FC6 and ndiswrapper

[Rick Stevens]

On Thu, 2007-03-29 at 20:18 -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> I did an upgrade on my hp laptop from fc5 to fc6 and my wlan stopped
> working. Here's some stuff I've found:
> 
> [root at hhlaptop sbin]# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
> Installed drivers:
> bcmwl5          driver installed, hardware present
> 
> So, it looks like it's there
> 
> [root at hhlaptop sbin]# /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper
> FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.
> 
> But maybe it isn't.
> 
> Check versions between os and ndiswrapper...
> 
> [root at hhlaptop sbin]# cat /proc/version
> Linux version 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 (brewbuilder at hs20-bc1-6.build.redhat.com)
> (gcc version 4.1.1 20061011 (Red Hat 4.1.1-30)) #1 SMP Mon Oct 16 14:39:22
> EDT 2006
> 
> 
> 
> [root at hhlaptop sbin]# /sbin/modinfo ndiswrapper
> modinfo: could not find module ndiswrapper
> 
> Still can't find ndiswrapper...
> 
> Ideas?

Harold,

ndiswrapper isn't part of the standard distribution and must be rebuilt
for each new kernel that gets installed.  You did a major upgrade (FC5
to FC6), so the kernel was updated.  Also note that if you update the
kernel via yum, you will also need to rebuild ndiswrapper.

ndiswrapper actually is made of several parts.  The bit in /usr/sbin
is the bit that sets up the Windows driver to be used.  It generally
doesn't change and can be used over all kernel versions.  The second
bit, ndiswrapper.ko, is the actual kernel module and is kernel-specific.
It lives in the "/lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc" directory.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer             rstevens at internap.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.  -
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