Need help as i'm not able to compile tl-w725n driver in centos 6

shan2batman · 11-30-2017, 03:23 AM

I'm trying to install tl-w725n drivers in my centos 6.9 desktop but it gives me the following error what am i doing wrong?? or if anyone can guide me to compile it with ndiswrapper that would also be welcome.

Code:

[shan@localhost Driver]$ sudo make
"******************************************"
"NO SKRC,we will use default KSRC"
"******************************************"
make ARCH=i386 CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686/build M=/home/shan/Desktop/Driver  modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686'
"******************************************"
"NO SKRC,we will use default KSRC"
"******************************************"
  CC [M]  /home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.o
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c: In function ‘ro_ch_handler’:
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c:3620: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired’ from incompatible pointer type
include/net/cfg80211.h:4609: note: expected ‘struct wireless_dev *’ but argument is of type ‘_nic_hdl’
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c:3620: error: too many arguments to function ‘cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired’
make[2]: *** [/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/shan/Desktop/Driver] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

business_kid · 12-01-2017, 12:49 PM

AFAICT, Centos-6.9 is an update of Centos-6.0, released in 2010. It has kernel 2.6.32, with I presume security patches, and a gcc and a libc from that 2010 era. That's your toolchain. It seems woefully inadequate for compiling modern code, as your errors seem to show.

Solutions:
1. Update your system.
2. Get a much older version of that driver, if one exists.
3. Give Up and forget compiling that, or get a programmer to 'bend it straight.'

From memory, there's a world of difference between kernels 2.6.x and 3.3.x. The kernel headers all moved. I would not be surprised if you still had gcc-2.95-3, as Linus held it was essential for compiling kernels well after it actually was. If not, you're probably on gcc-3.3 or less. I have gcc-5.3.0 from 2015, and I've seen gcc-7.2.x available in the next version of slackware64. I can upgrade to it if I want.

dedec0 · 12-01-2017, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shan2batman

I'm trying to install tl-w725n drivers in my centos 6.9 desktop but it gives me the following error what am i doing wrong?? or if anyone can guide me to compile it with ndiswrapper that would also be welcome.

Code:

[shan@localhost Driver]$ sudo make
"******************************************"
"NO SKRC,we will use default KSRC"
"******************************************"
make ARCH=i386 CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686/build M=/home/shan/Desktop/Driver  modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686'
"******************************************"
"NO SKRC,we will use default KSRC"
"******************************************"
  CC [M]  /home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.o
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c: In function ‘ro_ch_handler’:
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c:3620: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired’ from incompatible pointer type
include/net/cfg80211.h:4609: note: expected ‘struct wireless_dev *’ but argument is of type ‘_nic_hdl’
/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.c:3620: error: too many arguments to function ‘cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired’
make[2]: *** [/home/shan/Desktop/Driver/core/rtw_p2p.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/shan/Desktop/Driver] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.centos.plus.i686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

The first thing that you should do, in my opinion, is to forget the idea of "compiling = sudo + make". That is false, and normally - in all cases I imagine or have seen - compiling something will never demand super user powers. Installing and testing a compiled driver is a *completely different* problem.

If I would like to compile and check what happens when I compile the driver you want with ndiswrapper, what should I do?

And probably it will be a good idea to post your question in the programming forum, instead.

dedec0 · 12-01-2017, 04:58 PM

The wiki and documentation is criticized in the few comments in project's page in SF.

And the wiki was last changed in 2010, so I conclude that it is probably abandoned - in a bad way to abandon something, but yet abandoned.

There is a mailing list... I checked its last messages. Last one is a message in French, which is probably just a lucky spam. I translated it to be sure, I just did not (and will not) visit the pointed website. There is an important message, though:

Quote:

Subject: [Ndiswrapper-general] Version 1.59 released
From: Giridhar Pemmasani <...@...> - 2013-11-28 20:12:02

ndiswrapper version 1.59 has been released. Short summary of changes since 1.58:

* Support for Linux kernels from 2.6.13 to 3.12
* 32-bit userspace on 64-bit kernel is supported now
* Fixed kernel hang if loadndisdriver exits with an error

Pavel Roskin contributed these changes.

Giri

So this seems to be a last change made in that project, fairly old. Something that made a few important changes, but was made by someone else around the world - and I am assuming there was no discussion about it before, I did not check that!

According to the SF project page, the last change in it is 2017/11/05, which is pretty recent. But when I browse all files and check their changes, the "stable" folder was modified only in 2016-10-09, and the "testing" folder in 2012-05-01.

SF is a mess... I wonder why so many projects keep using it instead of alternatives - by this and other issues.