Arch Linux

curtiplas

Member

Registered: 2009-09-18

Posts: 2

Ndiswrapper itermittent issue

Hi all,

So this is my first time using Arch, however I've used linux several times in the past and am well versed with friends who have several years experience with linux.  Here's the skinny...

I have a Broadcom BCM4328 Wireless adapter.  In the past when I used ubuntu I required Ndiswrapper to use my wireless card because there were no linux drivers.  Upon installing arch, I used Ndiswrapper... which works great... when it works...

It seems my wireless card works intermittently, which I'm pretty sure is not a hardware issue as it worked just fine, before I installed arch.  I believe the issue my have to do with Ndiswrapper as inorder for me to get it to work I have to do the following

Ndiswrapper -l
Ndiswrapper -m
depmod -a
modprobe ndiswrapper
reboot

Everytime I want to use my wireless card.

Please help, I don't know what to do, but without wifi, my laptop is nearly useless to me...

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Ndiswrapper itermittent issue

Did you try the normal 'b44' kernel driver? What's your dmesg output?

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1000

curtiplas

Member

Registered: 2009-09-18

Posts: 2

Re: Ndiswrapper itermittent issue

I'm familiar with Linux, more or less getting apps to work, not this more in depth stuff, so unfortunately I"m not clear on what you mean by the b44 kernel driver, or how I would go about using it.  In addition I ran the dmesg command, not sure what I should be looking for, or rather what you're looking for.

Kyle Carter

Member

Registered: 2008-02-14

Posts: 91

Re: Ndiswrapper itermittent issue

It's actually called the b43 driver, which I think must have been a typo on byte's part.

b43-fwcutter is a package you can install from pacman which uses the broadcom firmware to create drivers for 43xx hardware. Pretty easy to use, and generally recommended over using ndiswrapper, which is generally considered a "last resort".

more info here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
instructions here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup#b43

Of course, you'll want to uninstall ndiswrapper before following these instructions.

Last edited by Kyle Carter (2009-09-18 21:09:46)

AngryKoala

Member

Registered: 2009-01-22

Posts: 197

Re: Ndiswrapper itermittent issue

I had the same problem as the OP.  I uninstalled my driver using ndiswrapper, then reinstalled it, restarted, saw if it worked.  If it didn't I would repeat.  If it did I would keep it until it disappeared again.  That only went on for about a week.  Now I've been connected for 2 months straight without a hitch.  In short, I have no idea what causes it seeng as how my own topic didnt really get answered, none of the tutorials helped, but I do know that ndiswrapper worked/works with my card, so I just kept repeating that process until it did.  That may sound grim, but I hope you find the sweet spot