HOW TO: Configure wireless cards with Broadcom chipsets

[Seth]

What does dmesg say after you try to modprobe it and it's invalid? I'll bet you have a compiler mismatch.

[vaughnet]

Hmmm, that's two of you with an almost identical error message that I've never heard reported before. I don't know what the issue is, but I suggest a few routes for exploring possible solutions:

1. Start again from the beginning. Use

sudo modprobe -r bcmwl5
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo rm -r /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5

to undo the effects of what you've done to date.
2. There are two drivers associated with thes cards, bcmwl5 and bcmwl5a. Most cards can accept either (mine certainly can), but some can only accept one or the other. If you have the 5a driver available, try repeating the how-to but repeat every instance of "bcmwl5" with "bcmwl5a".
3. Try downloading the latest version of the XP drivers from Dell's website and starting again. Try using both bcmwl5 and bcmwl5a
4. Just in case my script isn't working properly in all cases, try this: replace the three lines beginning with "for conffile...", "sudo cat..." and "done" with "sudo gedit". This will open a text editor; use it to open every file in the directory /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/ and replace every instance of RadioState|1 with RadioState|0
5. (Yuk) Try grabbing the latest version of ndiswrapper and compiling it yourself. You'll find several sets of instructions between the forums and the wiki.

Please post your results for the benefit of the rest of the community.

1. I started again from the beginning.
2. I tried both drivers (starting from the beginning each time with the most recent version of each).
3. Double-checked with downloaded drivers from Dell.
4. Manually changed the RadioState for each .conf file
5. Researched and compiled the latest ndiswrapper (1.1)

Finally got this result:

root@laptop:/home/vaughnet # modprobe ndiswrapper
root@laptop:/home/vaughnet #

Then went to System>Administration>Networking only to find no available wireless interface. Numerous restarts and plugging the card in and out has seemed to work. I truly believe I have exhausted every conceivable option. Any ideas...?

[sparke67]

What does dmesg say after you try to modprobe it and it's invalid? I'll bet you have a compiler mismatch.

is this what I am looking for ?

sparke67@shawnlinux:~ $ dmesg
Linux version 2.6.8.1-5-386 (buildd@rothera) (gcc version 3.3.4 (Debian 1:3.3.4-9ubuntu5)) #1 Thu Apr 7 08:47:11 UTC 2005

or maybe this ?

ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:2286): loadndiswrapper failed (1536);check utils version mismatch
ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:2286): loadndiswrapper failed (1536);check utils version mismatch
sparke67@shawnlinux:~ $

[darthsabbath]

Something interesting... my wireless was working fine until I did a clean installation of Hoary. I'd originally started with the Release Candidate, and once I changed the RadioState, everything was gravy.

However, I formatted and reinstalled to the "official" release, and now I'm getting the same "Error inserting ndiswrapper" issue that you guys are getting. Were there any changes between the Release Candidates and the Official release that could've caused this?

Gonna play with it some tomorrow and see what I can figure out...

Serves me right for doing a format and reinstall.

Phil

[jonny]

Something interesting... my wireless was working fine until I did a clean installation of Hoary. I'd originally started with the Release Candidate, and once I changed the RadioState, everything was gravy.

Phil, you might be on to something here. My how-to was based on the release candidate too.

Good luck!

[sparke67]

Phil, you might be on to something here. My how-to was based on the release candidate too.

Good luck!

could that be the reason for this ?

ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:2286): loadndiswrapper failed (1536);check utils version mismatch
ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:2286): loadndiswrapper failed (1536);check utils version mismatch
sparke67@shawnlinux:~ $

[allen]

hopefully you work something out phil,

i'm having the exact same problems as the others.

mine is a BT Voyager 1040 pci card and following the instructions gives the same errors as you described.

[Seth]

Phil, the version of utils in the repo's is something like .12. Looks like you're trying to use .10 of ndiswrapper. Grab ndiswrapper-source and ndiswrapper-utils out of the repo's and build your own set?

[allen]

heres a log of my problems

root@allens:/home/allen # modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted
root@allens:/home/allen # ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present
root@allens:/home/allen # dmesg

[*snip*]

ndiswrapper version 1.0rc2 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:1494): loadndiswrapper failed (1792); check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

where would i find the system log ?

[darthsabbath]

Can't try any of this now, as I'm at work, but wanted to add that the ndiswrapper-utils I installed off the Hoary CD are version 0.11. When I get home, I'll hook it up to my LAN and download the latest versions of both the kernel and ndiswrapper.

Phil