[SOLVED] Problems trying to install NDISwrapper and XP drivers into PClos 2015
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
ok... this was cool. I found some code on the net, and when I pasted the whole lot in..... my wireless suddenly appeared and is now fully working as I type.... solvered!
ah... thankyou shadow7, I dare say I have inadvertently used b43-fwcutter without realizing in my scurry to fix this issue... now the downside here is after rebooting, the wireless network wlan disappeared again, just leaving the Ethernet available. I opened terminal again, re-pasted the code and ... wallah... wireless. How does one make sure the session and its changes are embedded for next boot? I have strolled around the standard access of settings etc, though haven't been able to save them.
... thanks again ardvark71, yes I am also a little curious as to the mend... by the way, it's happy wave day in aus... so... a huge wave to you all.!.!.!
... thanks again ardvark71, yes I am also a little curious as to the mend... by the way, it's happy wave day in aus... so... a huge wave to you all.!.!.!
You're welcome, a big wave to you, too!
Just out of curiosity, the next time you boot into PCLinuxOS, before doing anything else, navigate to "/lib/firmware/b43" using your file manager (whatever that is for your version of PCLinuxOS) and see if this folder exists in that location. If so, is the firmware file inside of it? Please let us know.
If you're using the KDE Desktop environment, the file manager might be called "Dolphin."
In terms of custom kernel modules, every time the kernel updates, they go away. Otherwise I'm not sure why your thing is changing at reboot unless something is funky like read-only or a ram based distro like puppy. You might try removing the udev auto detected stuff and rebooting, one trick to get eth0 again when moving sticks across several machines.
$ sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
$ sudo shutdown -r now
The firmware should remain, as long as you were root when you copied it to the firmware location. Just remember that you need new firmware when you do a fresh install. One other possibility is that you have the wifi module blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/ so you have to manually load it after booting.
Also the b43 driver is odd since there's a b43-legacy variant. Most things should use the b43 driver though, the legacy one is REALLY REALLY legacy, AKA OLD. And the 4318 isn't "that" old.
there is a b43 folder with a load of files, and an empty b43 legacy folder. Not sure what I was looking for in the blacklist files, nothing looks familiar with any file-names, here's the list in-case my other post didn't pop up
upon startup I have wlan and an ethernet in the network centre window.
try to start wlan commection... connection failure.
open terminal issue commands - 'rmmod -f b43' and then 'modprobe b43'
try the wireless connection again and I have a successful connection.
restart after saving session and I get a connection failure again until I do the two commands in terminal window.
Before trying to use the interface. That should "load" the module and such. Also "modprobe -r" is the modern way of rmmod. When you have a quirky driver you'll need to unload and reload to regain device usability again. Finding / using different firmware can help with some hardware.
For an old dell I have I have to use b43-fwcutter on:
broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
Where the distro grabs:
broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
by default when you install b43-fwcutter. Also in that case the fwcutter from debian wheezy and with the --unsupported flag to get the firmware. Which seems to be missing from the version that ships with jessie. Hopefully I'll get around to a stretch install soon. Most likely quirky drivers will always be quirky, so a dongle or ddwrt client_bridge setup might be a better option since you can join the N and AC generation of connection speeds. I like doing the bridge route since wifi can be quite a resource hog on low spec'd computers. Plus when the lease renews or other interruptions happen, you get more of a latency effect on your local machine, instead of a disconnect effect.
well you're certainly right about the 'quirky' drivers, hit and miss that's for sure. Ok... maybe this could throw a light on the issue. After numerous re-starts and log off/ons, in both root and user modes, I have broken the commands to one that lets me connect every time... rmmod -f b43. That's all I have to enter into the terminal.
I know when it won't connect (when the network name is highlighted when I open the Network Centre) as opposed to after running rmmod -f b43 in the terminal, then the NC opens without any highlighted network, and when I select mine... it connects fine.
seems like when I run the rmmod command and then open NCenter, it gives me a fresh choice of available networks. Is there some code I could use to make it carry out this function each start, I know that would be a workaround, though that seemed to let wlan work every time. At least the puter boots wlan-up now.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.