PCLinuxOS wlan LED acer_acpi

bluenix · 07-05-2006, 09:56 AM

I am running the latest PCLinuxOS on my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A-1650 laptop. The wlan on this machine is (in windows) activated by pressing a softkey. By pressing the key in windows, the status-LED turns on and a wifi connection can be made.
The problem is, that the softkey (of course) doesn't work in linux. In previous distro's I have used, I alway used the package "acer_acpi" for solving this problem.
When trying to install this package in PCLinuxOS, I get the following:

when doing "make":

Code:

[root@bluenix acer_acpi-0.3]# make
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/home/bluenix/Downloads/acer_acpi/acer_acpi-0.3 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-oci6.mdk'

  WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-oci6.mdk/Module.symvers
           is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

  CC [M]  /home/bluenix/Downloads/acer_acpi/acer_acpi-0.3/acer_acpi.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST
  CC      /home/bluenix/Downloads/acer_acpi/acer_acpi-0.3/acer_acpi.mod.o
  LD [M]  /home/bluenix/Downloads/acer_acpi/acer_acpi-0.3/acer_acpi.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-oci6.mdk'

Then, when doing "make install":

Code:

[root@bluenix acer_acpi-0.3]# make install
mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.6.12-oci6.mdk 2.6.12-oci6.mdksmp 2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i686-up-4GB 2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB 2.6.12-oci6.mdkcustom/extra
cp -v acer_acpi.ko /lib/modules/2.6.12-oci6.mdk 2.6.12-oci6.mdksmp 2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i686-up-4GB 2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB 2.6.12-oci6.mdkcustom/extra/
`acer_acpi.ko' -> `2.6.12-oci6.mdkcustom/extra/acer_acpi.ko'
cp: omitting directory `/lib/modules/2.6.12-oci6.mdk'
cp: omitting directory `2.6.12-oci6.mdksmp'
cp: omitting directory `2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i686-up-4GB'
cp: omitting directory `2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB'
make: *** [install] Error 1

When doing "make install KERNELVERSION=2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB" instead of "make install", everything seems to work fine. Except that when I try "modprobe acer_acpi", I get the message "FATAL: Error inserting acer_acpi (/lib/modules/2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB/extra/acer_acpi.ko): No such device"

Any help would be very appreciated!

kilgoretrout · 07-05-2006, 10:50 AM

There may be a mismatch between the kernel you are running and the kernel source installed. That's the first thing I would check:

$ uname -a

to get the running kernel; and:

$ rpm -qa | grep kernel

to get all packages installed with the word "kernel" in their name.

Lenard · 07-05-2006, 10:51 AM

Don't use the acer_acpi addon, I don't and the wireless works just fine. You will notice that the wireless led does not light up unless data traffic is present on the device however, which is normal with Linux. The wireless soft key does work by the way.

elliott678 · 07-05-2006, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenard

You will notice that the wireless led does not light up unless data traffic is present on the device however, which is normal with Linux. The wireless soft key does work by the way.

Are you using ndiswrapper with a broadcom chipset using the bcmwl5a.inf driver?

If so you normally have two .inf file to chose from, bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5a.inf. If you use the bcmwl5a.inf file the light behaves the way you describe. If you use the bcmwl5.inf the light flashes untill it connects to the AP, once it connects the light stays solid.

I have an Acer Aspire 3003LCi running Arch Linux. I found everything works fine without any special concideration for the light. The button will turn on and off the card without a problem.

bluenix · 07-05-2006, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenard

Don't use the acer_acpi addon, I don't and the wireless works just fine. You will notice that the wireless led does not light up unless data traffic is present on the device however, which is normal with Linux. The wireless soft key does work by the way.

The only way I've ever got this built-in BCM4318 to work, is by using this acer_acpi package.
In windows the light stays on when the softkey is pressed. It doesn't blink. And in Linux the key really won't turn on the light.
I have tried using both the bcmwl5a.inf and bcmwl5.inf driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kilgoretrout

There may be a mismatch between the kernel you are running and the kernel source installed.

uname -a gives me :"2.6.12-oci6.mdk-i586-up-1GB"
rpm -qa | grep kernel gives me:
kernel-pclos-source-stripped-2.6-2.6.12-oci6.mdk
kernel-pclos-i586-up-1GB-2.6.12.oci6.mdk-1-1tex

bluenix · 07-08-2006, 01:44 PM

Please, is there anybody who can help me any further?

bluenix · 07-08-2006, 04:46 PM

O.K. I solved the problem by myself. For anybody interested:

1) first download and extract the package "acerhk"
2) make
3) make install KERNELSRC=/your/kernelsource
4) modprobe acerhk
5) echo "on" > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

and voila, your wlan LED should be on! Where the acer_acpi failed to install, the acerhk didn't!

Lenard · 07-08-2006, 07:34 PM

First I'm glad you got the bcm4318 wireless interface working. I'm also glad you got the LED to be lit.

But the fact that the LED being on is not a big concern, at least to me. The fact that the wireless interface works what is truely important. Like I said the lED lights when data traffic is present no extra tools (acer_acpi or acerhk) needed. The 'softkey' does work without either also. I just used ndiswrapper (v1.18) and the 64-bit drivers as suggested by the known working list at the ndiswrapper site.

However I may give acerhk a look.