Thread: [Ndiswrapper-general] Centrino Report (Mandrake 9.2, Compaq Presario X1010)
Status: Beta
Brought to you by:
pgiri
From: Navindra U. <nav...@cs...> - 2004-01-05 12:34:37
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Hi! I've been running ndiswrapper very successfully on stock Mandrake 9.2 with my Intel Centrino wireless card (8086:1043). Great idea with wrapping the Windows driver -- I even get up to 600KB/s using SSH. Linux is becoming a killer OS for the Intel Centrino platform thanks in large part to this project. Almost everything on Centrino seems to be supported on Linux now. Some remarks and comments follow. - ndiswrapper 0.3 is buggy/unstable for Centrino --> use CVS version - Laptop's drivers don't work --> download Acer/ASUS ones. I initally had ndiswrapper working perfectly. I then reinstalled Mandrake 9.2 on the exact same machine because the first installation had only been temporary and experimental. Using what appeared to be the exact same setup (except with LVM): - ndiswrapper froze my machine completely when loading the driver --> solution was to disable USB. But why does that have anything to do with it? - Now, ndiswrapper would load but after a few seconds the kernel would Aieee in the interrupt handler with an error message mentioning the infamous timer issue --> solution was to remove "acpi=ht" from the kernel parameter. - Now, ndiswrapper would load but "iwlist scan" would cause a kernel panic --> solution was to RE-ENABLE USB. Now I have ndiswrapper working again, but I have to admit that was quite stumper. I was really breaking my head trying to figure out why it was working before but not now. Does anyone have any idea why USB and ACPI influence the ndiswrapper driver so much? Is it normal? If you want more debug or system info, I can provide some... although basically it will involve intentionally crashing and wrecking my beautiful system. :) I would like to thank everyone involved with this project, you guys are da bomb! Cheers, Navin. |
From: Timo <ti...@ti...> - 2004-01-05 13:08:12
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=2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Am Montag, 5. Januar 2004 13:34 schrieb Navindra Umanee: > - ndiswrapper froze my machine completely when loading the driver --> > solution was to disable USB. But why does that have anything to do > with it? >=20 > - Now, ndiswrapper would load but after a few seconds the kernel would=20 > Aieee in the interrupt handler with an error message mentioning the > infamous timer issue --> solution was to remove "acpi=3Dht" from the > kernel parameter. >=20 > - Now, ndiswrapper would load but "iwlist scan" would cause a kernel panic > --> solution was to RE-ENABLE USB. >=20 > Now I have ndiswrapper working again, but I have to admit that was > quite stumper. I was really breaking my head trying to figure out why > it was working before but not now. >=20 > Does anyone have any idea why USB and ACPI influence the ndiswrapper > driver so much? Is it normal? If you want more debug or system info, > I can provide some... although basically it will involve intentionally > crashing and wrecking my beautiful system. :) AFAIK another IRQ routing is used when ACPI is on. why use acpi=3Dht? AFAIK ht is only supported on those table ventilators, l= ap warmers with P4. Centrino uses a Pentium M. Timo =2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBP/lhq0n74FOC+06tAQL5EQf+NUwDvBsCT9LijN5IrUhkSlajZTXJnzH3 QeIYGJLZdlzZC6QfD1isHiQ3kHbNU3MHH/ui2HaIMnPX6mHtr4ytG2X1DflY/Eda 6m6CdYxxDQoNhh3pAQS1ikIG8nZMJX8qVha5x5BLEHflzMMSNTMQrJ85HdYB+DZK j5K3xmGqZdMAupxcdbEwzJhVkMC7IxhT0lxa5sah1AT9aY91HFMP+tCOmfwOIhuK oypyctelB1FuRW8w41jC3xFUttVtGaf8r6LqWMV8EqRtlVlc0MJOk/LPkYbsf+PW =46EkbBtUTHjjA0JWYla/RaNuGojewJG6h/JEar0BFIzYCoeKh4bhlZw=3D=3D =3Dd8bY =2D----END PGP SIGNATURE----- |
From: Navindra U. <nav...@cs...> - 2004-01-05 14:28:02
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Timo Weing=E4rtner <ti...@ti...> wrote: > AFAIK another IRQ routing is used when ACPI is on. > why use acpi=3Dht? AFAIK ht is only supported on those table > ventilators, lap warmers with P4. Centrino uses a Pentium M. This is a good question... basically the answer is that it's not something I did on purpose. For some reason Mandrake 9.2 did it as part of installation (although it didn't that the first time around). So basically, if I understand you correctly, it is wrong to use acpi=3Dht with Centrino and so ndiswrapper is not at fault --> Mandrake Linux 9.2 is. Although I'm still not sure why the presence or absence of USB causes trouble for iwlist. Thanks! Cheers, Navin. |
