolis, MD
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:43 am Post subject: |
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Ahh, so I checked dmesg, and it produces a bunch of gobligook, capped off with:
| Code: | {:ndiswrapper: unload_ndis_driver+149} RSP <ffff810015d97de8> CR2: 0000000000000050 <3>ndiswrapper (ndiswrapper_load_driver:93): load ndiswrapper failed (9)
APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)
APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)
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If the gobligook is needed, let me know and I'll copy it too.
The APIC stuff seems a bit suspicious, no?
The processor I'm running this with is an AMD 64 Turion chip. I notice that ndiswrapper is still in testing for AMD 64. Could this be an issue as well?
J. |
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niffs
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Joined: 25 Apr 2004
Posts: 212
Location: The Wired
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:48 am Post subject: |
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So.... Ndiswrapper is not getting loaded (failing with error code 9?). The APIC stuff... I dunno about that... Maybe boot the kernel with the "noapic" option...
Try to compile ndiswrapper with USE="debug", and check the dmesg then (It'll output a TON of irrelevant stuff, but what you're looking for might be mixed in)... I'm not sure what error code 9 is, I'm gonna try looking it up (EDIT: Couldn't find anything).
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atrus123
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: Annapolis, MD
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| Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:22 am Post subject: |
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Hey, thanks for checking I appreciate your help.
I'll reemerge and check the output.
Whew, I wish I knew more about this stuff,
J. |
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