driver problem or hardware problem?

Forum: Networking
Topic: driver problem or hardware problem?
started by: Pepto

Posted by Pepto on Jan. 07 2006,20:07

The problem is that accessing the network locks up the entire machine after a few seconds - master reset is the only answer.
machine is a P-II with 196 mb ram and 500 mb linux swap space.
Wireless card is a wmp54g pci - version 2 with the broadcom driver.
the driver loads up just fine with ndiswrapper, iwconfig works, and 'pump -i wlan0' loads it up with a ip address from the router. Life is good.
when I access the network via firefox, dillo, or mydsl, the source page is found and if using mydsl the download starts. The entire machine then locks up solid after about 2 seconds.
the only error I see is when I do a 'depmod -a' after I do the ndiswrapper -i command. depmod works for a bit and then returns the error "can't open /lib/modules/2.4.31/modules.dep for writing." I looked and the file is there, and as root should have access so
I'm not sure what that particular error is telling me.
btw, this is with dsl 2.0, and it makes no difference if I boot from the live cd or from a hd install. this same card and machine have also worked ok under win98, puppy, knoppix, etc so I don't believe there is an underlying hardware problem? Something in DSL that needs tweaked?? Thanks in advance!

Posted by roberts on Jan. 07 2006,22:15

Don't need to do depmod -a
instead should try
modprobe ndiswrapper

Also, try with 2.1RC3b as it may have to do with acpi and shared interrupts. Also check your bios for acpi and shared interrupt setting.

Posted by Pepto on Jan. 08 2006,03:25

I tried the 2.1 RC3b iso, all info in this reply is based on that.

from dmesg after modprobe ndiswrapper

ndiswrapper version 1.1 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Linksys,07/17/2003, 3.30.15.0) loaded
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0d.0
ndiswrapper: using irq 10
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:0f:66:1b:3b:71 using driver bcmwl5, configuration file 14E4:4320:1737:0014.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP, WPA with TKIP, WPA with AES/CCMP
root@box:~#

Some other info I collected:
root@box:~# lspci -v
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX Host bridge (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 1.0

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX AGP bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 96
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: f8000000-fbffffff

0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 01)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
I/O ports at fcd0 [size=16]

0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at fce0 [size=32]

0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 01)
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9

0000:00:0d.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 03)
Subsystem: Linksys: Unknown device 0014
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at fedfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. ViRGE/GX2 (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Number 9 Computer Company: Unknown device 8a10
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]

root@box:/mnt# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"xxxxxxxxxxx"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Bit Rate:54Mb/s Tx-Power:14 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:XXXX-XXXX-XX Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-26 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:5779 Missed beacon:0

root@box:/mnt#
root@box:/mnt# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
inet addr:192.168.1.103 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:15 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3288 (3.2 KiB) TX bytes:1522 (1.4 KiB)
Memory:fedfe000-fedfffff

root@box:/mnt#
root@box:/mnt# ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.0 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.9 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.0 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=1.1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=1.1 ms

--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.9/1.5/4.1 ms
root@box:/mnt#

Comments: pinging the router (above) didn't cause any dire consequences. My mac address was shown correctly, as was
that of the ap; I just x'd them out along with the hex key. when I check the net tab from the control panel -> system stats, it also has the correct name servers, etc as assigned by my isp. In the bios, PnP is turned off as is power management.

All of this made no difference - system still locks up solid after a couple of seconds of network access. I can reboot to puppy and the same setup works just fine...

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