ndiswrapper instillation help!!!

lecul6 · 06-07-2006, 09:24 AM

I'm new to linux and am trying to get connected to the internet

i have a ASUS WL-138G wireless card. I've tried to install ndiswrapper so that i can use the windows driver

i unpacked it all and typed 'make' and recieved the following error

linuxlee:/home/lee/wireless/ndiswrapper-1.17# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/wireless/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
Can't find kernel source files in /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build;
give the path to kernel sources directory with
KSRC=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/wireless/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

havin read the install notes it say you should have both the include foloder and .config file in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

linuxlee:/home/lee/wireless/ndiswrapper-1.17# ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
arch fs ipc Makefile net sound
crypto include kernel mm scripts usr
drivers init lib Module.symvers security

i only have the folder not the config file.

is this why i'm getting the error message, how do i fix this.

i'm runnig debian on a 2.6.8-2-386 kernel

thanks

jschiwal · 06-07-2006, 10:50 AM

For 2.6 kernels, there may be a /proc/config.gz pseudo file. You can use zcat >/usr/src/linux/.config to obtain a config of your running kernel. I said "may" because this feature may have been turned off when your working kernel was configured.

Some distro's will copy the .config file to /boot/config during installation. Another option is to run "make cloneconfig".

I you have a kernel-sym or kernel-symbols or kernel-syms package for your kernel, I think you will want to install it also. I'm not that familiar with debian systems. On my system, this and the kernel-source package install the kernel headers and symbols and the build environment for modules that are needed so that you can avoid going through the initial kernel build process in order to install kernel modules.

lecul6 · 06-07-2006, 11:53 AM

Thanks for the post

i tried the zcat thing but there isn't a /proc/config.gz pseudo file

linuxlee:/home/lee# ls /proc
1 345 4939 5038 5117 5382 asound interrupts partitions
1009 38 4941 5043 5208 5385 buddyinfo iomem scsi
1285 4 5 5048 5255 5392 bus ioports self
1386 4238 50 5072 5297 5394 cmdline irq slabinfo
1808 4716 5001 5081 5299 5396 cpuinfo kallsyms stat
1809 4719 5005 5082 5302 5398 crypto kcore swaps
193 4727 5006 5083 5304 5402 devices kmsg sys
2 4770 5011 5084 5306 5408 diskstats loadavg sysrq-trigger
213 4773 5015 5085 5316 5414 dma locks sysvipc
2854 4785 5017 5095 5340 5416 driver meminfo tty
2855 4791 5023 51 5342 5418 execdomains misc uptime
3 48 5024 5113 5350 5420 fb modules version
301 49 5028 5114 5352 5421 filesystems mounts vmstat
3123 4920 5032 5115 5354 5490 fs mtrr
3143 4926 5035 5116 5369 acpi ide net

linuxlee:/home/lee# zcat >/usr/src/linux/.config
bash: /usr/src/linux/.config: No such file or directory

there is a config file in the boot folder.

linuxlee:/home/lee# ls /boot
config-2.6.8-2-386 initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386 vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386
grub System.map-2.6.8-2-386

when i typed 'make cloneconfig' it said;

linuxlee:/home/lee# make cloneconfig
make: *** No rule to make target `cloneconfig'. Stop.

do i have to tell it where to clone it to? would is just put it in
lib/modules/2.8.6-2-386/build

i then checked synaptic package manager and found the following kernel packages;

kernel-package
kernel-kbuild-2.6-3

i installed them and tried ndiswrapper again but got the same errors.

any ideas??
thanks

lecul6 · 06-07-2006, 01:31 PM

i tried the tutorial under the networking link 'ndiswrapper on debian sarge without having to complie anything

it says grab the new kernel
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.8-2-386

i'm already running this kernel so i skiped to

apt-get install wireless-tools

that worked ok i typed 'iwconfig' and it gave an output

then tired the next step

apt-get install ndiswrapper-modules-2.6.8-2-386

which didn't work, said the file didn't exist.

???

anyone else having this problem with ndiswrapper??

jschiwal · 06-08-2006, 03:21 AM

Your kernel was configured not to provide the /proc/config.gz file. ( Ironically this configuration is disabled in the config file).

You can use the /boot/config-<version> file if this is your running kernel version.

If there isn't a cloneconfig target, you can try "make oldconfig" after copying this file.

