Hi there
I need help on configuring the Broadcom integrated wireless in my new HP Pavilon dv5000. I am a newcomer to Linux and have relativel y little experience with computers on the whole. I have successfully insatlled Suse Linux 10.0, 64 bit version to dual boot with Windows XP Home edition.

As far as the wirless card goes I have been trying to navigate the command line interface, using some tips provided by Rob Reilly on one of his articles as well as some other posts on various forums. When I do this, these are the various error messages I get:

First of all, I have downloaded the Windows drivers for the Broadcom device and have unzipped them to my home folder. I have also installed ndiswrapper in yast. Further I also downloaded the laterst version of ndiswrapper, ndiswrapper-1.10 and untarred it in my home directory. After this I change directory to the ndiswrapper directory and execute a 'make all' command. At this point I get the following error message:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/preeth/ndiswrapper-1.10/driver'
Can't find kernel sources in /lib/modules/2.6.13-15.8-default/build;
give the path to kernel sources with KSRC=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/preeth/ndiswrapper-1.10/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Can anybody tell me what is happening here and how I can go about fixing this?

I have tried some steps further down the line, but I guess this is not the right way to do it since I have not resolved the first issue? For instance, when I do a modprobe ndiswrapper, this is the error message that I get:

FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found!

Following the suggestions given in the artice I seem to have successfully bound the driver to ndiswrapper using the command:

ndiswrapper -i netbc564.inf.

Hence when I do a ndiswrapper -l, I get the following message:

Installed ndis drivers:
netbc564 driver present

However there is no 'hardware present' in the above line. I guess the hardware should also be duly detected.

Thanks a lot to anyone who can help me with this! I would really appreciate it. Please tell me what I have to do next in terms of rectifying the errors as well as the addtional steps to be followed in getting the wireless card to work.
Cheers
preeth26

first, the error you received when you tried to make ndiswrapper is because you don't have the source files of your kernel, not sure the command in yast to get it, but you can probably google it up.

second, you should use the latest version of ndiswrapper and compile from source, so un yast the one you yasted. (i'm a slacker so i don't know what yast is)

when you goto the ndiswrapper website look for the "Wiki" that page has everything you need, a complete list of supported devices and drivers and the easiest step by step install for any linux application ever written.

There are a number of issues here.

Finlay touched on not having the kernel sources. Search in yast for package called I believe kernel-devel and make sure it's version is that of your kernal version specified in 'uname -r'

Did you do a ndiswrapper -m and a depmod -a before you tried to modprobe ndiswrapper

netbc562 driver present - in my experience this is indicative of the wrong windows drivers being installed. I am not sure about this one but I think that you should also so a "hardware present" output also.

Hi there
Thanks to both of you for your replies, I have inched a little but further in my learning! I am running kernel 2.6.13_15.8. I do not have the kernel source for this since I only have 2.6.13-15 kernel source. I found a web site with the sources and I have duly downloaded file 2.6.13-15_15.8.x86_64.delta.rpm.
When I try to install this using Yast (Yast is a handy tool for installing all kinds of programs and applications in SUSE, much like Windows Installer, I guess!) I get an error message saying that I should first create a real rpm file first.

I think I understand the difference between the delta file and the realrpm file but how do I change the delta file into a real rpm file? Please help!

Thanks again
preeth26

I don't use Suse neither do I understand what a delta file is,

Use YaST to update to the latest kernel and the latest kernel sources should be in YaST. Keep in mind I don't use Suse so I do not know if your current kernel sources are in YaST, that is why I say to YaST update.

You should also be able to get the ndiswrapper via YaST and not worry about the sources nor compiling ndiswrapper, although Finley suggests to get the latest ndiswrapper from compiling from source , YaST is the easy way, and I would take that route unless you need a special feature in the latest ndiswrapper version, and is not available in YaST.

The only reason I compile from source is because I have had problems with ndiswrapepr and wpa_supplicant and the newest version of ndiswrapper has not always worked with my wireless card nor wpa_supplicant. I also like to upgrade my kernal and not have to go back to yum(or YaST) via wired internet to re-compile ndiswrapper.