I installed Redhat nash version 5.1.19.6 with kernel 2.6.18-128.el5-xen-i686 on a Dell Inspiron 1300 with Broadcom BCM4401 (eth0/LAN) and BCM4318 (eth1/WLAN). eth0 is working fine, but eth1 was causing trouble. After some difficulties with missing packages I managed to install ndiswrapper, blacklisted module bcm43xx in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and removed it, loaded module ndiswrapper and had connection. But after reboot module bcm43xx was again loaded. So blacklisting does not seem to work.

And additionally strange to me, I cannot unload module bcm43xx anymore. And if I load ndiswrapper driver bcm43xx is still used as the terminal command 'dmesg' is showing me in the system log, while ndiswrapper was used when the connection was once and only once established.

Is my freshly installed system corrupt? Anyone has any idea?

TIA Rodyz

Is it called "b43"?

Nimnull22: afaik, there are 3 drivers, b43, b43legacy, bcm43xx, the last one was installed on my distribution.

Did you try rmmod bcm43xx -f

i have to do this as well to unload bcm43xx or ndiswrapper.

sometimes i have to do it 2 or 3 times before it unloads.

jschofield: Did try 'rmmod bcm43xx -f' as well as 'modeprob -r bcm43xx' several times. Both did not work.

Have you read through this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...e-card-473194/

It appears from the following:

http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-L.../msg03699.html

that you need to blacklist b43 module as well, at least for the 2.6.20 kernel that has the bcm43xx driver built-in, I presume that your kernel 2.6.18 suffers the same problem. I had to write a short script, called wireless.sh, to remove the b43 and ssb modules in my debian amd64 2.6.26 kernel, so that I could use ndiswrapper with a 64bit driver.

Hope this helps, if it doesn't then you will need to post the output of: lsmod

minrich:
I have read a lot of similar howtos and also now that one you mentioned. At the moment I write this reply I have succeeded to remove module bcm43xx, loaded ndiswrapper and got wlan connection (after countless times typing 'modprobe -r bcm43xx'). I suppose after reboot, I'll have the same trouble as before. The questions are, why does my system not use the blacklist to prevent module bcm43xx from loading at boot time, why is it so difficult and unpredictable to remove the module bcm43xx, are there any workarounds, is my installation corrupt?

I still think the answer to your most recent question revolves around what modules and drivers are automatically loaded by your kernel, as I suggested, run lsmod (I accidentally typed lspci, and edited my last post - sorry). There you will be able to see what modules are auto loaded, as I said, I have a script to stop b43 and ssb even though my boot.log shows then being loaded when networking starts, and they are blacklisted (like you to no avail) therefore I would expect that if you restart your network you will kill your wireless connection - but this is only a guess, cos I haven't use Redhat or Fedora for ages.

Solved: Without knowing why I moved to trash the files /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.el5/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx/bcm43xx.ko and /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-128.el5-i686/include/config/bcm43xx.h. Now the module is reproducable not loaded. Now I need still a little help how to load ndiswrapper at boot time. At the moment I have to do it manually.

If you have a /etc/modules file, first, as root or sudo run the command: ndiswrapper -m

Then edit /etc/modules and add, at the end: ndiswrapper hit Enter and save file. This should autoload the module upon booting.

Do you have file "modprobe.conf" and "modprobe.conf.local" in /etc.

In the last you can add: install bcm43xx /bin/true

Solved the 2nd

nimnull2: Thanks for the hint to modprobe.conf. (But I don't have a modprobe.conf.local)

I am a pretty newbie concerning linux. But I dare to play around with it. I opened modprobe.conf with gedit. There was a line

'alias eth1 bcm43xx'

I replaced with

'alias eth1 ndiswrapper'

and voila module bcm43xx is not loading anymore and module ndiswrapper is loading at boot time. No need to delete the files mentioned in my previous post.

You have to be careful with modprobe.conf, it can be changed with updates.
You need to edit modprobe.conf.local.