Madwifi not working with latest kernel upgrade, broken dependency.

[Robert Locke]

On Tue, 2006-05-30 at 10:02 -0400, Dan wrote:
> Gerry Tool wrote:
> > Yesterday I did a yum update on my laptop.  A new kernel, 2122, and many
> > other packages installed, but madwifi from livna would not install due
> > to a dependency on madwifi-kmod-common.  The new kernel and the
> > installed madwifi do not work together.  I can get madwifi to work if I
> > boot to the previous kernel 2096.
> >
> > The missing dependency for madwifi and kmod-madwifi is
> > madwifi-kmod-common = 0.0.0.20060317 is not available.
> >
> > Anyone know how to fix this?  Thanks.
> >
> > Gerry
> >
> >
> >   
> I would suspect this is because madwifi-kmod-common currently does not 
> exist in livna. Probably a mistake by livna, either adding this 
> dependency or forgetting to upload madwifi-kmod-common with the update.
> The old kernel's kmod-madwifi is designed for the old kernel, and won't 
> work with any other kernel. So you need the new one for a new kernel; 
> the same madwifi should work for both (as long as both kmod-madwifis 
> will work with the same version). Yum does not currently handle these 
> kmods correctly (e.g. it updates it so that the one for the old kernel 
> isn't there anymore, when it should be retained); you can try 
> yum-fedorakmod in Extras, the attempt at correcting this.
> -Dan
> 

ummm, no.

There is a dependency "conflict", not a "missing" dependency.

When they packaged up the madwifi driver for the 2122, they took a new
snapshot from the madwifi project, dated 20060520.

Now kmod-madwifi depends on madwifi (which is what provides
madwifi-kmod-common).  While kmod-madwifi is unique for each kernel,
madwifi is a one version at a time component.  So, in order to upgrade
to the "later 20060520" version of madwifi, it needs to replace the
"older 20060317" version.  But, it can't because the working
kmod-madwifi package from his earlier kernel depends on that "older
version".

The real problem is a bit of a catch-22.  How to remove the old packages
to allow the new packages to install while potentially disconnecting
yourself from the network.

For me, I connected to the network using my Ethernet adapter, and did
the following:

yum remove \*madwifi\*
yum install kmod-madwifi-0.0.0.20060520-6.2.6.16_1.2122_FC5

This worked for me, YMMV....

Of course, I now no longer have wireless on my old kernels.....

--Rob