Can anybody emerge ndiswrapper?

tharasix · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:04 pm Post subject: Can anybody emerge ndiswrapper?

I'm running ~amd64, and ndiswrapper fails to merge because there's a check in the Makefile for version.h in /usr/src/linux/include/linux, and the only file that's close that's in there is vermagic.h. This is true in the 3.0.35 and 3.7.1 tuxonice kernels. There's nothing in the bugzilla about this. Am I really the only person that's tried to merge ndiswrapper on the 3.* series of kernels?

I haven't gotten the time to try gentoo-sources to see if this is an issue with the tuxonice patches, but I'll do that soon. I've tried at least ndiswrapper-1.58rc1. Anybody have any insight before I dig further? I have two RealTek wireless cards that are being a PITA, so I wanted to try this route as an option.

eccerr0r · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:52 pm Post subject:

Ndiswrapper has always been a PITA for me - it always fails to compile sometimes - and thus I try to avoid it - and avoid all hardware that requires it. I would have suggested unstable as it tends to work for me but it looks like you already tried. (Have you configured on your kernel with the proper .config file in place (and actually tried to build the kernel)?)

What realtek "cards" do you have (realizing they may be USB?) Realtek has been doing ok supplying native drivers, and at most you need to download a binary firmware blob...
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tharasix · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:39 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I moved to unstable to play with Gnome 3, so I'm fully updated on that profile.

I've built the kernel several times over playing with different settings to try to stabilize the performance of these adapters, so I'm sure that's not the issue. It's pretty clear in the ndiswrapper Makefile that it's looking for version.h, and I'm pretty surprised that it's not in the kernel includes.

I've got a rtl8192ce internally in the laptop, and that was fine on stable. When I went to unstable, so did the card's performance. My next step is to try to revert back to a 3.0.* kernel to see if the newer drivers are bad. I also bought an Asus USB-N13, which I thought would come with an Ralink chipset, but it ended up being a rtl8192cu. That one I can get as far as getting an IP from the DHCP server on my access point, but no data seems to flow. I can't ping the AP, let alone get out to the internet.

If I can't get the 3.0.* drivers or ndiswrapper to work (in that order), on either card, then I'll probably start another thread or two in the hardware section about my trials and tribulations.

eccerr0r · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:39 am Post subject:

I'm surprised too, as the file does exist on my kernel tree. It's a generated file so you have to at least partially build a kernel. Building the kernel requires it, so something's not right here.
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mir3x · Guru Joined: 02 Jun 2012 Posts: 455

You can try emerging other linux-firmware - older ones, just check what firmware u had before, eg. by qlop -lu , it sometimes help.
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tharasix · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:18 pm Post subject:

eccerr0r - You seem to be right, at least about the 3.0.35 kernel. Once I built a kernel, I got version.h. 3.7.1, however...

eccerr0r · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:06 pm Post subject:

This is weird, I don't know why 3.7 does not...

3.5.7 and 3.6.11 still have version.h...

Well, I am always worried about DKMS modules. Since they are not maintained by the tree, breakage happens frequently.

I was using ndiswrapper on 3.2.12 at one point, but I decided to pretty much jettison the only USB wifi adapter that I have that needed it...

EDIT: Apparently ndiswrapper is not the only DKMS module that has this issue, seems ATI-catalyst also has the same issue for 3.7... So... Avoid 3.7 for now? (or hack in a version.h?)
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tharasix · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:58 am Post subject:

Ugh, so close. I backed off to 3.0.35 and the 7/19/2012 linux firmware, and it was solid on the 8192ce chip for a hour or so, even while connected to my file server over NFS. NFS seems to really be the thing that causes a fragile wireless driver to break. This is at least close to usable. I'll just have to find some way around the NFS issue.