Fedora Core6 ndiswrapper issue

lqamoebafc6 · 01-13-2007, 10:23 PM

I seem to be having an issue with ndiswrapper and modprobe under Fedora core 6.
Kernel = 2.6.18-1.2869.fc6

Note: Under FC6, programs such as ndiswrapper, iwconfig etc, as far as i can tell, all need root privilages to run and therefore are located at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper or /sbin/iwconfig etc.. which seems kinda sensible to me but also seems to be causing a prob!

I have successfully loaded the correct drivers into ndiswrapper and the pcmcia hardware is seen to be present as shown below:
(card is 3com 3CRWE154G72 if interested!)

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
3c154g72 : driver installed
        device (10B7:6001) present

The card has been allocated eth1 as its alias by default, which is fine by me.

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      NOT READY!  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Master  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=31 dBm   Sensitivity=0/200  
          Retry min limit:0   RTS thr=0 B   Fragment thr=0 B   
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Note: at this point the lights on the card are currently off - no matter how many reboots, still off!

>> Now we get to the fun bit..

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
couldn't run modprobe: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 700.

..ok so its trying to find modprobe but cant as modprobe is located in /sbin/modprobe and not /usr/sbin/

Im gathering that this has to be done in order to bring the card up for use and to get those lights on the thing going? (maybe followed by a reboot)
As i haven't yet managed to -m it, setting rate in iwconfig gives me:

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/iwconfig eth1 rate 11G
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8B20) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Input/output error.

Which all in all is a tad annoying to say the least..so
Any help on this matter would be much appreciated!

Simon Bridge · 01-14-2007, 03:27 AM

Quote:

..ok so its trying to find modprobe but cant as modprobe is located in /sbin/modprobe and not /usr/sbin/

Take a closer look at that error meassage:

Quote:

[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
couldn't run modprobe: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 700.

... the instruction executes "modprobe ndiswrapper" and the "-m" reminds it to create an alias in modprobe.conf. The error is telling you that there is something wrong with line 700 in file /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper so that it gets a "no such file or directory" error... so go to line 700 and take a look.

Check you have installed the ndiswrapper kernel module ... you installed ndiswrapper in fedora core 6 with:

# yum --enablerepo=livna-stable install ndiswrapper kernel-module-ndiswrapper-$(uname -r)

... didn't you?

lqamoebafc6 · 01-14-2007, 04:44 PM

Ok, on line 700 of /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper, we have the following..

Code:

open(MODPROBE, "modprobe -c|") or die "couldn't run modprobe: $!";

and thats the first mention of modprobe within /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper.

I did install ndiswrapper through yum but I did not specify the kernel like u mentioned, it was a simple sudo yum -y install ndiswrapper, but nothing more.

One thing to note tho, after writing the last post I discovered within /var/log/messages the kernel message:
prism54: request_firmware() failed for 'isl3890'

so, following instructions on http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...t=1452&cat=122
I put the firmware from prism54.org into /lib/firmware and renamed it isl3890 as stated..

On reboot, an interesting mess of infinite scrolling text appeared where i could just make out the word ndiswrapper. (This, however occurred only when the card was inserted).
I then tried it without the card out and the boot continued as normal. Upon inserting the card now after boot the link light came on and started flashing in a regular on/off pattern..(which i have never seen this card do before)

At this stage the card was given a new alias of wlan0 and appeared to be registering correctly under iwconfig.
Unfortunately I now cant show u the output as after a reboot, the card hangs the machine on insert.
Should I remove that prism54 firmware to take it back to its previous state?

..puzzled!
Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Simon Bridge · 01-15-2007, 07:58 PM

You'll want to take it back to it's previous state... Q. where did you put the firmware before?

If you check the install command, you'll see there are two packages.

Try "# modprobe -v ndiswrapper" and check the output.
(Or even "# modprobe -c")

As you saw - the modprobe command failed - exiting with the correct error message. Of course - you have tried this with SELinux disabled?