From: Tomas S. <sz...@pi...> - 2004-01-05 14:53:36
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On Jan-05 2004, Mon, 09:28 -0500 Navindra Umanee <nav...@cs...> wrote: > This is a good question... basically the answer is that it's not > something I did on purpose. For some reason Mandrake 9.2 did it as > part of installation (although it didn't that the first time around). > > So basically, if I understand you correctly, it is wrong to use > acpi=ht with Centrino and so ndiswrapper is not at fault --> Mandrake > Linux 9.2 is. Yes, Pentium M's do neither SMP nor ht. -- Tomas Szepe <sz...@pi...> |
From: Martin W. <mar...@nt...> - 2004-01-05 15:18:41
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Tomas Szepe wrote: > On Jan-05 2004, Mon, 09:28 -0500 > Navindra Umanee <nav...@cs...> wrote: > > >>This is a good question... basically the answer is that it's not >>something I did on purpose. For some reason Mandrake 9.2 did it as >>part of installation (although it didn't that the first time around). >> >>So basically, if I understand you correctly, it is wrong to use >>acpi=ht with Centrino and so ndiswrapper is not at fault --> Mandrake >>Linux 9.2 is. > > > Yes, Pentium M's do neither SMP nor ht. > Please also see http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3644726&forum_id=36471 (the HP NX7000 is basically the same machine as the Compaq X1000). From what I could find from Google, acpi=ht means only use the ACPI tables to determine the number and type of processors. So for Mandrake to use acpi=ht is not wrong, because the ACPI tables should report one non-hyper-threaded processor. Using acpi=ht doesn't cause a problem with anything other than ndiswrapper (this of course doesn't necessarily mean that the bug is in ndiswrapper). Martin |
From: Martin W. <mar...@nt...> - 2004-01-05 15:27:14
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Navindra Umanee wrote: > Some remarks and comments follow. > > - ndiswrapper 0.3 is buggy/unstable for Centrino --> use CVS version > - Laptop's drivers don't work --> download Acer/ASUS ones. I am using a HP NX7000 (which I believe is simply the European version of the X1000 series). ndiswrapper 0.3 is entirely stable for me. I am using the drivers from HP's service pack SP23055. Martin |
From: Navindra U. <nav...@cs...> - 2004-01-05 17:40:42
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Martin Whitaker <mar...@nt...> wrote: > I am using a HP NX7000 (which I believe is simply the European version > of the X1000 series). ndiswrapper 0.3 is entirely stable for me. I am Interesting. I got a bunch of kernel timer bug messages (in dmesg) and also experienced instability with significant traffic when I first tried it. > using the drivers from HP's service pack SP23055. Good to know! Cheers, Navin. |
From: Martin W. <mar...@nt...> - 2004-01-21 17:47:50
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Navindra Umanee wrote: > Hi Martin, > > Martin Whitaker wrote: > >>I am using a HP NX7000 (which I believe is simply the European version >>of the X1000 series). ndiswrapper 0.3 is entirely stable for me. I am >>using the drivers from HP's service pack SP23055. > > > Question: > > If you bring up the interface while your card is powered down, and > then you power up the card, do you have network connectivity? > > I find that "iwlist wlan0 scan" works but that I can't ping. I have > to "rmmod" the module and start over then it's fine (and then I can > power down and up the card any number of times and it still works). Yes, I have exactly the same problem. I guess that when you load the driver, it tries to initialise something that can only be initialised when the card is powered up. I plan to investigate this when I have some free time. Martin |
From: Giridhar P. <gi...@lm...> - 2004-01-21 18:13:32
