Newbie needs help with old wireless card

I am trying to learn how to use Linux because I hate Windows! I was given an old IBM T22 running Mandriva 2010. I was also given a wireless card (Intersil 3890). When trying to set up the wireless with ndiswrapper, it shows that I have the windows driver, but I just get error messages. Other wireless cards were used in this machine, but I don't have them and I think their drivers are also "in the system."

Question #1: Does one need ndiswrapper to get this card to work? It is my understanding from researching it that drivers are included in the Linux kernel for this card. If so, how can I stop ndiswrapper from starting and try to get the normal driver to work?

Question #2: Do I need to blacklist or remove other drivers that have been used for other cards and are they interfering with what I am trying to do.

I downloaded the "Wireless Setup" file from the moderator and ran it. I don't know what any of it means.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello and Welcome!

Please post outputs commands as suggested in this sticky.

Here is the contents of the file:

============ lspci ============
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [8086:7190] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge [8086:7191] (rev 03)
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:02.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
00:02.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
00:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 [8086:1229] (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation EtherExpress PRO/100 SP Mobile Combo Adapter [8086:2205]
Kernel driver in use: e100
Kernel modules: e100
00:03.1 Serial controller [0700]: Agere Systems LT WinModem [11c1:045c] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:2205]
Kernel driver in use: serial
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] [1013:6003] (rev 01)
Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad A20m [1014:0153]
Kernel driver in use: Sound Fusion CS46xx
Kernel modules: snd-cs46xx
00:07.0 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA [8086:7110] (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE [8086:7111] (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
Kernel modules: ata_piix, piix
00:07.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB [8086:7112] (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:07.3 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI [8086:7113] (rev 03)
Kernel modules: i2c-piix4
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV [5333:8c12] (rev 13)
Subsystem: IBM ThinkPad T20/T22 [1014:017f]
Kernel modules: savagefb
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] [1260:3890] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Z-Com, Inc. XG-600 and clones Wireless Adapter [17cf:0014]
Kernel modules: p54pci, prism54

============ lsusb ============

============ lsmod ============

============ dmesg-firmware ============
IBM TrackPoint firmware: 0x0e, buttons: 3/3
thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: Outdated ThinkPad BIOS/EC firmware
thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: This firmware may be missing critical bug fixes and/or important features

============ kernel version ============
2.6.33.5-desktop586-2mnb

============ ifconfig ============

============ iwconfig ============

Can you retry lsmod as so

Code:

---

/sbin/lsmod

---

If ndiswrapper is loading, we want to get rid of it. There are linux drivers for this card. Actually, there are two loading, p54pci and prism54. AFAIK, prism54 is deprecated in favor of the newer p54pci, but I'm not too familiar with this chipset. We may also need to blacklist prism54.

I'm also surprised no prism firmware was mentioned in the dmesg output, but perhaps Mandriva includes it. We may need to look closer at that too.

OK. Here are the results of sbin/lsmod:

/sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by
fuse 56450 2
ipt_IFWLOG 2002 2
ipt_psd 43043 1
cls_flow 6501 0
cls_fw 3283 0
cls_u32 5536 0
sch_htb 13448 0
sch_hfsc 16545 0
sch_ingress 1458 0
sch_sfq 4823 0
xt_time 1805 0
xt_connlimit 2948 0
xt_realm 714 0
iptable_raw 1774 0
xt_comment 720 18
xt_recent 8098 0
xt_policy 2158 0
ipt_ULOG 7490 0
ipt_REJECT 1933 4
ipt_REDIRECT 1494 0
ipt_NETMAP 1454 0
ipt_MASQUERADE 2016 0
ipt_ECN 1537 0
ipt_ecn 1121 0
ipt_CLUSTERIP 5761 0
ipt_ah 893 0
ipt_addrtype 1631 2
nf_nat_tftp 684 0
nf_nat_snmp_basic 7519 0
nf_nat_sip 5076 0
nf_nat_pptp 3942 0
nf_nat_proto_gre 2254 1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_nat_irc 1380 0
nf_nat_h323 7735 0
nf_nat_ftp 2604 0
nf_nat_amanda 846 0
ts_kmp 1565 5
nf_conntrack_amanda 2217 1 nf_nat_amanda
nf_conntrack_sane 4265 0
nf_conntrack_tftp 3600 1 nf_nat_tftp
nf_conntrack_sip 15796 1 nf_nat_sip
nf_conntrack_proto_sctp 10441 0
nf_conntrack_pptp 9859 1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_conntrack_proto_gre 5684 1 nf_conntrack_pptp
nf_conntrack_netlink 14883 0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 1254 0
nf_conntrack_irc 4231 1 nf_nat_irc
nf_conntrack_h323 57352 1 nf_nat_h323
nf_conntrack_ftp 10125 1 nf_nat_ftp
ipt_set 1143 2
ipt_SET 1335 0
ip_set_nethash 7507 0
ip_set_iptreemap 7860 0
ip_set_iptree 4829 2
ip_set_ipporthash 6508 0
ip_set_portmap 3164 0
ip_set_macipmap 3018 0
ip_set_ipmap 3040 0
ip_set_iphash 5833 0
ip_set 13331 18 ipt_set,ipt_SET,ip_set_nethash,ip_set_iptreemap,ip _set_iptree,ip_set_ipporthash,ip_set_portmap,ip_se t_macipmap,ip_set_ipmap,ip_set_iphash
xt_TPROXY 1870 0
nf_tproxy_core 2056 1 xt_TPROXY,[permanent]
xt_tcpmss 1197 0
xt_pkttype 848 0
xt_physdev 1507 0
xt_owner 906 0
xt_NFQUEUE 1776 0
xt_NFLOG 841 0
nfnetlink_log 7208 1 xt_NFLOG
xt_multiport 2314 4
xt_MARK 743 1
xt_mark 711 0
xt_mac 772 0
xt_limit 1382 0
xt_length 936 0
xt_iprange 1902 0
xt_helper 1071 0
xt_hashlimit 8012 0
xt_DSCP 1677 0
xt_dscp 1301 0
xt_dccp 1797 0
xt_conntrack 2302 12
xt_CONNMARK 1145 0
xt_connmark 985 0
xt_CLASSIFY 723 0
ipt_LOG 4895 5
xt_tcpudp 2075 11
xt_state 1098 1
iptable_nat 5407 0
nf_nat 19058 12 ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,nf_nat_tftp ,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_nat_proto_gre,nf_nat_ir c,nf_nat_h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,iptable_nat
nf_conntrack_ipv4 12757 16 iptable_nat,nf_nat
nf_defrag_ipv4 1073 2 xt_TPROXY,nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_conntrack 69374 31 xt_connlimit,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_CLUSTERIP,nf_nat_t ftp,nf_nat_snmp_basic,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_na t_irc,nf_nat_h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,nf_conn track_amanda,nf_conntrack_sane,nf_conntrack_tftp,n f_conntrack_sip,nf_conntrack_proto_sctp,nf_conntra ck_pptp,nf_conntrack_proto_gre,nf_conntrack_netlin k,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_irc,nf_conn track_h323,nf_conntrack_ftp,xt_helper,xt_conntrack ,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt_state,iptable_nat,nf_n at,nf_conntrack_ipv4
iptable_mangle 2803 1
nfnetlink 3266 2 nf_conntrack_netlink,nfnetlink_log
iptable_filter 2271 1
ip_tables 9891 4 iptable_raw,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_fil ter
x_tables 14331 48 ipt_IFWLOG,ipt_psd,xt_time,xt_connlimit,xt_realm,x t_comment,xt_recent,xt_policy,ipt_ULOG,ipt_REJECT, ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_ECN,ipt _ecn,ipt_CLUSTERIP,ipt_ah,ipt_addrtype,ipt_set,ipt _SET,xt_TPROXY,xt_tcpmss,xt_pkttype,xt_physdev,xt_ owner,xt_NFQUEUE,xt_NFLOG,xt_multiport,xt_MARK,xt_ mark,xt_mac,xt_limit,xt_length,xt_iprange,xt_helpe r,xt_hashlimit,xt_DSCP,xt_dscp,xt_dccp,xt_conntrac k,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt_CLASSIFY,ipt_LOG,xt_t cpudp,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables
ipv6 265637 16
snd_cs46xx 82211 2
gameport 8882 2 snd_cs46xx
i2c_piix4 10947 0
snd_rawmidi 19904 1 snd_cs46xx
shpchp 28668 0
sg 25405 0
sr_mod 13878 0
snd_ac97_codec 101204 1 snd_cs46xx
e100 28588 0
i2c_core 24773 1 i2c_piix4
pci_hotplug 26675 1 shpchp
mii 4349 1 e100
ac97_bus 1002 1 snd_ac97_codec
binfmt_misc 6369 1
ndiswrapper 183355 0
loop 13134 0
pcmcia 50035 0
yenta_socket 32545 3
dm_mod 62985 0
rsrc_nonstatic 9595 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 40212 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
cpufreq_ondemand 8082 0
cpufreq_conservative 9426 0
cpufreq_powersave 754 0
freq_table 3383 1 cpufreq_ondemand
speedstep_lib 3453 0
thinkpad_acpi 63995 0
rfkill 15762 1 thinkpad_acpi
snd_seq_dummy 1370 0
snd_seq_oss 30465 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6003 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 50859 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 6052 4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 41479 0
snd_pcm 76849 3 snd_cs46xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 18943 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 7140 2 snd_cs46xx,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss 14278 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd 57766 16 snd_cs46xx,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,thinkpad_acp i,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device ,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore 6619 1 snd
led_class 2864 1 thinkpad_acpi
nsc_ircc 13540 0
thermal 10871 0
ppdev 7793 0
nvram 6108 1 thinkpad_acpi
video 17117 0
output 1871 1 video
irda 105773 1 nsc_ircc
evdev 7435 12
uhci_hcd 22767 0
floppy 51753 0
crc_ccitt 1339 1 irda
parport_pc 29915 0
battery 8220 0
button 4709 0
ac 2638 0
processor 29917 1
parport 31147 2 ppdev,parport_pc
usbcore 176716 3 ndiswrapper,uhci_hcd
ata_generic 2519 0
ide_pci_generic 2430 0
pata_acpi 2579 0
piix 4336 0
ide_gd_mod 23741 0
ide_core 98275 3 ide_pci_generic,piix,ide_gd_mod
ahci 32422 0
ata_piix 18884 3
libata 169777 4 ata_generic,pata_acpi,ahci,ata_piix
sd_mod 33341 4
scsi_mod 146881 4 sg,sr_mod,libata,sd_mod
crc_t10dif 1251 1 sd_mod
xfs 866542 2
exportfs 3341 1 xfs
[root@localhost