---

If you look in the source directory for ndiswrapper, there is an "ndiswrapper.deb" file, so I think that you should be able to produce a debian package from the source. I do something similar to this on SuSE, using rpmbuild, every time after updating the kernel ( such as after a security update ). It sounds like the build system isn't set up properly. On my system, I need to install both the kernel-source and kernel-sym packages. I don't know if you have something cooresponding for debian. You may want to look in the /usr/src/linux directory for a README.debian file. It may explain what you need to do.

Sorry, I haven't been able to provide more help. I haven't used debian in ages. ( I don't even remember the distro I started with, but it was debian based and came with a cute penquin toy.)

lecul6 · 06-08-2006, 09:13 AM

hi

sorry to be a bit dumb about this but where do i have to copy the /boot/config-2.6.8-2-386 file to. is it too /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build folder.

i tried

linuxlee:cp /boot/config-2.6.8-2-386 /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build arch drivers init lib Module.symvers security
config-2.6.8-2-386 fs ipc Makefile net sound
crypto include kernel mm scripts usr

so th econfig file is in the build folder now. so i tried the make oldconfig

linuxlee:/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build# make oldconfig
make: Makefile: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `Makefile'. Stop.

i also tried the ndiswrapper thing again

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
Can't find kernel source files in /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build;
give the path to kernel sources directory with
KSRC=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

and got the same error

i also coulnd't find a ndiswrapper.deb file or a README.debian file

now i'm very confused, i seem to have the files needed in place but still doesn't work!

lecul6 · 06-08-2006, 03:12 PM

hi everyone

i tried the helpful advice given by Dutch Master (see LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux > Linux - Distributions > Debian > Cannot find kernel source directory in Sarge

then i tried to install ndiswrapper with

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# make KSRC=/usr/src/linux-2.6.8 make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build SUBDIRS=/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver \
DRIVER_VERSION=1.17
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386'
make[2]: Makefile: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `Makefile'. Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386'
make[1]: *** [default] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

so it seems to be saying that the header files aren't there. however i ls that directory and there is a file (see red)

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# ls /usr/src
debian.wxtract.out kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386kernel-headers-2.4.27-2 kernel-kbuild-2.6-3
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-386 kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-586tsc linux
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-686 linux-2.6.8
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-686-smp linux-2.6.8.tar.gz
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k6 linux.config
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k7 linux-OLDVERSION.1149710219
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k7-smp

aggggg!!!!!

jschiwal · 06-08-2006, 07:25 PM

The config file gets copied to /usr/src/`uname -r`/.config

Then run make oldconfig just incase the kernel has more features than are present in the config file. This probably won't be necessary, but is a command you would always run to check the config file.

I think there may be a problem with the 1.17 version of ndiswrapper that is the cause of your problem. You may try an earlier version.

I looked in the source. (v1.12) There is a debian directory in the source. I don't know how debian packages are produced, but these files are probably used.

jschiwal · 06-08-2006, 08:00 PM

I just tried rpmbuild using the 1.17 source and got the same error. So I did "rpmbuild -bp ndiswrapper.spec" to install any patches. Then I cd'ed to the source, in /usr/src/packages/BUILD/ndiswrapper-1.17 in my case.

I had to use
KSRC=/usr/src/<kernel-version>/ make -C driver
and
KSRC=/usr/src/<kernel-version>/ make install

The KSRC part on the second line may have been unnecessary, but I simply hit the up arrow and changed the end.

lecul6 · 06-09-2006, 03:40 AM

hi
thanks for your post

i tried copying the config file

linuxlee:/usr/src# cp //boot/config-2.6.8-2-386 /usr/src/`uname -r`/.config
cp: cannot create regular file `/usr/src/2.6.8-2-386/.config': No such file or directory

so its says there is no /usr/src/2.6.8-2-386/ directory, which there isn't.

linuxlee:/usr/src# ls /usr/src
debian.wxtract.out kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2 kernel-kbuild-2.6-3
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-386 kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-586tsc linux
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-686 linux-2.6.8
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-686-smp linux-2.6.8.tar.gz
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k6 linux.config
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k7 linux-OLDVERSION.1149710219
kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-k7-smp

i copied the config file to 2 directories
linux-2.6.8
kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386

i ran make oldconfig in each directory
in linux-2.6.8 it worked

in kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386 it said
make: Makefile: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `Makefile'. Stop.

i also tried

linuxlee:/usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386# rpmbuild -bp ndiswrapper.spec
bash: rpmbuild: command not found

but i do have a spec file already in ndiswrapper

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# ls
AUTHORS driver Makefile ndiswrapper.spec utils
ChangeLog INSTALL ndiswrapper.8 README version

