kernel update broke my wifi driver!

[Xheralt]

My laptop (Compaq Presario V2000) is set up to dualboot, F7 & WinXP. I had actually gotten my Broadcom wifi working under the 2.6.21.1-32xx series kernels using ndiswrapper. However, the kernel update to 2.6.22-27 has broken this. I'm working around it for the moment by selecting the older kernel in my grub boot menu. Do I need to uninstall/reinstall the driver with ndiswrapper? Or is ndiswrapper itself going to need to be updated to work with the new kernel version first?

[bbfuller]

Hello Xheralt

The assumption would be that you installed ndiswrapper through the Fedora repository system.

If you do then within a short time of a new kernel being issued there will be updated ndiswrapper packages to match and all should continue working. It did with mine from the 2.6.21 kernel to 2.6.22. I'm just about to upgrade to the latest 22 kernel and I see in the list of upgrades a new kmod-ndiswrapper from livna.

I believe that if you install ndiswrapper from source then you need to run the install again to create a module to match the new kernel.

Post back if you need any more help.

[Xheralt]

Actually, no I didn't get ndiswrapper via a repository, I downloaded it directly from a help thread elsewhere on this site (or possibly a similar help forum, I don't recall anymore). Is ndiswrapper in the Fedora standard repo and I missed it somehow? If not in Fedora, what repo would it be in, and how do I set it up?

I know the procedure seems to involve the rpm command, but I don't quite get the distinction in how the rpm command is used for setting up a repo versus app installation. I trusted the source (enough) but would be more comfortable with an "official" repo on tap.

[bbfuller]

Hello Xheralt

There are several sources of rpm packages for Fedora.

Livna, freshrpms and atrpms are three repositories that come to mind.

It is generally reckoned to have only one of those sources enabled as a main repository at any one time as packages from one can cause conflicts with those from another.

It's my impression that the livna repository is almost treated as semi-official and the others most people just enable if they need a specific package that isn't available. I'm ready here to be howled down by hordes of loyal freshrpms and atrpms fans by the way.

The long and the short of it is that the ndiswrapper packages are in livna along with specific drivers for nvidia and ati graphics cards and quite a lot of other things. (Don't jump into the ati ones without reading up on the subject on the forum by the way.)

The beauty of installing these things from a dedicated repository is that some of these packages have a stand alone part and a part compiled to match a specific kernel. If you do it yourself, as you have found, then you have to re-compile the specific part each time the kernel changes. If you use the package from a repository, within a short time of a kernel being released, so will be the kernel-modules to match it.

The disadvantage is that you don't always get the most up to date package, Ndiswrapper release is at 1.47 now. Fedora has 1.46. Not usually a problem unless you have a very recent wireless card.

The livna repository can easily be added to Yum. Just execute this command from a super-user terminal:

rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm

It just calls in another entry for you /etc/yum.repos.d folder from the livna repository.

After that the ndiswrapper rpms should be located in whichever package manager you use.

By the way, if you are looking to use the rpm ndiswrapper you will need to make sure you uninstall whichever one you have installed now.

Second by the way, that command for adding the repository came from the very useful Fedora FAQ. There is a link to it in the top menu bar at the top of each forum page.