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wireless driver install issues: modprobe not injecting driver
Hi all,
My friend has a laptop which he uses a wireless usb dongle with it. The dongle has a rt2500 chipset in it.I usually help him out with slackware when he has issues or needs help! When I installed slackware 11 on his laptop, everything worked great including the wireless dongle.I usually just installed the driver from serialmonkey and after running modprobe rt2500, I ran ifconfig -a and iwconfig and the device always showed up.But now I installed slackware 12 and like usual the hardware worked fine.Now when I went to install the driver for the dongle and after installing it, I ran modprobe rt2500 and I get this error. Code:
bash-3.1# modprobe rt2500Code:
bash-3.1# lsusbCode:
Jul 26 12:00:15 darkstar kernel: rt2500: version magic '2.6.17.13 mod_unload 486 gcc-4.1' should be '2.6.17.13 mod_unload 486 gcc-3.4'Before after installing slackware 12, we tried both kernels,the smp and huge.s kernel, and we installed the wireless driver,and ran modprobe rt2500 and it would go through without errors.I checked my system logs and no errors. Then I ran lsmod and the module wasn't loaded. I don't get what to do.He really wants to use slackware12 because the new kde makes his laptop look better because he can only use a vesa driver because he got a crappy via graphics card.If we can't fix this, then we'd have to downgrade back to slackware 11 because it's the only distro that worked fine. Guys got any ideas? I don't get why we would have this problem.I never had any problems installing this driver on other distros, I kind of think that this is a bug in slackware12. Oh and he has single core celeron cpu with a gig of ram and a via motherboard and via graphics card. |
Did you install (a package or something) or build the kernel module yourself? And how comes you are using 2.6.17.13 on 12.0?
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Well,
The reason for using the 2.6.17.13 kernel is because the wireless dongle worked fine with it on slackware 11.I tried the kernels from the slackware 12 and I had no luck with them trying to get wireless driver to install and work fine. So then we installed the 2.6.17.13 kernel hoping to get the driver installed and see the device under ifconfig -a and iwconfig.With the slackware 12 kernels, we would be able to install the driver fine, then modprobe it without any errors,and run ifconfig -a & iwconfig hoping to see the device there.But it wasn't.I looked in the system logs, and found no clues related to the wireless card driver.So thats the reason! We already tried three kernels with no luck.And like usual, after I install the new kernel, I always install the right modules,headers,source along with it. It frustrates me that under slackware 11, or any other general distro, this wireless dongle and driver worked like a charm, but under slackware 12 it doesn't! My personal laptop has a dual core cpu with a atheros wireless card and it worked fine installing and using the wireless dongle. But my friends single core laptop and my other older single core desktop with same wireless chipsets, are having the same issue.I think this might be some type of bug related with single core cpu's. |
Are you sure you:
a. installed the modules for the kernel in use & b. pointed the symlink /etc/rc.d/modules to the correct modules. For dual core, use the Slack SMP kernel. |
First yes, I installed the proper modules for kernel.
Second, how do I point the symlink /etc/rc.d/modules to the correct modules? Thanks |
To check where the link is pointing,
Code:
ls -al /etc/rc.d/rc.modulesCode:
cd /etc/rc.d |
I ran ls -al /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
and like I thought it was pointing at the 2.6.21.5-smp kernel. So I ran cd /etc/rc.d rm rc.modules ln -s rc.modules-2.6.17.13 rc.modules and everything went through.I then built the rt2500 slackbuild and installed the driver.I ran modprobe rt2500 and like I thought, got the same error about a Invalid module format. I then looked back into the system logs, and I found this under syslog. Code:
Jul 26 16:26:26 copper kernel: usb 1-5: string descriptor 0 read error: -71so I went and booted up windowz, and the card worked fine, connecting to wireless network and everything so this isn't a hardware issue. |
Quote:
A fix would be either using gcc-3.4 to compile the module (check the slackbuild script), or recompiling the kernel with gcc-3.4. |
Hmm,
I scanned the slackbuild for "gcc" and couldn't find anything like that.Maybe I'm missing it :) Is there an alternative to compiling a kernel? I mean is there something easier I could try because I never compiled me a kernel. I could try the 2.6.21.5-smp kernel again, but I don't know if I'll have any luck.Because when I installed the driver on that kernel,I installed and modprobed with no problems. Then I looked in ifconfig -a and iwconfig and the device wasn't there. I also looked at that time in the logs and couldn't find anything. Thanks |
After installing the 2.6.21.5-smp kernel and building the module, check dmesg and 'lsmod | grep rt2500' before and after plugging in the usb dongle (I love that word). That'll give you an idea of what's going wrong.
If all else fails, there's always ndiswrapper. |
Hmm,
I installed the 2.6.21.5-smp kernel along with the modules and everything else and reinstalled the wireless driver.Then I ran modprobe rt2500 and there was no errors.After that I ran dmesg and seen no errors from the driver. I then ran lsmod | grep rt2500 and the rt2500 module was present.Then I ran ifconfig -a & iwconfig and the wireless device wasn't there....!! I looked again into my system logs and the only strange thing I seen was this. Code:
Jul 26 22:09:03 copper kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 5. Maybe the USB cable is bad?with no results! I don't know, but is it safe security wise, to use slackware 11? Just if I can't fix this by the weekend, I think I'll just either reinstall slackware 11 or just use some other slackware flavored ditro....augh |
Does the rt2500 require firmware? I haven't played with this driver much.
Are you using the huge kernel? If not, are the USB modules loaded? Ndiswrapper is always an option. Easier than going back to Slack 11. |
Got It Fixed! :)
You won't believe this! I got the problem fixed!
Last night, I was messing around around with the driver with no luck. I had even tried ndiswrapper and had the windows driver install fine and even it didn't work.The ndiswrapper was loaded into the kernel, the windows driver installed fine, and after running ifconfig -a and iwconfig, even ndiswrapper didn't work! I was about to give up.Even that, I had previous experience with ndiswrapper and I have been able to get other wireless cards with no drivers, working because of ndiswrapper, so it's not like I didn't know how to use the tool.Then I started thinking that maybe the usb port on the wireless dongle was bad.There was a onboard broadcom wireless card on the laptop, and I thought lets try use ndiswrapper to try get it working! I first did some googling, and ran into this website:http://linux.gotfoo.org/xubuntu-606-rocks/ and found that this guy used the ndiswrapper to get his broadcom up and working. So then I found this:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=190177 and he shown how he got his 4318 card up and working.I again used ndiswrapper and installed the windows driver for the card and like it happened with the wireless dongle, the windows driver was installed, ndiswrapper working, etc but the card wasn't showing up! Then I read this: Code:
Step 1: Disabling bcm43xxwas interfering with ndiswrapper.So I did this, I went into /etc/modprobe.d and on the bottom of the list I added this: Code:
blacklist bcm43xxbroadcom device had shown up! I got really exited and I realized that's what was stopping all the wireless cards from properly functioning.I quickly reinstalled the windows driver for the wireless dongle and I got it working too! I told my friend that I fixed it, and man was he happy! Even though he is a new linux user, he loves slackware for its speed and simplicity. Right now the wireless dongle is using the ndiswrapper driver, I think the rt2500 slackbuild should work just fine.When I get a chance, I will try it. I just wanted to tell that the problem is fixed! :) :) Thanks for the help! |
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