NDISwrapper doesn't create wlan0

[Misalf]

Hi,
I'm once again trying to get wifi working on my MSI Wind U100.

The WIFI device it came with:
sudo lspci -v

Code: [Select]

02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 22)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] MN54G2 / MS-6894 Wireless Mini PCIe Card
Physical Slot: 0-1
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
Memory at dfc00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-c0-08-ce-92-1d-00
10ec:8199

The Linux driver for this card provided by  wireless-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz  suffers from poor signal strength and occasional disconnects, so I'm trying to get NDISwrapper working.

RTL8187SE has been reported to work via NDISwrapper:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Realtek_RTL8187SE

This is in my boot loader config:

Code: [Select]

blacklist=ssb,b43,bcma,rtl818x_pci

I have rebooted with the wifi activated via Fn key combo.

I tried the following to get WIFI working via NDISwrapper:

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tce-load -i iw wifi ndiswrapper
libnl.tcz: OK
iw.tcz: OK
wireless-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz: OK
wireless_tools.tcz: OK
wpa_supplicant.tcz: OK
wifi.tcz: OK
ndiswrapper-modules-4.2.9-tinycore.tcz: OK
ndiswrapper.tcz: OK

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper -i /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/HOME/wifi-RTL8187SE/xp/x86/rt2860.inf
installing rt2860 ...

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
rt2860 : driver installed

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
modprobe: invalid option -- 'c'
BusyBox v1.24.1 (2015-12-12 16:02:17 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: modprobe [-alrqvsDb] MODULE [SYMBOL=VALUE]...

-a Load multiple MODULEs
-l List (MODULE is a pattern)
-r Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
-q Quiet
-v Verbose
-s Log to syslog
-D Show dependencies
-b Apply blacklist to module names too
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modules.conf ...

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
The error  modprobe: invalid option -- 'c'  was reported not to be critical and could be ignored.
BTW, loading  module-init-tools.tcz  didn't make that error go away.

So, everything seems to have worked, but...

Code: [Select]

sudo wifi.sh
No wifi devices found!

iwconfig
ip_vti0   no wireless extensions.

ppp0      no wireless extensions.

dummy0    no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

tunl0     no wireless extensions.

sudo /usr/local/sbin/ndiswrapper -v
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: x3: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: 3: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: ELF: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: syntax error: unexpected word (expecting ")")
utils version is too old!
utils version '' is incompatible with utils version needed by driver ('1.9')!
utils version: '', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename:       kernel.tclocal/misc/ndiswrapper.ko.gz
version:        1.59
vermagic:       4.2.9-tinycore SMP mod_unload 486

You may need to upgrade driver and/or utils to latest versions available at
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net

dmesg | tail -10
[   25.372685] [drm] initialized overlay support
[   25.372738] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20150522 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[   25.391033] fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[   26.013920] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x37
[   26.024179] i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[   26.024182] i915 0000:00:02.0: registered panic notifier
[   29.978261] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (16384 buckets, 65536 max)
[  236.054205] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[  236.054958] ndiswrapper version 1.59 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[  236.126340] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

Anything I'm missing?
Thanks!

[Misalf]

I forgot to say I'm on Core 7.0 x86.

[Misalf]

Even though I was sure I have taken the WinXP driver I tried to use with ndiswrapper from the install files officially provided for my netbook, I also tried this driver:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=40&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=172

Output of  ndiswrapper -l  is slightly different (reports  "device (10EC:8199) present")

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modprobe: invalid option -- 'c'
BusyBox v1.24.1 (2015-12-12 16:02:17 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: modprobe [-alrqvsDb] MODULE [SYMBOL=VALUE]...

-a Load multiple MODULEs
-l List (MODULE is a pattern)
-r Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
-q Quiet
-v Verbose
-s Log to syslog
-D Show dependencies
-b Apply blacklist to module names too
net8187se : driver installed
device (10EC:8199) present

Still no joy though.

I wonder if this is of any significance?

Code: [Select]

ndiswrapper -v
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: x3: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: 3: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: ELF: not found
/usr/local/sbin/loadndisdriver: line 1: syntax error: unexpected word (expecting ")")
utils version is too old!
utils version '' is incompatible with utils version needed by driver ('1.9')!
utils version: '', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename:       kernel.tclocal/misc/ndiswrapper.ko.gz
version:        1.59
vermagic:       4.2.9-tinycore SMP mod_unload 486

You may need to upgrade driver and/or utils to latest versions available at
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net


[Misalf]

Also quite weird, after running  ndiswrapper -v , a 0byte file is created in home dir with a file name so strange I can't even copy/paste it.
Screenshot attached.

[Juanito]

Do the windows drivers you used fulfil these critetia:

    NDISwrapper relies on the elderly "wireless-extensions" to enable applications to access Wi-Fi.
    As NDISwrapper relies on Windows drivers; it only supports i386 and x86_64 architectures.[4]

    NDISwrapper does not implement NDIS 6 (Windows Vista version) yet, limiting drivers to Windows XP.[5] As of October 2013, a code branch at the project site has been under development since 2006,[6] but a feature request from 2009 has been left unassigned.[7]

        While it is not a major problem for the x86 architecture because of the popularity of Windows XP x86-32, many vendors choose to make 64-bit driver versions only for Windows Vista — which means that Linux systems using the x86-64 architecture are unable to use such networking devices (they can neither use XP x86-32 NDIS5 because they are 64bits systems nor NDIS6 64bit drivers because they can't use NDIS6). It's still possible to use Windows XP 64 bit drivers which implement NDIS5,[8] however, there are fewer available drivers for xp64 (NDIS5/64 bit) than for XP32(NDIS5/32 bit).

    Since 2006, most Windows drivers are compliant with Windows Driver Foundation (WDF) which NDISWrapper can't use. It renders NDISWrapper obsolete, as it only supports the previous WDM driver framework.

[Juanito]

As far as I know, a suitable winxp driver doesn't exist for my wireless hardware (intel 7260), but if I load the ndiswrapper-modules-KERNEL driver, I get this:

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$ ndiswrapper -v
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename:       misc/ndiswrapper.ko.gz
version:        1.59
vermagic:       4.2.9-tinycore SMP mod_unload 486

[Juanito]

I uploaded ndiswrapper and ndiswrapper-modules-4.2.9-tinycore again in case there was some kind of corruption.

Maybe you could update your local copies and try again?

[Misalf]

Thanks. Updated my local copies and retried.
No success.

Also tried without any custom initrds or special boot codes but with  base norestore  boot codes.

I'm not too sure about WDM vs. WDF, however, I used the WinXP driver from Realtek that is linked to at the ndiswrapper.sourceforge page and is reported to work. No idea if it may be WDF compliant nowadays or how to get an older version.

[Juanito]

Hmm - I'm kind of stuck here - I've verified that there are no winxp drivers for my hardware, so I can't test...