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#1 2008-08-27 20:22:30

RobF
Member
Registered: 2006-10-10
Posts: 157

How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26

Two days ago, I did a full system upgrade that included KDE v.3.9.5 -> 4.1, kernel v.2.6.25.4-1 -> 2.6.26.2-1, and ndiswrapper v.1.52-4 -> 1.53-1.  After the upgrade, wireless LAN wasn't working properly anymore, including wicd, the network manager that I'm using.

As "Cinder" described it in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=53607 :

"After this upgrade I have been having problem with my wireless device. When activated, it works for about 3-5 minutes and then it dies. There are no errors reported by dmesg or syslog when that happens. Any attempt to access causes the process to hang (i.e. iwconfig, iwlist scan, netcfg -d netprofile, ifconfig wlan0 down and so on.)."

A lot of people here have had similar problems.  There appears to be a conflict between kernel v.2.6.26 and ndiswrapper v.1.53.  A workable solution seems to be to downgrade ndiswrapper and ndiswrapper-utils to v.1.52.  This involves rebuilding the ndiswrapper module from an edited pkgbuild script.  I've described the details below.

After going through this, my wireless LAN seems to be working fine again, including managing the interface with wicd.  I'm using a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 01) that contains the BCM4311 chipset; the driver is bcmwl5 running in ndiswrapper.


=== How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26 ===

Get the properly edited pkgbuild for the ndiswrapper module from here:
http://repos.archlinux.org/viewvc.cgi/n … ision=5926

Get the install script from here:
http://repos.archlinux.org/viewvc.cgi/n … iew=markup

Run the following:
# pacman -R ndiswrapper
# pacman -R ndiswrapper-utils
# cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg   [assuming you still have a ndiswrapper-utils v.1.52 package in your pacman cache]
# pacman -U ndiswrapper-utils-1.52-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz   [or whatever release of ndiswrapper-utils v.1.52 you have]

Put the above PKGBUILD and ndiswrapper.install script into your build directory, navigate to it, then run

$ makepkg

This creates the pacman-installable tarball "ndiswrapper-1.52-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz".

su to root, then run
# pacman -U ndiswrapper-1.52-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz

Reboot.  Should work now.

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#2 2008-08-29 15:30:16

kumyco
Member
From: somewhere
Registered: 2008-06-23
Posts: 153
Website

Re: How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26

until it's fixed you can downgrade to 1.52 just change the kernel version in the pkgbuild from *2.6.24 to *2.6.26 and rebuild it
or

pacman -U  http://nrk.cc/arch/ndiswrapper-1.52-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz http://nrk.cc/arch/ndiswrapper-utils-1.52-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz

if you don't feel like rebuilding

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#3 2008-08-31 18:55:59

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26

I've downgraded my ndiswrapper and kernel temporarily. I'll wait for the mainline fix, I believe this bug applies to all .26 kernels with latest ndiswrapper, so  it should be a high-priority fix for them.

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#4 2008-09-04 20:10:24

vaidas
Member
Registered: 2008-02-08
Posts: 15

Re: How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26

Having the same issue, but downgrading kernel26 nor ndiswrapper, does not help sad(

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#5 2008-09-17 02:38:13

Cyrusm
Member
From: Bozeman, MT
Registered: 2007-11-15
Posts: 1,053

Re: How to get ndiswrapper working with kernel 2.6.26

thanks a ton kumyco! you have no idea how much you've helped!


Hofstadter's Law:
           It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

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