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# KSRC=/usr/src/kernel-source.2.6.8-2-386 make -C driver
make: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
Can't find kernel source files in /usr/src/kernel-source.2.6.8-2-386;
give the path to kernel sources directory with
KSRC=<path> argument to make
make: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'

i also got the same message when i tried ..linux-2.6.8

i havn't tried a different version of ndiswrapper yet, i'll try that now

lecul6 · 06-09-2006, 04:38 AM

hi again!

i tried ndiswrapper-1.12.

it does have a folder in it called debian

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.12/debian# ls
changelog.modules control.modules copyright Makefile rules
changelog.source control.source dirs.utils postinst.modules
changelog.utils control.utils docs README.Debian

i tried

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.12/debian# make
linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.12/debian# make install
make: *** No rule to make target `install'. Stop.

so a little more progress, the first make statement seemed to work but not make install.

i also tried the usual stuff with no luck again.

jschiwal · 06-10-2006, 06:58 PM

I don't know which tools you have to make deb packages. You won't have rpmbuild on a debian system because you don't use RPMs. I use SuSE 10.1 so, my system is RPM package based. ( A distant derivative of Red Hat. )

I'm not certain which kernel you are using. Determine that and forget about the others for now.
What does "echo $(uname -r)" return?

The module build process for 2.4 and 2.6 kernels is different. If you are using a 2.4 kernel, then you may need to go through the entire process of making a kernel, making and installing the modules. I'm not certain of this however. You will need to read any README file in the /usr/src/<kernel-version> directory for your running kernel.

Read the INSTALL file in the ndiswrapper source directory. It states that you need at least a 2.6.6 kernel or a 2.4.26 kernel ( I'm reading from my version of ndiswrapper, be sure to read the INSTALL file in your version. )

Quote:

Prerequisites
=============

You need a recent kernel, at least 2.6.6 or 2.4.26, with header files
for the kernel. Make sure there is a link to the kernel source from
the modules directory. The command

ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

should have at least 'include' directory and '.config' file.

Look in these directories and make sure they exist. The /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ path may not be present for the 2.4 kernel source. You may need to create it yourself.

Here are my directories, which may be illustrative:

Code:

jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules> ls /usr/src
debug  linux  linux-2.6.16.13-4  linux-2.6.16.13-4-obj  linux-obj  packages
jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules> ls
2.6.16.13-4-default  2.6.16.13-4-xen
jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules> cd /lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/
jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default> ls /lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/ -l
total 1253
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     45 2006-05-21 07:31 build -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4-obj/x86_64/default
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root    264 2006-05-03 05:16 kernel
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     48 2006-05-21 09:16 misc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 275636 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.alias
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     69 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.ccwmap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 286699 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.dep
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    813 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.ieee1394map
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    636 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.inputmap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    235 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.isapnpmap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     74 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.ofmap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 225779 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.pcimap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    799 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.seriomap
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 127948 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.symbols
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   4952 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.unsupported
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 323093 2006-06-04 04:11 modules.usbmap
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     26 2006-05-21 07:32 source -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root    752 2006-05-21 09:22 updates

jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default> echo $(uname -r)
2.6.16.13-4-default

jschiwal@hpamd64:/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/build> ls -a
.  ..  arch  .config  include  include2  .kernelrelease  Makefile  Module.symvers  scripts

Concentrate on the kernel that you use. Make sure that the kernel-source and if available the kernel-syms packages are installed for that kernel.

Quote:

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# KSRC=/usr/src/kernel-source.2.6.8-2-386 make -C driver
make: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
Can't find kernel source files in /usr/src/kernel-source.2.6.8-2-386;
give the path to kernel sources directory with

You may have a typo here. KSRC=/usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.8-2-386 make -C driver

My system uses the names linux-<version> instead of kernel-source.<version>.
Check out the names with "ls" to make certain.

Also, any "make install" command will need to be done as root. Maybe even the others if you are working with the kernel source. It depends on the permissions of the directories. They probably only allow writing as root. This prevents tampering of the source by any normal user, so ignore advice to run make and make oldconfig as a normal user for kernel source. This would hold true if you had downloaded the kernel source to your home directory and were building the kernel from there. Since this isn't the case, you need to run make as root (either sudo make ...; or "su root" first.)

Good Luck. I hope I haven't confused you or led you astray!

