I'm just starting to learn Linux, but I'm having a bit of a roadblock setting up my wireless cards. After a week of beating my head against the wall, I learned about the 4k stack limit (both of the wireless options I have will need to use ndiswrapper or the Driverloader product).

My most recent install, and the Distro that I seem to be getting along the best with, is FC9 (2.6.25.10). Driverloader informed me of the 4k stack limit and indeed, stack overflow is showing in the log.

I spent the last several days trying to recompile a custom kernel, but either the docs are out of date or the folders in my install don't quite line up with the docs. In the end I gave up for now and tied to use Driverloaders 16k stack kernel update from here: [HTML]http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads-fc9-x86.php[/HTML]

The only problem now is that every doc I find tells me I need to download the kernel and source . . .there is only one link for i686 per kernel. What am I missing to install this so I can move on to Ndiswrapper and my wireless?

Sounds to me like you should just download the kernel from kernel.org, compile to suit your own needs instead of relying on the Fedora Community to create such kernel.

I would be willing to do anything at this point, but I think you missed part of what I have done.

1. It tried several different distros and setup routines to get my hardware to work,

2. I have upgraded my kernel,

3. I have attempted to recompile my own kernel with no success, due to my lack of understanding of the process,

4. I have attempted to install the Driverloader kernel, and failed due to my lack of understanding of the process. I had planned on this being the easy way out and buying me some time to learn Linux before attempting #3 again.

In short, I'm a newb and have no idea what I'm doing at this level yet, but I don't have much choice if I want to learn except to climb a steep learning curve.

I'm open to anything that can get me a kernel that is large enough to allow the wrapping of my drivers, but I'll need a pretty good nudge in a specific direction.

Thanks

Good try.
Most of us haven't had to do this, it just works (sometimes needing a few tweaks)
With three posts to your name, I am not surprised. I've had to recompile the kernel only three (four?) times in my long life (it was scary, but it worked). You get points for having attempted it though!

You have told us your distro (FC9, (2.6.25.10)) but it would be helpful if you told us what your wireless hardware is. Perhaps there is something simple that needs to be fixed.
That said, I have never used FC, but post some more info about your wireless card, and someone here will probably be able to help you further.

Hints:
lspci -v (and look for / post relevant parts)
or (in case your wireless is on a USB port (eg some laptops))
lsusb (and look for / post relevant parts)

There may also be useful information in the file /var/log/messages but please do not post it all, as it is usually very boring. Please just look through it for things you think might be relevant. I accept that it looks like gobbledygook at first read, but on re-reading you'll begin to understand it and appreciate it.

dmesg would probably be more helpful than /var/log/messages.

As for the kernel recompile, well, it's been asked and answered plenty of times, a quick search will probably produce many results to go over in help of recompiling. But yeah, giving more details of the wireless card your trying to get working with the stack might be helpful.

Thanks for the helping hand Trickykid. My first attempt at Linux was about five years ago and was very short-lived due to the hardware setup at that time.

I actually have two wireless devices that I'd like to set up eventually. The first is an on-board 802.11b by Actiontek. I don't know a whole lot about it other than it apparently uses the Prism 2.5 chipset. Here is the best info I could find in the INF file:

VER_VENDOR_STR = "Actiontec"
VER_VENDOR_NAME_STR = "Actiontec Electronics, Inc"
PRISM_USB1 = "Actiontec PRISM Wireless LAN USB Card"

It's my understanding that this card can be run either with the wireless-ng package or with Ndiswrapper/Driverwrapper.

The other card is a Linksys WPC-54Gv2 PCMCIA. Everything i've found about it says Ndiswrapper/Driverwrapper is the only way to go. Although this is a better / faster card, for what I'm doing with this laptop the "B" onboard would work just fine and I wouldn't have to worry as much about forgetting or damaging it.

dmesg

ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (8192 buckets, 32768 max)
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
dldrengine: module license 'see LICENSE file; Copyright (c)2003-2004 Linuxant inc.' taints kernel.
dldrengine: stack=4096/72/0 REGPARM SMP
usbcore: registered new interface driver driverloader
RPC: Registered udp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp transport module.

