Arch Linux

Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Ndiswrapper help

I need to get my wireless card working with ndiswrapper. I have the drivers, and ndiswrapper was installed when I installed arch. I think I have even installed the drivers. I just don't think it is set up properly. I have got this card working in ubuntu and debian, so I know it can work.
Can anyone point me to good intructions on ndiswrapper  in arch?

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

Never mind, I found a wiki page I missed before. I should really have a better look before posting.

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

I found the page and followed the instructions, but when I go to network manager>connect to other wireless network, network manager crashes.

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

I fixed the crashing problem, but still have to get it to see my network.

[duncan@myhost ~]$ ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
    device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)
[duncan@myhost ~]$ ndiswrapper -r bcm43xx
couldn't delete /etc/ndiswrapper/bcm43xx: No such file or directory
[duncan@myhost ~]$ rmmod bcm43xx
ERROR: Module bcm43xx does not exist in /proc/modules
[duncan@myhost ~]$

The problem is the alternate driver. I tried rmmod bcm43xx to get rid of it like the ndiswrapper instructions said, but I got an error.

Last edited by Raccoon1400 (2008-04-22 00:18:56)

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Fustrated Windows users have two options.
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wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Ndiswrapper help

you should try b43 or b43legacy. i'm using b43 on my dell 1390 wireless

http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/e … rivers/b43

Last edited by wonder (2008-04-22 10:01:48)

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

The restricted drivers for the broadcom card don't seem to work, I have only got it working with ndiswrapper.

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Ambi

Member

From: Warsaw, Poland

Registered: 2007-11-29

Posts: 44

Re: Ndiswrapper help

Paste the output of

lsmod | grep b43

.

Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

[duncan@myhost ~]$ lsmod | grep b43
b43                   123432  0
rfkill                  7440  15 rfkill_input,b43
mac80211              132236  1 b43
input_polldev           4624  1 b43
ssb                    36228  2 b43,b44
pcmcia                 38688  2 b43,ssb
pcmcia_core            38692  2 b43,pcmcia
[duncan@myhost ~]$

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

Was someone going to tell me what this code they asked me to post meant?

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DeeCodeUh

Member

From: Michigan, USA

Registered: 2007-11-27

Posts: 176

Re: Ndiswrapper help

In /etc/rc.conf you need to blacklist bcm43xx in your module list.
Example:

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Scan hardware and load required modules at bootup
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
# Module Blacklist - modules in this list will never be loaded by udev
MOD_BLACKLIST=(bcm43xx)
#
# Modules to load at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a module with a ! to blacklist it
#
MODULES=(forcedeth !bcm43xx snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore vboxdrv)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

Notice the ! before bcm43xx in the MODULES list and how I've put it in the MOD_BLACKLIST.
Blacklisting this will take away the confliction between your open source driver, and your ndiswrapper driver.

wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Ndiswrapper help

MOD_BLACKLIST is deprecated

from rc.conf
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.

also take a look at: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=43904

Last edited by wonder (2008-04-25 21:07:46)

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
MOD_BLACKLIST=(bcm43xx) #deprecated
MODULES=(b44 mii !bcm43xx ndiswrapper snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave soundcore vboxdrv)

but still get

[duncan@myhost ~]$ ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
    device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

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Fustrated Windows users have two options.
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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

If I blacklist b44, I can get wireless, but no wired, and I can't use the wireless host computer's internet connection. Would my wireless connection be wlan0 or eth1? How do I tell?

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wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Ndiswrapper help

just follow the link that i give you in last post. there is a issue with ssb + ndiswrapper.

try loading ndiswrapper before ssb

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

I did look at the other post. It helped a bit, but I don't have ssb. The alternate driver it tells me I have is bcm43xx.

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Fustrated Windows users have two options.
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wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Ndiswrapper help

you have ssb because b44 and b43 depends on it. use lsmod to see that

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Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

bgc1954

Member

From: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-14

Posts: 1,160

Re: Ndiswrapper help

Just put ndiswrapper at the start of your MODULES in /etc/rc.conf.  That seemed to solve it for all in the post wonder mentioned.  I used to use ndiswrapper for a Broadcom 4306 pcmcia card in my old thinkpad but now am using b43 with no problems.

Edit: Well I'll be darned.  There is something screwy going on here.  I just was reading a post on an ubuntu forum about ndiswrapper being better than b43 because it can use 802.1 g instead of 802.1 b, therefore more speed, than the b43 driver so I tried setting up ndiswrapper on my thinkpad but it shows the alternate driver bcm43xx with ndiswrapper -l.  I blacklisted and ! out bcm43xx and b43 in /etc/rc.conf and lsmod doesn't show any bcm43xx or b43 being loaded but ndiswrapper definitely showing alternate driver bcm43xx anyway.  There is a problem here and I don't know what it is but at least I can go back to b43.  Sorry Raccoon1400.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2008-04-26 18:55:28)

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Raccoon1400

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2008-04-14

Posts: 853

Re: Ndiswrapper help

Okay, now both wireless and wired work, but I still can't get internet from wireless. I can connect to the windows XP desktop, but can't use it's internet connection.

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Fustrated Windows users have two options.
1. Resort to the throwing of computers out of windows.
2. Resort to the throwing of windows out of computers.