Regards.

jschiwal · 06-10-2006, 07:05 PM

This is a postscript. I looked in the ndiswrapper's Makefile. There is a "make dist" target and a "make deb" target.

The "make dist" target has the "deb" target as a prerequisite, so that probably would be the one to use.
If your source and build system (kernel symbols, /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build link) are set up correctly, then you may be able to use this to build a debian package.

The moral of the story is "read the source Luke".

Also, in case it will be helpful understanding how make works, the "make -C deb" and "make -C driver" that you see, tell the make command to cd to these directories and use the Makefile in these directories instead.

lecul6 · 06-17-2006, 01:31 PM

hi, sorry i've been away for a while

i tried

linuxlee:/home/lee# echo $(uname -r)
2.6.8-2-386

The prerequisites in the install file are the same as yours.

my directories are as follows;

linuxlee:/home/lee# ls /lib/modules
2.4.27-2-386 2.4.27-2-686 2.4.27-2-k6 2.4.27-2-k7-smp 2.6.8-2-386
2.4.27-2-586tsc 2.4.27-2-686-smp 2.4.27-2-k7 2.6.8

linuxlee:/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386# ls -l
total 832
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-06-09 12:37 boot
lrwxrwxrwx 1 lee lee 35 2006-06-07 12:23 build -> /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-06-09 12:37 initrd
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2006-06-07 12:37 kernel
drwxr-xr-x 2 lee lee 4096 2006-06-09 11:00 misc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 138720 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.alias
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 69 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.ccwmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 235506 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.dep
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 517 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.ieee1394map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1061 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.inputmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16427 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.isapnpmap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 131958 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.pcimap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104676 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.symbols
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 157116 2006-06-09 12:38 modules.usbmap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 100 2006-06-09 12:37 source -> /home/horms/tmp/debian-kernel-test/kernel-image-2.6.8-i386/kernel-image-2.6.8-i386-2.6.8/install-386

linuxlee:/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build# ls -a
. drivers kernel Module.symvers
.. .extraversion kernel-source-2.6.8 net
arch fs lib scripts
.config include linux-source-2.6.8-2-386 security
config-2.6.8-2-386 init Makefile sound
crypto ipc mm usr

i also tried

KSRC=/usr/src/linux-2.8.6-2-386 make -C driver

with the same error

i have been trying everything so far with root, so the problem isn't a permissions thing.

then i tried make dist

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# make dist
mkdir -p ndiswrapper-1.17
for subdir in utils driver; do \
if test "$subdir" = .; then :; else \
test -d ndiswrapper-1.17/$subdir \
|| mkdir ndiswrapper-1.17/$subdir \
|| exit 1; \
fi; \
done
make -C driver distdir=../ndiswrapper-1.17/driver dist
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make -C utils distdir=../ndiswrapper-1.17/utils dist
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/utils'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/utils'
# Update version in dist rpm spec file - don't crash if it fails
sed -i "s/\%define\s\+ndiswrapper_version\s\+[^\}]\+\}/%define ndiswrapper_version 1.17\}/" ndiswrapper-1.17/ndiswrapper.spec
tar cfz ndiswrapper-1.17.tar.gz ndiswrapper-1.17

this seemed to work so then i tried make install, whcih produced the usual errors, i also tried make dist install

linuxlee:/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17# make dist install
mkdir -p ndiswrapper-1.17
for subdir in utils driver; do \
if test "$subdir" = .; then :; else \
test -d ndiswrapper-1.17/$subdir \
|| mkdir ndiswrapper-1.17/$subdir \
|| exit 1; \
fi; \
done
make -C driver distdir=../ndiswrapper-1.17/driver dist
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make -C utils distdir=../ndiswrapper-1.17/utils dist
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/utils'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/utils'
# Update version in dist rpm spec file - don't crash if it fails
sed -i "s/\%define\s\+ndiswrapper_version\s\+[^\}]\+\}/%define ndiswrapper_version 1.17\}/" ndiswrapper-1.17/ndiswrapper.spec
tar cfz ndiswrapper-1.17.tar.gz ndiswrapper-1.17
make -C driver install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
Can't find kernel source files in /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build;
give the path to kernel sources directory with
KSRC=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lee/ndiswrapper-1.17/driver'
make: *** [install] Error 2

this still doesn't get ndiswraper going, but is creates a new folder, inside /home/lee/ndiwrapper-1.17 called ndiswrapper-1.17

would it be worth trying getting the latest kernel from kernel.org, compliling it all and trying using the new kernel?

thanks