I haven't quite gotten it fixed, but I have managed to successfully set up a ndiswrapper kernel! Now all would appear to need is a driver... so I looked through the archives and found one that looked right, but the instructions for setting it up were for another version of Linux, so I'm going to run them by you guys before I do anything:
Download, compile and install the newest ndiswrapper. Use wine or a Windows PC to run the softpaq. You will need to let it completely run, and then you will need to copy the C:\SWSetup\SP36684A directory to your linux pc. Use lsmod | egrep 'b43|ssb|ndiswrapper|bcm43xx' to see which modules you currently have loaded for this card. Release any ip addresses you have obtained from dhcp servers with dhclient -r wlan0 Bring your wlan down with sudo ifconfig wlan0 down Unload any of the loaded modules you found with lsmod above, using (as appropriate), sudo modprobe -r b43legacy, sudo modprobe -r b43 sudo modprobe -r ssb sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper I highly recommend backing-up and removing the /etc/ndiswrapper directory and the /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper files if they exist. I also highly recommend editing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and making sure that you have all of these modules blacklisted (b43, b43legacy, ssb, bcm43xx). While you are there, make sure ndiswrapper is NOT blacklisted. Also, make sure that these modules are not in /etc/modules (b43, b43legacy, ssb, bcm43xx). If you have added any of these modules to initramfs (for wireless network boots?!?), then you are an advanced user, and don't need my help (by you should take them out of there too). If you have ndiswrapper installed, you can install the driver by running sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf (in the directory where you copied the windows driver) This will create the /etc/ndiswrapper directory, and install the Windows drivers, various files, and symlinks. You then need to run sudo ndiswrapper -ma This will create the /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file, which will contain all of the needed aliases to load the drivers. DO NOT run ndiswrapper with the -mi or -m options. The -m option is outdated by udev, and the -i option will overwrite your aliases with a lot of unnecessary install commands. You may wish to add ndiswrapper to /etc/modules to make sure it loads on boot. You can load it now with sudo modprobe ndiswrapper or with sudo loadndisdriver Results may not be immediate. If you want to "see" what is happening, you can tail -f /var/log/daemon.log to make sure Network Manager is configuring the card. If your system is messed up, you might have to bring up the card with sudo ifconfig wlan0 up If it is really, really messed up, you might have to edit udev rules, and networking configuration by hand, but that's far beyond the scope of this. This particular Windows driver with this particular version of ndiswrapper, with this kernel has given me the best results that I have achieved with this card. Networking is reliable, fast, and automatic. Please note that with ABI -19 of this kernel for this distribution, ssb and b43 are loading for the BCM4311/12 (rev 02) for the first time without requiring recompiling them with patches. Kudos to the Ubuntu team for this, but the performance is really bad. I frequently have 1-9 Mb connections with Hardy Heron and ssb/b43 at a txpower of 27 dBm, while I have reliable 54 Mb connections at a txpower of 32 dBm with ndiswrapper. If you are using Gutsy Gibbon, I had my best results on the 2.6.22 kernel with custom compiled ssb/b43 kernel modules using the compat-2.6.25 pack, but it was a lot of work to get it working, and I'm not sure I could replicate the process now if I had to. Please let me know what modifications, if any, I'll need to make to this process, and thanks for everything you've already done to help! ~John Wesley Cooper -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-laptop-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
