ndiswrapper refuses to compile against kernel 2.6.19-1.2288

lavie · 02-19-2007, 02:38 PM

I am running FC5 on an Intel Pentium-III. Today I upgraded via yum from 2.6.18-1.2257.fc5 to 2.6.19-1.2288.

ndiswrapper refused to compile from sources, stating various various missing declarations. Up until now, I had been using ndiswrapper 1.15, because anything later wouldn't work with my wirelass card's chipset: "Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)".

But for the heck of it, I downloaded sources for the latest stable - 1.37. That wouldn't compile against 2.6.19-1.2288.fc5 any better.

1) What do I do to make this compile?
2) Why won't a later version of ndiswrapper work with "Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)".
3) Is there a better way to enable a non-supported chipset? I do need wpa (I'm using wpa_supplicant)

Any ideas?

TIA
Lavie

Lenard · 02-19-2007, 04:08 PM

Err....... you no longer need ndiswrapper with that chipset.

The new bcm43xx kernel module will work. Try it, just edit the /etc/modprobe.conf fle to something like; alias wlan0 bcw43xx

Do not for get to load the module and restart the network service when done;

/sbin/modprobe bcm43xx
/sbin/service network restart

lavie · 02-19-2007, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenard

Err....... you no longer need ndiswrapper with that chipset.

The new bcm43xx kernel module will work. Try it, just edit the /etc/modprobe.conf fle to something like; alias wlan0 bcw43xx

Hmm
I thought this was Beta-level support, only supprted the "b" (11Mbps standard) and didn't support wpa_supplicant or any other wpa solution. Am I wrong?

Lavie

Lenard · 02-19-2007, 06:09 PM

It is Beta level since not all Broadcomm chipsets are supported fully. I have tried it with my Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] wireless interface. It does work at 54Mb/s but the transmission power issues are still a problem for me. You will only see 11Mb/s with many of the tools but the speed is faster than shown.

Quakeboy02 · 02-19-2007, 06:14 PM

"Any ideas?"

Post the make errors.

lavie · 02-20-2007, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenard

It does work at 54Mb/s but the transmission power issues are still a problem for me. You will only see 11Mb/s with many of the tools but the speed is faster than shown.

Does wpa_supplicant work with it? And if so, what are the .conf setting for it?

TIA
Lavie

Lenard · 02-20-2007, 10:12 AM

Sorry I have no need of wpa_supplicant so I cannot answer your questions in detail.

Yes wpa_supplicant does work with the bcm43xx module, sorry I cannot supply a sample conf file.

If you want to use ndiswrapper (the latest version) you will need at least the kernel-devel rpm package(s) installed and also review;

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/releas...ISO/#sn-Kernel
Section 8.7 might be of interest to you.

ATrpms.net might be helpful also; http://atrpms.net/dist/fc5/ndiswrapper/

Lenard · 02-25-2007, 09:52 AM

Update: Try the latest kernel from Fedora Development, you will also need the mkinitrd rpm package;

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...e/development/

Reason some updates for the wireless interfaces seems to have fixed a number of issues with the bcm43xx kernel module. I'm testing out the same updates with a custom complied vanilla kernel (2.6.21-rc1-git1) which seems to be working OK using the bcm43xx kernel module. The speed is still reported wrong, but other then that it looking good.