Re: ndiswrapper, wireless driver and 64 bit kernel

[Freddy Freeloader <fredddy@cableone.net>]

Christoph Nenning wrote:

> Am Samstag, 1. April 2006 20:40 schrieb Freddy Freeloader:
>  
>
> > Freddy Freeloader wrote:
> >    
> >
> > > Hi All
> > >
> > > I'm running a combination of etch and sid on an HP Pavilion dv8000z
> > > that runs the AMD Turion.  I'm running 32 bit Debian with the 64 bit
> > > kernel that is released with sarge, etch, and sid.
> > >
> > > I've been trying to get my wireless going and having problems getting
> > > it up and running. The laptop has the Broadcom wireless card and lspci
> > > reports it as a bcm4318. I ran ndiswrapper and it ran successfully.
> > > ndiswrapper -l lists the driver and says the driver and hardware are
> > > present.  However when I went to run modprobe ndiswrapper it reported
> > > a fatal error: Module not found.
> > >
> > > I located ndiswrapper.ko (It was with the 2.6.8-2 module that etch and
> > > sid both install as the ndiswrapper module), and added the directory
> > > to the PATH. Now when I run modprobe I'm getting the "invalid module
> > > format" error.
> > >
> > > I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what is causing the problem.
> > > Is it because the ndiswrapper is from a different kernel, or does this
> > > error have anything to do with possible differences in compilers? How
> > > do I figure out which is the problem? I am not running a custom kernel
> > > other than it's a 64 bit kernel, rather than a 32 bit kernel.
> > >      
> > As a further update:
> >
> > I tried using module-assistant to install ndiswrapper from source today
> > and it failed.   It says it can't find any source for the kernel.
> >
> > uname -a says the kernel is 2.6.15-1-486.  That seems like a pretty
> > strange naming convention for a 64 bit kernel but that's what it reports.
> >    
>
>
> Hi,
>
> as far as I know you need 64-Bit Windows drivers to work with ndiswrapper on a 
> 64-Bit kernel. Maybe this is your problem.
>
> regards
>
> Christoph
>
>
>  
Christoph,

I didn't see your reply until today.  This is now working, and it was a 
bug in ndiswrapper.  It has been fixed in the current ndiswrapper-source 
package in Sid (1.16).  It now compiles and the Windows drivers that 
come with the machine work.  As far as I know they are 32 bit drivers as 
the Windows folder on the XP home install that came with the system has 
a system32 subdirectory.  I see no reference to that OEM install being a 
64 bit install.