Can't unload (or power off) wireless card (ndiswrapper won't unload)
 

So I just started using ndiswrapper today so my Linksys WCP11 card would work nicely. Sure enough, through following the simple directions and creating a script I was up and running in a few minutes. Turning off the dang thing has been more of a problem tho. I've tried 'ifconfig wlan0 down' and tried unloading the ndiswrapper module, and also tried powering off the PCMCIA cardbus through /rc.pcmcia. wlan0 down does seem to disconnet me from the internet, but doesn't help me as far as unloading the rest of it. The ndiswrapper module doesn't like to be removed and either says it's too busy for me or just freezes my computer. /rc.pcmcia tries to unload the cardbus modules resulting in my computer freezing. - This really sux because i can't even reboot or power down properly with this problem. I actually seem safer just cutting the power while no major processes are goin on.

Anybody ever see this problem before??? Anybody know how to fix it (ie. properly shutdown this ndiswrapper wireless device)?

phil

You may want to investigate using the cardctl command to turn off power to the pcmcia socket. The man page should give you the details. Also, it probably doesn't hurt to just leave the ndsiwrapper module loaded. I can't think of a real solid reason why you would need to unload it. Even if the card is not in the socket, having the module loaded shouldn't hurt anything.

yea, I did some more searching around and it sounds like the newsest version of ndiswrapper allows you to use cardctl eject # safely. I'll mess around with it when I have a relatively secure wireless network available to me again. If that doesn't work I think I'm going to change the Windows driver that I'm using. Currently I'm using the 2000 driver. Perhaps the XP driver would be more stable.....

phil

The unfortunate bit about ndiswrapper is that there can be a lot of trial and error involved in finding the right driver. Sometimes it also pays off to use older versions of ndiswrapper as well, particularly if you're using an rc version. Those tend to be a bit buggy.

Thanks a ton for the advice! You were dead on about using an older version. After I realized that the other drivers wouldn't help at all I uninstalled everything (which it was an rc version btw - 1.4rc) and installed the 0.8 version in its place. Used the 2000 driver yet again, but this time the card would unload with the cardctl commands as expected! Everything works great now. My only other question is about my lsmod output. I noticed that when I load the driver that 'Taint: P' shows up. Now I know that this means that a proprietary module has been loaded, but is there anything else I should be aware of (ie. any potential problems)? The word 'Taint' just kinda sounds bad...

Thanks again for your help,

phil

If it is the error message I'm thinking of, it has hands down won the Oscar for Worlds Most Misleading Error. The author of that one needs to be flogged.

The "tainting" refers not to a code problem, but to the fact that ndiswrapper uses a different open source license than the rest of the kernel, and therefore the kernel is "tainted" because there may be license restrictions on the added module. If they had said something like "license tainted" or "license altered" it would save people a lot of heartburn. So basically, unless you are an open source purist and are physically revolted by using a potentially less than pure kernel module, don't worry about it.

that's funny. :)