Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

SlackwareInAZ · 2005-08-23 02:57:30

Greetings everyone,

As my username implies, long time slackware user. Got bored one day and installed Arch and am very impressed.

One small problem. I have using a 2.6.12.5 kernel with a custom .config file that has reiser4 support patched in.

I have the ndiswrapper 1.2.tar.gz source that I compile and install. Sets up the ndiswrapper.ko module under /lib/modules/2.6.12.5/misc.

When I try to modprobe ndiswrapper I get the error:
FATAL: error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.12.5/misc/ndiswrapper.ko): Invalid module format

If I try ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf I get errors pointing to line 17 of /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper which is "use strict"

There are various other errors relating to /usr/perl/5.8.7, etc.

I use the same kernel with the same .config file in slackware with no problems installing the ndiswrapper module or modprobing it. Works fine.

I've been using Arch for a few months now, using 2.6.12.3 on. I know at one point I could modprobe ndiswrapper 1.2 with the previous kernels, so I don't know if there is something specific to 2.6.12.5 that is the problem.

I would use the Arch ndiswrapper, but it installs to the module that 2.6.12-ARCH uses, not my vanilla kernel.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in advance for any assistance and a very well put together distro.

Gary

iBertus · 2005-08-23 03:05:47

You could get the PKGBUILD for ndiswrapper and rebuild the package for your kernel. I think phrakture is the guy to ask about ndiswrapper problems around here.

SlackwareInAZ · 2005-08-23 03:14:59

IBertus,

Haven't delved into the world of Pkgbuild. How would I do this?

If you point me to the wiki link and what source I need to build I think I can handle this. Haven't done anything using ABS, etc. Just a full install, reiser4progs-1.0.4-1, 2.6.12.5 vanilla kernel source custom compiled with r4 support, then copied the data back onto the reiser4 formatted partition.

I would like to get ndiswrapper working with 2.6.12.5 kernel, so any tips or links would be most appreciated.

And what is it about Arch that makes the old method of manually compiling ndiswrapper source insufficient?

Thanks,
Gary

iBertus · 2005-08-23 03:37:32

The old method of by-hand compiling of source should work as always. The reason I recommended using the PKGBUILD to rebuild the package is so you would automatically get any patches that had been applied to the ndiswrapper source (if any) by the maintainer.

The procedure of making a package is very simple: you copy the file PKGBUILD into a directory and run makepkg from that directory. You can then install the package using pacman -A <filename>. This is a link to the files used to build the ndiswrapper package. You should be able to see if anything is different from the way you were compiling them (i.e. configure options).

phrakture · 2005-08-23 03:40:40

if you're getting perl errors, just reinstall perl... it should work fine 8)

SlackwareInAZ · 2005-08-23 04:05:06

That's what I thought, so I did reinstall perl w/o success.

I am going to recompile 2.6.12.4 kernel and try ndiswrapper with that, and keep going back through .3, .2 , etc.

I think pkgbuild is fine, for a convenient quick way, like the .tgz files that are used in Slackware, but they're really not changing my main problem. Getting the ndiswrapper.ko module to load.

Will keep you guys posted with what I find,
Gary

SlackwareInAZ · 2005-08-23 04:54:55

Another update--

Recompiled 2.6.12.5. Did same to ndiswrapper and this time module loads.

Last crazy thought. Both .4 & .5 were recompiled w/o Arch logo (logo_linux_clut224.ppm).

Am recompiling 2.6.12.4 again now with Arch logo to see if that makes any difference.

Other than that I am stumped as to why the previous 2.6.12.5 kernel was uncooperative.

Gary

phrakture · 2005-08-23 05:14:52

Well, the issue in the original post was a perl error when doing ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5, correct? is the perl error fixed? if not it has nothing to do with the kernel...

as for the insmod errors - there may be symlinks and things like that which aren't all setup right from using a custom kernel - I'd suggest compiling the kernel from the PKGBUILD in /var/abs/kernels/kernel26/ (just rename it to like kernel26-mine)

see if that works

SlackwareInAZ · 2005-08-23 05:36:58

phrakture,

Just finished recompiling 2.6.12.4 & 2.6.12.5 with and w/o the Arch logo. Am now able to load ndiswrapper module w/o any problems.

Previously, and I apologize if my first post was a little comfusing, was that
1: ndiswrapper.ko module would not load using modprobe without giving the invalid module format error.
2: if i tried ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf, thst's when I got the various perl errors which a reinstall did not fix.

I think maybe my 2.6.12.5 kernel source may have been corrupt.

When I installed Arch with reiser3.6, using the default ARCh 2.6 kernel, I then installed libaal-1.0.4-1 & reiser4progs-1.0.4.1, compiled a 2.6.12.5 kernel patched with the namesys R4 patch. Copied everything to another partition. Booted into slackware setup identically. Formatted hda6 for reiser4 and copied the data back. Use 0.96 Reiser4 patched Grub to boot into either Slackware, Arch or Windows XP.

So maybe the copy somehow corrupted something. Have never had a problem with this before, but live and learn.

I would still like to learn how to use pkgbuild as I am really impressed with the responsiveness of Arch, not that Slackware is a slouch by any means, but I think the 686 optimization works better with my 2.4ghz P4.

So any tips of pkgbuild would be most appreciated.

Gary

phrakture · 2005-08-23 05:56:38

there's alot of info in the wiki - they're really nothing special... simple bash scripts...

Arch Linux

#1 2005-08-23 02:57:30

Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#2 2005-08-23 03:05:47

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#3 2005-08-23 03:14:59

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#4 2005-08-23 03:37:32

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#5 2005-08-23 03:40:40

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#6 2005-08-23 04:05:06

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#7 2005-08-23 04:54:55

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#8 2005-08-23 05:14:52

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#9 2005-08-23 05:36:58

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

#10 2005-08-23 05:56:38

Re: Unable modprobe ndiswrapper on 2.6.12.5 kernel

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