Arindam’s Weblog

Many vendors do not release specifications of the hardware or provide a Linux driver for their wireless network cards. The ndiswrapper project implements Windows kernel API and NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) API within Linux kernel. A Windows driver for wireless network card is then linked to this implementation so that the driver runs natively, as though it is in Windows, without binary emulation. With ndiswrapper, most miniPCI (builtin), PCI, PCMCIA (Cardbus only) or USB wireless network cards work in Linux with x86 or x86-64. Although ndiswrapper is intended for wireless network cards, other devices are known to work: e.g., ethernet cards, USB to serial port device, home phone network device etc.

I got into this matter because one of my friend bought a Compaq Pressario V6425TU laptop but the Wifi (wlan vendor: Broadcom) won’t work in F7.

URL: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/

The latest stable version is 1.48. It can also be yum-installed from livna repository.

Usage: First we have to install ndiswrapper kernel module (from livna):

# yum install ndiswrapper

Then we check whether any conflicting driver is there or not. If present it should be blacklisted. To do this (replace ‘driver’ with driver name say ‘bcm43xx’):

# echo 'blacklist driver' | \
tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Now for PCI wireless adapter do a # lspci -n or for USB wireless adapter do # lsusb. Once the wifi card is identified, note down the chipset ID of the form 104c:8400. Then we install the crap…the INF file (eg: bcm43xx.inf) of the Windows driver

# ndiswrapper -i /path to/driver.inf

To make sure if the driver is properly installed we list the currently installed drivers for ndiswrapper:

# ndiswrapper -l

If the driver is properly installed it will echo:


Installed ndis drivers:
{driver} driver present, hardware present

If you don’t see this, try a different driver such as the drivers for Windows 2000, or another driver matching the PCI ID on the ndiswrapper list. The installation of driver can be done easily by a GUI ndisgtk.

After installation, now we run the following commands to add the driver module in kernel:

# depmod -a
# modprobe ndiswrapper

Now with # ifconfig or # iwconfig the wifi card will appear with an interface name like wlan0. If wlan0 is shown then wifi is working!! We can then create a network connection.

I completed packaging Sirius - Othello game for GNOME. I have out up a review request in Bugzilla. Bug id is #287801. Sirius is a program for playing the game of othello. The program includes an AI (Artificial Intelligence) opponent which plays at a very challenging level and is actually quite hard to beat. The AI opponent’s strength can therefore be adjusted in several ways to give you a suitable opponent. I would like to have a sponser for this so that i can get it into the Fedora repository. The spec file and the SRPM are over here:

[http://makghosh.googlepages.com]

Now i am also facing a problem while doing “ssh -v makghosh [at] fedorapeople [dot] org”. I could not access the server. And what is GSS failure…Please help!! The debuginfo is given here:

[http://makghosh.googlepages.com/sshDebugInfo.txt]

Update: The issue mentioned above is resolved. It’s a mere bandwidth problem. The poor airtel gprs connection was unable to do an ssh. Now, that i have got the BSNL Dataone Broadband connection…life has become quite easy!! Anyways, two of my packages for Fedora are:

1. gURLchecker: Bug #293971
2. sirius: Bug #287801

Last Saturday, I went for a rather hitch-hike trip to CCU. So eventually, I got to slip in to the 2nd Linux InstallFest of wbut-lug supported by ilug-cal. The theme of the fest was quite similar to the first one. We had 27 students attending the program. Amongst organizers/volunteers there were Indranil Das Gupta, Sushmit Shannigrahi, Debarshi Ray, Abhishek Dutta etc. The only big difference was the program was delivered in more matured format. And the volunteer team this time also consisted of some people who were the students in the first version of the event. Amazing!! We covered following things:

1. Installation of F7 in WBUT systems (IBM Lab) as well as some home desktops & laptops. We actually did a network installation from a local repository server created by Sushmit da.
2. Showed them how to do a yum install/update.
3. Showed them how to play music, movies etc. All these were shown on a projector and they did as shown on their machines.
4. They even played OpenArena. Obviously one SIS-video driver based machine couldn’t play it because the libraries for 3D rendering are not yet there for SIS drivers.
5. Then they also enjoyed the look and feel of compiz.
6. Also they saw how easily cellphones & digicams are detected in Linux. We tested with a Canon EOS DSLR camera and a Motorola ROKR E6.

The program was wrapped up around 8:30 pm.

Lately I was trying to create a shutdown/reboot module for Fl_TeacherTool. I recently talked with its developer Robert Arkiletian and realised that “ltspinfo” can be accessed by non-root users even. The shutdown/reboot module is a cool feature for fl_teachertool but would create a problem if non-root users gain access and shutdown terminals at their will. But this problem has to solved. So, I am analyzing the code of ltsp-ltspinfod and may make changes in it as required to curb this problem.