SOLVED: ndiswrapper not loading in KDE 2013.02

[Vamp]

Hello gang,

Let me start by saying that PCLOS 2012 works fine, no problem at all with configuring the wireless card and ndiswrapper works seamlessly.  But I need to upgrade, and I am having trouble with 2013.02.

I am trying out the new KDE 2013.02 releases (I tried both Mini and Full), and in each one I get stuck around the ndiswrapper not loading.  I have done some extensive research here on the forums, but nothing helped...

I start by trying to add my wireless connection, So, I select my Windows wireless driver (mrv8335), which returns:  "Unable to find the ndiswrapper interface!", and then drakconnect says "Unable to find network interface for selected device (using ndiswrapper driver).

I try to do a little fault isolation by:
# ndiswrapper -l
   mrv8335 : driver installed
            device (11AB:1FAA) present

so that is good...but when I :
#modprobe ndiswrapper
   FATAL:  Module ndiswrapper not found.

Which I believe is the crux of the problem.  Although Synaptic says it is installed, it does not appear to be installed correctly (or something).

Any ideas?  If the suggestion is to recompile from the source at ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net, then I would need some help...

Thanks!

[Old-Polack]

Hello gang,

Let me start by saying that PCLOS 2012 works fine, no problem at all with configuring the wireless card and ndiswrapper works seamlessly.  But I need to upgrade, and I am having trouble with 2013.02.

I am trying out the new KDE 2013.02 releases (I tried both Mini and Full), and in each one I get stuck around the ndiswrapper not loading.  I have done some extensive research here on the forums, but nothing helped...

I start by trying to add my wireless connection, So, I select my Windows wireless driver (mrv8335), which returns:  "Unable to find the ndiswrapper interface!", and then drakconnect says "Unable to find network interface for selected device (using ndiswrapper driver).

I try to do a little fault isolation by:
# ndiswrapper -l
   mrv8335 : driver installed
            device (11AB:1FAA) present

so that is good...but when I :
#modprobe ndiswrapper
   FATAL:  Module ndiswrapper not found.

Which I believe is the crux of the problem.  Although Synaptic says it is installed, it does not appear to be installed correctly (or something).

Any ideas?  If the suggestion is to recompile from the source at ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net, then I would need some help...

Thanks!

If you already have an installation, there's really no need to reinstall, unless you haven't been doing the upgrades, as you should. Have you been doing the regular upgrades? If you have, then your installation would be the same as the 2013.02 image.

[coffeetime]

Kernel version? Is this Netgear WG311 Marvell 88w8335 Rev 03 Chipset Wireless Card? Try to reinstall ndiswrapper or dkms-ndiswrapper

[Vamp]

The kernel version shows:  3.2.18-pclos2.bfs
Yes, it is for a Marvell 88w8335 wireless card.

I can't reinstall, because I don't have network access to pull down from repository.   Is there another installation method I could use, like copy ndiswrapper files over to flash drive, then copy over to hobbled system?

I have two MiniKDE disks, one for 2012, and the newest just announced for 2013.  The 2012 PCLOS installs no problem and the ndiswrapper works seamlessly.  I tried to upgrade from the 2012 base, but I failed in getting the KDE upgraded.

But in the 2013, ndiswrapper is choking...

[kjpetrie]

Go to any repository with a web browser. Look in the 2010 section for the files dkms-ndiswrapper...i586.rpm and ndiswrapper......i586.rpm and save them to a memory stick. Unmount (eject) the memory stick properly. Then boot into the 2013.2 install, mount the stick and use:

Code: [Select]

# rpm -e --nodeps ndiswrapper dkms-ndiswrapper
# cd </path-to-memory-stick> (replace with correct path to downloaded rpms)
# apt-get install ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm dkms-ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm

[Vamp]

Thanks for the help...

I did as guided, and reinstalled from memory stick.  Appeared to install no problems.  However, same problem:  "Unable to find the ndiswrapper interface!"

I am looking at ndiswrapper wiki, and it gave a few ideas:

1. [root]#  rmmod ndiswrapper
ERROR:  Module ndiswrapper does not exist in /proc/modules

[root]# modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

[root]# ndiswrapper -v
module version is too old!
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module '0'
module details:
You may need to upgrade driver and/or utils to latest versions available at ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net

[root]# dmseg | grep ndiswrapper
<<nothing>>>

[root]# ll ndiswrapper
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 27310 Sep 11 2009 ndiswrapper*

[muungwana]

what does these commands give you?

uname -r

find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -iname *ndiswrapper*

ps:
copy and paste them on the terminal.

You said 2012 installation cd does not update kde,what error message are you getting?

[Vamp]

uname -r:   3.2.18-pclos2.bfs

The find command comes up with nothing.  There are module.* files in there, but not modules.ndiswrapper.

When I "whereis ndiswrapper", it says:  /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper /etc/ndiswrapper

Regarding the 2012 installation....I don't want to have to go back and do that again....that took 5 hours that got me nowhere.  I would rather get this 2013 ndiswrapper issue resolved.

[muungwana]

i do not think you have it installed

apt-get install ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm dkms-ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm

i do not think the above is the proper way to install rpm packages

go to the folder where you have those packages,log in to root from the terminal and then run this command

rpm -Uvh ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm dkms-ndiswrapper-*.i586.rpm

show whatever output you will get

[Vamp]

SOLVED!!!!

It appears the problem was centered around dkms-ndiswrapper (kjpetrie had stated earlier that it should be installed, but I did not find it in the PASS server, so I ignored it until now).  I found the dkms-ndiswrapper-1.58rc1-1pclos2012.rpm in the free-for-all RPMS-testing directory, so I copied it over and installed as suggested here.  It was the DKMS-ndiswrapper that prepares the kernel for the module build, and appears to create the alias references for ndiswrapper in /etc/modules.conf and /etc/modprobe.conf.

Thanks guys for working with me!   

[kjpetrie]

However, if this package is missing from the ISO, how are newcomers who need it supposed to get it? Do we need a new ISO that does include it?

[DeBaas]

Appending as of today, newinstall PCLos 2013.04
Dualbooting Win has a 12Mbps downloadspeed with the Broadcom BCM4318
PCLos was at 5Mbps max with the provided build in WiFi support.
Tried the ndiswrapper, a nogo.
Found the dkms-ndiswrapper in testing, problems gone
This Is Not For A Newbie, so I think it's needed in the default distro.
If not available (but now in testing) we lost a new possible PCLosUser today.

Ed