ndiswrapper not working after reboot?

[LiveFree]

Ok,

Well a week ago after restarting, I found that my ndiswrapper(wlan0) listing in my 'Create New Connection = > Wireless' wizard was gone and therefore the WiFi card would not work. (Broadcom bcm431.

Now after posting here and not recieving a response for 2 weeks, I re-installed.

This time I went through all the instructions to install ndiswrapper (I had to add a symlink so it would find the devel) and I installed the 'patch' to upgrade the 4k cache.

ndiswrapper -l shows that the driver is installed and hardware present.

Before I try to activate the card in the Network settings wizard, I run:

depmod -a (nothing)
modprobe ndiswrapper (ok)
dhclient wlan0

I added an alias in modprobe.conf and blacklisted bcm43xx

And I create the connection,but when I try to activate it, it says that it cannot.

Running iwconfig shows that there is no wlan0.

And now, after restarting, I find that ONCE AGAIN, the reference to ndiswrapper(wlan0) is gone AGAIN in the Network box so the WiFi wont work. (Not like it did in the first place).

Im getting desperate on this, I am willing to make a donation in a very-helpful person's name to the Fedora group.

Thank You,
Rick

EDIT: And I did update the kernal before installing ndiswrapper

EDIT *2: I just restarted and I see that ndiswrapper command isnt even found in the system, so I guess it is that ndiswrapper is disappearing after a restart.

[bigtomrodney]

What distro are you using?Generally you need to run

sudo ndiswrapper -m

to run the modprobe configuration on boot. This works for most distros with the exception of SUSE, which works a little differently.

For SUSE to get the module to permanently load on boot go into YaST > /etc/sysconfig editor. Go into the tree of settings and browse to System > Kernel > MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT and add 'ndiswrapper'.

[LiveFree]

Sorry, Fedora Core 5.

Sorry I hadnt mentioned it...
Isnt that the same as modprobe ndiswrapper? And does that have anything to do with the fact that ndiswrapper seems to disappear?

And I did run that command with no affect, said modprobe config files already had that alias.

[bigtomrodney]

Can you run these commands and post back the results please-

which ndiswrapper
less /etc/modprobe.conf
ifconfig
iwconfig
dmesg |grep -i ndiswrapper
dmesg |grep -i wlan
dmesg |grep -i bcm
dmesg |grep -i broadcom

I know you mention you have already modified some of these files/commands but I'd like to get everything in context.

[beagle2]

Have a look here if you haven't already - http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m..._configuration . Some success there by adding "/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper" to /etc/rc.d/rc.local and blacklisting bcm43xx as you have already done.

[LiveFree]

Ok, well I had to re-install ndiswraper since when I did /sbin/ndiswrapper I couldnt run any of the ndiswrappr commands...

Ok I just re-installed ndiswrapper, and looking at the Wireless device list, I dont see ndiswrapper(wlan0)

Terminal Results (listed in order of the commands given above)

/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper

alias eth0 8139too
alias snd-card-0 snd-atiixp
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-atiixp index=0
remove snd-atiixp { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-atiixp
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:9F:E9:EF:6A
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:fee9:ef6a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5470 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5653 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:6046061 (5.7 MiB) TX bytes:851310 (831.3 KiB)
Interrupt:193

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2346 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2346 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2771925 (2.6 MiB) TX bytes:2771925 (2.6 MiB)

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 20
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 19.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management: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

ndiswrapper version 1.23 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,12/22/2004, 3.100.46.0) loaded
ndiswrapper: using irq 217
ndiswrapper (iw_set_bitrate:50: setting bit rate failed (C00000BB)

wlan0: vendor: ''
wlan0: ethernet device 00:14:a5:1e:e5:06 using NDIS driver bcmwl5, 14E4:4318.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,12/22/2004, 3.100.46.0) loaded
wlan0: ethernet device 00:14:a5:1e:e5:06 using NDIS driver bcmwl5, 14E4:4318.5.conf

ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,12/22/2004, 3.100.46.0) loaded

[LiveFree]

Just an update on the situation:

I ran these commands:

modprobe -r ndiwrapper
modprobe -r bcm43xx
modprobe ndiswrapper

and VIOLA! the ndiswrapper(wlan0) reference is BACK in the Wireless devices diaglog box, but I cannot activate it.

If it matters,
I can see the ndiswrapper(wlan0), the Full Card name (Broadcom Corp. bcm......), and 'Other Cards' listed in the dialog box.

[LiveFree]

Ok I am sick and tired of this,

If someone can help me fix this, I am willing to PAY them. This shortage has been cutting my productivity like a knife through butter, and has been testing me very much so.

[Sam Liu]

lol its ok we'll help you through this. stick with it! dont give up!

The activating doesnt work because you blacklisted the bcm43xx driver and it doesnt know what to do (no other driver).

you're gonna want to try ndiswrapper again.

hey you sure your driver is right? maybe wrong revision or something. I also heard from someone else that their card got configured as like BH instead of G. ehh I donno I'm sorta fresh, coming back to linux after 3 years of nonuse.

[LiveFree]

Hey Thanks Sam Liu

I currently have the bcmwl5 driver installed in ndiswrapper, but I had heard of FedoraForum that sometiems the bcm43xx driver can interfere with the ndiswrapper so I blacklisted it.

Thanks for the help!
And I'll be glad to make a donation in your name