Ok, ndiswrapper is loading. The others are not. Let's remove that and load p54pci

Code:

---

su -
modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modprobe p54pci
depmod -a
iwconfig
dmesg | grep firmware

---

Post the output of the last two commands.

My guess is that now you should get a message indicating which firmware is missing. Which should be isl3886pci. You can download the firmware at this site.

Check the output of

Code:

---

uname -a

---

for your kernel, but I'm pretty sure Mandriva 2010 has a 2.6.29 kernel or newer. When you download the firmware (assuming it's the one I think) it will be called 2.13.12.0.arm. You'll need to rename that to isl3886pci and it should go in /lib/firmware. So for example you could do

Code:

---

cd ~
wget http://daemonizer.de/prism54/prism54-fw/fw-softmac/2.13.12.0.arm
mv 2.13.12.0.arm /lib/firmware/isl3886pci

---

Not sure if my last post made it.

I followed directions and here are results.
[root@localhost ~]# depmod -a
[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

irda0 no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[root@localhost ~]# dmesg / grep firmware
Usage: dmesg [-c] [-n level] [-r] [-s bufsize]
[root@localhost ~]#

I downloaded the firmware (2.13.12.0.arm) and tried to drag it into the firmware folder but I got an error message "access denied." Not sure why. How can I get that file into firmware and change its name?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jada32

Not sure if my last post made it.

I followed directions and here are results.
[root@localhost ~]# depmod -a
[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

irda0 no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[root@localhost ~]# dmesg / grep firmware
Usage: dmesg [-c] [-n level] [-r] [-s bufsize]
[root@localhost ~]#

I downloaded the firmware (2.13.12.0.arm) and tried to drag it into the firmware folder but I got an error message "access denied." Not sure why. How can I get that file into firmware and change its name?

---

Did you do everything before depmod as well?

The symbol in dmesg | grep firmware is not a /, but the pipe symbol. Generally you'll find it on the same key as the \.

The reason you can't drag it from your file manager is that it requires root privileges. From the command line, we had you log in as root with su -. Depending on whether you are using GNOME or KDE you can open your file manager as root by doing

Code:

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gksu nautilus

---

or

Code:

---

kdesu dolphin

---

OK. I found an ethernet cord and used your command to download and install the isl3886 driver into the firmware folder. I also ran the corrected code as per above. Yes I did all above the depmod also. Here are results:

12-1 noon result

[root@localhost# depmod -a
[root@localhost# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

irda0 no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[root@localhost# dmesg | grep firmware
IBM TrackPoint firmware: 0x0e, buttons: 3/3
thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: Outdated ThinkPad BIOS/EC firmware
thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: This firmware may be missing critical bug fixes and/or important features
p54pci 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting isl3886pci
p54pci 0000:0c:00.0: Cannot find firmware (isl3886pci)
p54pci 0000:0c:00.0: firmware: requesting isl3886
[root@localhost

Ok, it's requesting the firmware now but not finding it. Did you rename the file to isl3886pci?