mengao
Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Nov. 2006 |
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Posted: Nov. 24 2006,17:41 |
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I'm having considerable problems to install a WiFi PCMCIA card on an old laptop.
The facts:
I had an old Compaq Armada "collecting dust" and decided to install DSL. More as a challenge to see how far I can get with DSL, WLAN, ... This laptop is an 160 MHz Pentium I PC, with a 1GB disk, and 16 MB of RAM. However no wireless LAN, well, ..., not even LAN, just an analog modem.
The WLAN card is called "X-Micro", according to the driver a "Realtek RTL8180L 802.11b MAC"
This is what dmesg tells me after booting:
| Code Sample |
Linux version 2.4.26 (root@Knoppix) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)) #1 SMP Sa Apr 17 19:33:42 CEST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e801: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable)
BIOS-e801: 0000000000100000 - 0000000001000000 (usable)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
16MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
DMI not present.
ACPI: Unable to locate RSDP
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=302 hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi apm=power-off nomce noapic
ide_setup: hda=scsi
ide_setup: hdb=scsi
ide_setup: hdc=scsi
ide_setup: hdd=scsi
ide_setup: hde=scsi
ide_setup: hdf=scsi
ide_setup: hdg=scsi
ide_setup: hdh=scsi
No local APIC present or hardware disabled
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 116.881 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 232.65 BogoMIPS
Memory: 13260k/16384k available (1371k kernel code, 2736k reserved, 561k data, 140k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Intel Pentium with F0 0F bug - workaround enabled.
CPU: After generic, caps: 000001bf 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 000001bf 00000000 00000000 00000000
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Checking for popad bug... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: none
CPU: After generic, caps: 000001bf 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 000001bf 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU0: Intel Pentium 75 - 200 stepping 0c
per-CPU timeslice cutoff: 161.00 usecs.
SMP motherboard not detected.
Local APIC not detected. Using dummy APIC emulation.
Waiting on wait_init_idle (map = 0x0)
All processors have done init_idle
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf73c3, last bus=0
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
OPTI621X: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:14.0
OPTI621X: chipset revision 18
OPTI621X: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
OPTI621X: neither IDE port enabled (BIOS)
hda: TOSHIBA MK1002MAV, ATA DISK drive
hdb: UJDCD8700, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: task_no_data_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
hda: 2116800 sectors (1084 MB) w/128KiB Cache, CHS=525/64/63
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2
ide: late registration of driver.
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 140k freed
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10f
Adding Swap: 124952k swap-space (priority -1)
hdb: attached ide-scsi driver.
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: MATSHITA Model: UJDCD8700 Rev: 1.06
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 8x/8x xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x06f8, PCI irq 15
Socket status: 30000006
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x06f8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000020
cs: cb_alloc(bus 2): vendor 0x10ec, device 0x8180
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x08ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x220-0x22f 0x250-0x257 0x330-0x337 0x378-0x37f 0x388-0x38f 0x3f8-0x3ff 0x408-0x40f 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 19:48:59 Apr 17 2004
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: deregistering driver usbdevfs
usb.c: deregistering driver hub
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb.c: deregistering driver usbdevfs
usb.c: deregistering driver hub
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
floppy0: unexpected interrupt
floppy0: sensei repl[0]=80
cloop: Initializing cloop v2.01
cloop: loaded (max 128 devices)
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
sr0: CDROM (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
cdrom: open failed.
Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
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What I did:
Installed DSL 3.0.1 from CD. I partitioned the HD in a 128MB swap, and left the rest for DSL. After a few bootings, and checking if everything was correct, I went for the WLAN. I first installed the PCMCIA card, but it was not recognized as a valid interface. I was expecting it, and went for the "ndiswrapper" alternative. First I tried it with the original winXP drivers of the driver CD of the X-Micro card. I copied the winXP driver to:
| Code Sample | | /home/dsl/wlan/ |
installed the driver:
| Code Sample | | ndiswrapper -i /home/dsl/wlan/net8180.inf |
when I do a:
| Code Sample | | ndiswrapper -l |
DSL lists the net8180 and informs that the hardware is available. If I look with
I get
| Code Sample |
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: OPTi Inc. 82C701 [FireStar Plus] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Unknown device 035c:0e11
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: OPTi Inc. 82C700 [FireStar] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Unknown device 035c:0e11
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Cirrus Logic GD 7548 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at 40000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at 41000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
0000:00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 15
Memory at 7fffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10000000-103ff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 10400000-107ff000
I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
0000:00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
Memory at 7ffff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10800000-10bff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 10c00000-10fff000
I/O window 0: 00004800-000048ff
I/O window 1: 00004c00-00004cff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
0000:00:14.0 IDE interface: OPTi Inc. 82C825 [Firebridge 2] (rev 12) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Unknown device 035c:0e11
Flags: medium devsel
I/O ports at 1000 [size=16]
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 4800 [size=256]
Memory at 10c00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Capabilities: <available only to root>
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Then
tells me that there is no ndiswrapper. I went for a:
| Code Sample | | modprobe ndiswrapper |
and nothing happens!
If I look at dmesg, I see:
| Code Sample |
cs: cb_free(bus 2)
cs: cb_alloc(bus 2): vendor 0x10ec, device 0x8180
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 02:00.0 to 64
__alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x21/0)
ndiswrapper (NdisMAllocateSharedMemory:926): couldn't allocate 2042 bytes of cached DMA memory
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:246): log: C0001389, count: 1, return_address: c1950a1e
ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:249): code: 1026
ndiswrapper (miniport_init:273): couldn't initialize device: C000009A
ndiswrapper (pnp_start_device:497): Windows driver couldn't initialize the device (C0000001)
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My understanding:
I have a problem with the driver. 
I tried the same approach with a newer version (1.73) of the driver from
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloa....TL8180L
However I see the same error code. My understanding is that I have a real problem with the WLAN card, DSL, and the old laptop as it is not able to allocate enough memory for the NDIS wrapper.
Solutions I tried:
1) I tried to install the Linux 2.4.XX drivers from Realtek. However it did not work, as both ".o" files available are for 2.4.18 and 2.4.20 and I get the gcc/lib error message about the wrong version.
2) Changing of driver version (CD version and the Realtek one) didn't help.
3) I tried to boot it with the card, tried to boot it without the card, and so on. But I always get the same error.
4) I thought about changing the Linux distribution. My guess is that changing the Linux distribution will not help, as probably all of them will come back to the "ndiswrapper" solution.
5) I discarded trying to install win98. 
As the DSL is without a connection, it is quite complicated to download the source code of the driver, get the right gcc version installed, figure out where I can resize buffer sizes, compile it on another box, and load it via the 1.44" floppy of the Compaq Armada.
Does anyone has an idea of what else I could do?
Any HELP would be really apreciated!
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me, myself, and I
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