MikeZila

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This thread is to discuss the article titled: ndiswrapper on Debian Sarge without having to compile anything

martinj

This crashes my PC. I am running IPW2100

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

apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils
ndiswrapper -i w70n51.inf
ndiswrapper -l and it says the hardware is found
I do
apt-get install wireless-tools
ok
I do cd // and
insmod lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
and then it crashes

MikeZila

This means that your drivers are probably bad.

Try removing the driver you installed by...

And then try loading the .ko again. If it loads without any crashes, then you have bad drivers.

martinj

Thanks for the reply. I insted used ipw2100-source. Thanks though for the guide.

Rutnut

Good tutorial but when I get to the point of typing in:

insmod lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/ndiswrapper.ko

it gives me the reply

insmod: can't read 'lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386/misc/ndiswrapper.ko': No such file or directory

What can I do?

Regards

MikeZila

See if you can find the final manually by cd'ing to that place. If you come to a directory you don't have, tell me what one.

What directories are in "/lib/modules/"?

Did you remember the starting " / "?

Also, post the output of "uname -r".

obarthelemy

Hi.

Same problem here: all goes well up until

debian:/home/olivier/dlink# insmod /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-686/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
insmod: error inserting '/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-686/misc/ndiswrapper.ko': -1 Invalid module format

IMPORTANT REMARK: there is an error in your article, the first time you quote the above command (after 'the old-school way', you forgot the leading '/' before 'lib/modules...'. Took me 10 minutes to figure it out. It's hard to be a newbie again

That aside, I am at:

debian:/home/olivier/dlink# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

debian:/home/olivier/dlink# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
gplus driver present, hardware present

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems I'm on the brink of having it work, but i'm at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm on a fresh netinst (french), didn't do the alternate kernel trick since I don't mind crashing this newly-installed test install, i did apt-get update, wireless-modules (v1.1-2) and utils (v1.1-4) installed fine and required ndiswrapper-utils (through synaptics). There is only one ndiswrapper.ko in /lib, so this must be the right one ?

The link the the driver for my dlink g520+ on the ndiswrapper page was dead, so i installed the latest one (ftp://ftp.dlink.de/dwl-products/dwl-...iber_Firmware/ which is v 04, ndiswrapper validated 02 which is no longer available), winXP version. That doesn't seem to be the problem so I haven't tried any other.

This is frustrating. I'm quite good at setting up win XP, and his is my 6th try at getting a Linux install to work for me. I try about every 6 months, but never managed to get everything I need working in 10 hours. I'm trying this time on a i810 motherboard to minimize driver problems... Next item on the install list will be VNC, if I can get past the wireless issue, since I can't live with a network cable running in the middle of my flat Install does seem to get better each time (last time i had graphical bugs on the same PC), but up to now, no cigar. I do pick up some Linux knowledge each time ;-)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm stuck.

Thanks a lot and congratulations for a very well-written and useful guide !

Olivier

obarthelemy

debian:/home/olivier/dlink# uname -r
2.6.6-1-386

I can see a problem here, because the .ko file is in 2.6.8-2-686:

debian:/lib# find -name ndiswrapper.ko
./modules/2.6.8-2-686/misc/ndiswrapper.ko

debian:/home/olivier/dlink# insmod /lib/modules/2.6.6-1-386/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
insmod: can't read '/lib/modules/2.6.6-1-386/misc/ndiswrapper.ko': No such file or directory

debian:/lib# insmod /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-686/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
insmod: error inserting '/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-686/misc/ndiswrapper.ko': -1 Invalid module format

Oh well ...

MikeZila

You said that you didn't get the kernel at the begining of the guide? Are you using a kernel of the exact same version number? If not, then that's the spanner in the works. Modules have to match up exactly with their kernels in order to even load in most cases.

I know I'll be corrected, but in my experience trying to load a module for another kernel version has lead to nothing but trouble.

By the way...

I jumped the gun a bit when I posted this as a LinuxAnswer, but it's original forum thread is here, and it's much more updated and corrected than this one.

MikeZila

Jeeze. Beat me to your own question!

If you're worried about the kernel upgrade, don't be. It's totally safe. If it doesn't work your old kernel is safe, sound, and ready for booting.

Rutnut

I remember that I couldn't install ndiswrapper-module, apt-get coulddn't find it and synaptics couldn't either.

So where do I get it from

Regards

MikeZila

Are you using the new Sarge's apt-get lists?

Rutnut

I guess I am not.

Where to get them.

regards

Rutnut

Got it working like a dream.
Decided to have a full clean out and start right from scratch. I installed 3.1 Sarge inst using 2.4.27 kernel, upgraded as it says in the documentation to 2.6.8-2-386, you use 686 then the rest and it worked, but after booting up using the 2.6.8 kernel the whole system is so slow, it just stops after 10 minutes.
I have read that 2.6.9 is better and a bug was found and fixed is that true?

The documentation is excellent. Just can't get the system to run like the 2.4 kernel.

MikeZila

Perhaps, bugs are fixed all the time.