ndiswrapper problem

Forum: Networking
Topic: ndiswrapper problem
started by: lumn

Posted by lumn on May 28 2006,16:03

Hello

I encountered some problems while trying to get my Wlan-Chipset (Intel Pro/Wireless Lan 2100 3B) running.
According to the "Working Wlan Cards" Wiki-Entry ( < here >)
it should work using ndiswrapper.
Unfortunately it doesn't work by using the ndiswrapper-gui, so I tried the console. This doesn't work either. I don't really have a clue why, but it seems to me, that ndiswrapper tries to write a file to a location that is "read-only". I was not able to give myself writing permissions using the "chmod" command (it says something like "this filesystem is read-only" if I try).

Code Sample

dsl@box:~$ ndiswrapper -l
No drivers installed
dsl@box:~$
dsl@box:~$ sudo ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/home/felix/Router/w70n51.inf
Installing w70n51
couldn't copy /mnt/hda1/home/felix/Router/w70n51.inf at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 139.
dsl@box:~$ ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
w70n51 driver installed, hardware present
dsl@box:~$
dsl@box:~$ ndiswrapper -m
modprobe config already contains alias directive

dsl@box:~$ sudo ndiswrapper -a
cp: writing `/etc/modules.conf.old': No space left on device
Module alias information is stored in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper;
copy it to where udev expects it and configure udev.
dsl@box:~$
dsl@box:~$ ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 28 15:14 /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
dsl@box:~$

The file /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper is empty and the whole directory is "read-only".

Any suggestions?

Posted by roberts on May 28 2006,17:19

Aftrer doing an ndiswrapper -i .......
then a simple modprobe ndiswrapper gives me the device.
No options used. It works on four different devices that I have available for testing.

Sometimes the script will fail, because some card/devices are rather slow to register. A cheapo AirLink that I have currently tested needs sleep commands after the ndiswrapper -i and again after the modprobe ndiswrapper before the iwconfig commands are issued.

Posted by lumn on May 29 2006,22:28

Back again:

roberts: I tried your commands, but they didn't work for me.

But I think I found out, where the problem is: Somehow I only have 2.9 megabytes of free, usable space (although I my RAM is 512 mb big). The driver of my wlan-chipset is bigger than 2.9mb (*.inf-file + a big *.sys-file) and therefore the installation fails at line 139 (I guess that's when there is no space left) :

Code Sample

dsl@box:~$ sudo ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/home/felix/Router/w70n51.inf
Installing w70n51
couldn't copy /mnt/hda1/home/felix/Router/w70n51.inf at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 139.

This seems also to be the reason for all those "not enough disk space"-errors that pop up all the time, preventing further installation (that's why your commands don't work).

Code Sample

dsl@box:~$ sudo ndiswrapper -a
cp: writing `/etc/modules.conf.old': No space left on device

So my questions are:
1. Why do I have only that little space?!
2. Shouldn't all data be written into my RAM (at least if one chooses the "toram" installation option (which I did))?
3. Is there a way to increase available space?

Thanks.

Posted by roberts on May 29 2006,22:56

To save some ram space then don't run toram mode.
But with 512MB you must have alot of apps loaded into ram as well as the entire OS. My largest test machine is half that size.

But this is the second time, that someone reported that ndiswrapper fails when there is not enough memory. Watch that memory meter.

Posted by lumn on May 29 2006,23:03

No, that's the weird thing: I boot (without any additional apps/modules/whatever there is), and I start with 2.9mb of available space.
Nevertheless, the information-box on the right side of the desktop says that there is around 450mb of RAM available (which obviously isn't used,though).

Posted by hs7sv on May 30 2006,01:53

lumn, I'm using Fujitsu LB P5010 with Intel Pro/Wireless Lan 2100 3B (Centrino).
I tested w70n51.inf and ndiswrapper on DSL-2.4 and DSL-N-0.1RC1. It does not work on DSL-2.4 (kernel 2.4.26) but it works on DSL-N-0.1RC1 (kernel 2.6).
Since DSL-N still RC version, I decided to use DSL-2.1b (kernel 2.4.31) and ipw2100-k2.4.31.dsl. It works.

EDIT: DSL-3.0RC1 (kernel 2.4.26) just releases. It does not work on DSL-3.0RC1 also.