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Clarification: It seems that radio is not getting turned on. Ndis documents say that when essid is set, radio should be turned on if it is off. However, Centrino card/driver doesn't do that. Alternately, you should be able to turn the radio on by setting the txpower. But Centrino card/driver give an error, saying it is an illegal call. I have a Dell Truemobile 1300 (BCM 94306 chipset) which has no problem with either of these. I am not sure if it should be considered ndiswrapper bug or not. Stefan D=F6singer <ste...@gm...> wrote to me that with the new code that I sent him (not in cvs), he could turn the radio on and off any number of times. Stefan, could you clarify if this is true or not. --=20 Giri |
From: Stefan <ste...@gm...> - 2004-01-21 19:53:54
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Hello, > Stefan D=F6singer <ste...@gm...> wrote to me that with the new > code that I sent him (not in cvs), he could turn the radio on and off > any number of times. Stefan, could you clarify if this is true or not. I can turn the radio(or whatever it is) on and off any number of times usin= g=20 the wireless button of my Acer travelmate notebook. I can't do anything wit= h=20 iwconfig if the card is powered off. I don't know exactly what is turned on and of with this button. If it's off= ,=20 the card initialises and iwlist does not show any Access Points. WIth the= =20 CVS version without the new inf parser iwlist shows strange results(multipl= e=20 APs with a MAC address 00:00:00:00:00:00, or the correct Access Point twice= ,=20 once with the correct information, and then with speeds not supported by th= e=20 card and the AP.) The card shows a strange behaviour after some time. I just thought the card= =20 turned itself off, but I think I touched the button accidentally, even if=20 this is hard to do because it's on the front side and far away from the=20 keyboard. I'll look at the windows Registry tomorrow and copy it into the=20 config file and I'll see if there's some value which turns the card on=20 automatically at boot(or when loading the driver). There's no bios option concerning the WLAN, but there's a WIN32 configurati= on=20 tool where you can select the behavior of the card at boot - enabled or=20 disabled. Windows always enables the card, under Linux the last state befor= e=20 the shutdown is used. A sidemark to the wireless button: The Acer Travelmate 800 has a few specia= l=20 buttons, 6 on the keyboard as <Fn>-<key> combinations, 4 next to the power= =20 button and a Bluetooth and the wireless button. The 6 keyboard combinations= =20 cause normal keyboard events and are useable under Linux(2.4, not in 2.6=20 because the key translation table has changed. I have to work out how I can= =20 configure it). The four buttons are unuseable, they use a non-standart=20 interface. There's a driver for another travelmate series, but it can only= =20 turn the Mail-Led on. I don't understand Acers decicion not to use the norm= al=20 keyboard driver for these too and why they changed the interface slightly.= =20 It's generally the same as in the previous TMs, I read a little bit into th= e=20 driver and that the Mail-Led can be turned on shows that it is quite the=20 same. The Bluetooth and the wireless buttons are generally the same as the 4 othe= rs,=20 but they do something even if no driver is loaded. The bluetooth button=20 causes a USB device to attach, and the wireless button causes the behaviour= =20 described above. Maybe that's of use for anyone. Just to make it clear: If the card is turned off at boot time, the driver=20 initializes correctly, and the interface information(MAC, etc) is correct. = I=20 just have to set the WEP key again after turning the wireless on. /Stefan |
From: Navindra U. <nav...@cs...> - 2004-01-21 17:54:11
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Martin Whitaker <mar...@nt...> wrote: > Yes, I have exactly the same problem. I guess that when you load the > driver, it tries to initialise something that can only be initialised > when the card is powered up. I plan to investigate this when I have some > free time. Well Giri might have a solution for it, but it doesn't work for me so far. (It works for Stefan but I read Stefan's description of his problem, and it doesn't seem to be the same issue.) Cheers, Navin. |
From: Stefan <ste...@gm...> - 2004-01-21 19:55:57
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hello, > I have the new driver... actually did you have to modify anything in > the config file yourself? So far I've been using the auto-generated > version. I changed the RadioEnable to 2, without knowing what this does. I have not changed this back. The rest is unchanged /Stefan |