Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Extensions => TCE News => TCE 1.x => Topic started by: roberts on December 28, 2008, 02:47:31 PM

Title: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: roberts on December 28, 2008, 02:47:31 PM
I have just packaged up ndiswrapper for Tiny Core.
Code: [Select]
Title:          ndiswrapper.tcem
Description:    ndiswrapper for wireless card support
Version:        1.53
Author:         Giridhar Pemmasani 
Original-site:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper
Copying-policy: GPL
Size:           96K
Extension_by:   roberts
Comments:       ---------
Ndiswrapper for Tiny Core contains ndiswrapper proper and
ndiswrapper binary replacement for the perl script.
The ndiswrapper binary is by: Andrew Calkin of the GeeXboX project
It is also licensed by GPL
Current:        2008/12/28 First version
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: Juanito on March 08, 2009, 01:56:22 AM
..still struggling to get wireless going on my replacement laptop.

I have what windows refers to as a "Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card" and what linux refers to as :
Code: [Select]
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Unknown device [1028:000b]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
        Memory at efdfc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]

If I follow the instructions here http://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=16749 (http://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=16749) to the letter, I get:
Code: [Select]
$ sudo ndiswrapper -i /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
Could not find section 'strings' in inf file!
Could not find section 'version' in inf file!

Is it possible this is due to the conversion from perl?
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: roberts on March 08, 2009, 03:36:03 AM
Could be. It is a shame that ndiswrapper depends on something so big as perl.

Note, you can actually do the ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf on another machine and transfer over the /etc/ndiswrapper/   results. Then on the target machine just do the modprobe ndiswrapper and you should get a wlan0 device that you can then configure via iwconfig

Note also that the native driver for the Broadcom BCM4310 is not hard to compile.

I was using ndiswrapper with the /etc/ part made elsewhere, but now I am using the native module.
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: Juanito on March 08, 2009, 04:36:19 AM
It is indeed the perl mod that seems to be the problem - after compiling the latest ndiswrapper (with perl - although ndiswrapper is not smart enought to find perl in /usr/local/bin), things work.

Note also that the native driver for the Broadcom BCM4310 is not hard to compile.

Ah-ha - you mean b43 (bcm4310 not yet supported) or "Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver" http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php (http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php) (not totally clear for me if it supports bcm4310 or not)?

Edit: The full ndiswrapper works, the "sans perl" ndiswrapper works after copying /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5 from the full ndiswrapper and your wl.ko native driver works - so, all good  :)
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: roberts on March 08, 2009, 11:13:48 AM
Good to hear everything works.

Now that we have a perl extension and you have compiled the latest ndiswrapper, we can drop the C version from GeeXBox used only the -i option and use the full version. Please post yours.
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: Juanito on March 08, 2009, 02:11:26 PM
No problem to post the full ndiswrapper - I need to move it from /usr to /usr/local first though.

Wouldn't it be better to keep the GeeXBox version? I like that it doesn't use perl and users could make a personal tce or similar to restore the ndiswrapper data to /etc after they generate it from the full ndiswrapper on a once-off basis...
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: roberts on March 08, 2009, 02:31:53 PM
Thanks.

Very true about GeeXbox C version. That is why I was drawn to it.
It worked flawless on the eeePC wireless using the install option.

I wonder if many know that you really only need to do the install (-i), really is just a parsing of the Windows inf file(s), only once.

But then, of course, as you pointed out, you need to tarball up /etc/ndiswrapper/<your_card_dir_here as a personal extension and this can even be done on a different machine.

Let's keep both and perhaps update the .info file.
Title: Re: ndiswrapper.tcem
Post by: ^thehatsrule^ on March 08, 2009, 04:52:26 PM
Would microperl work?  Would a stripped-down version of the full perl be useful?