The detailed report after Driverloader failed showed a stack overflow on both devices (I tried the drives for both wireless cards.

lspci & lsusb
[andy@localhost ~]$ lspci -v
bash: lspci: command not found
[andy@localhost ~]$ lspci -v
bash: lspci: command not found
[andy@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost andy]# lspci -v
bash: lspci: command not found
[root@localhost andy]# lsusb
bash: lsusb: command not found
[root@localhost andy]#

This ^^^ is part of the frustration I have had. General commands will work . . .and then not work.

For instance, this http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel is one of the guides I tried to follow, word-for-word, until I got to this point:

cp -rv ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.$ver/linux-2.6.$ver.$arch ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.$ver.orig
cp -alv ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.$ver.orig ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.$ver.new

I plugged the numbers in and was told the directory didn't exist. I manually went to the directory and tried to copy the files, but was told I didn't have permission (even as root).

Ideas?

Ooh.. nasty. I didn't realize you were trying to build a kernel from a SRC RPM. You might be better off just downloading and building a kernel from kernel.org from source.

I've tried about 3-4 times using different How-to's. I just got done formatting and reinstalling off a disk to have a clean slate. I'm back to kernel 2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.

Any idea why I still don't have lspci or lsusb even after the system wipe?

I'd be pretty sure you do have them - try "su -" (note the minus sign). I have a *lot* of gripes with the way Fedora/redhat set their systems up - this being one. I digress.
I've recently tried Fedora (9 as it happens) after avoiding Redhat for years after a shocking experience with RH9. I don't often disagree with tricky, but I will here - I think you are better off following that guide rather than using a vanilla kernel - too many patches incorporated in a Fedora kernel.
Those commands should work for your (non-root) user - did you do *all* the command as non-root ???.
Else it might be a selinux problem - but you should get a message then.

I might try this when I get home.

Nice find. That little "-" evidently makes alot of difference. Here's the output of lspci and lsusb. It looks like the ACX chipset I thought was the Actiontec wireless actually belongs to the Linksys. I'm going to try recompiling again tomorrow now that the system is fresh.

[andy@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@localhost ~]# lspci -v

02:00.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G Ver.2 802.11G PC Card
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
Memory at 38020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8K]
Memory at 38000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

[root@localhost ~]# lspci -v

02:00.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G Ver.2 802.11G PC Card
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
Memory at 38020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8K]
Memory at 38000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

[root@localhost ~]#

Nothing at all about the onboard wireless B, but I know it works in windows.

And no, I didn't run all the commands as root. I've been trying to practice good form (in spite of my DOS background) and oly run them that way if they don't work through a regular login or if the How-to's specify it.

Thanks for the tip.

Huh ??? non-root is good form.
I think we agree - I hope ...

lspci and lsusb didn't work cause they weren't in your users PATH. Using su - to become root, /sbin is usually in root's default path, that's why it works for that user. But in most cases, as a user, you can run lspci and most other commands in the /sbin directory, you just need to specify the full path to the command or add it to your PATH. But you shouldn't be su'ing just to run those commands.

Working directly as root is not good. Everything should be done as a regular user until root privileges are needed, then you want to use sudo when necessary as such user.

Ok, I gave up on the Fedora build How-to and took your advice Trickykid. I'm using the vanilla kernel patching procedure at http:/www.digitalhermit.com/linux/Ke...ild-HOWTO.htmlbut I'm stuck at the patching stage.

The original patch file is in home/andy/Downloads. The kernel files are in /home/andy/src/linux-2.6.26.

The patch command called for in the howto is "patch -p1 <../patch-2.6.0.test8

My version of that should be patch -p1 <../patch-2.6.26. I've even copied the patch file into the <linux-2.6.26> directory and tried it that way.

Here are the variation that I've tried:

[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ patch -p1 patch-2.2.26
^C
[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ patch -p1 /home/andy/Download/patch-2.6.26
^C
[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ patch-2.6.26
bash: patch-2.6.26: command not found
[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ man patch
[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ patch patch-2.6.26
patch patch-2.6.26
^C
[andy@localhost linux-2.6.26]$ patch -p1 <../patch-2.6.26
bash: ../patch-2.6.26: No such file or directory


What am I doing wrong?

Where did you get this patch file at?

ftp://ftp.uw-madison.lkams.kernel.or...x/kernel/v2.6/

In .gz format and unzipped using the How-to directions.