[elrepo] Problem in install kmod-ndiswrapper by elrepo repository

[S.Tindall]

On Fri, 2009-10-23 at 17:24 -0200, Wagner Silva Vieira wrote:

> Steve,
> 
> I did all procedures that you suggested.
> 
> Look at these bellow:
> 
> # uname -rpmi
> 2.6.18-128.el5PAE i686 i686 i386
> 
> # rpm -q kmod-ndiswrapper-PAE
> kmod-ndiswrapper-PAE-1.54-4.el5.elrepo.i686
> 
> # ifconfig wlan0
> wlan0: error fetching interface information: Device not found
> 
> Must I create the configuration file ifcfg-wlan0 like ifcfg-eth0
> in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ to get success in command "ifconfig
> wlan0" ? 
> 
> I'll find informations about it in some manuals and books mine.
> 
> Thank's for the help guys!

Wagner.

It looks like ndiswrapper is OK and that the current problem is with
installing the BCM4328 firmware.

Noting that we appear to have the same Broadcom chipset (BCM4328), there
is a newer Dell firmware (R174291.EXE) that I found to work better than
the original R151517.EXE.  There may be newer firmware that works even
better, but I have not researched it a while.

Here are some steps that should work for you, but I should warn you that
I am not a wireless expert:

$ mkdir ~/wireless
$ cd ~/wireless
$ wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R174291.EXE
$ mkdir driver
$ sudo yum install unzip
$ unzip -a R174291.EXE -d driver/
$ cd driver/DRIVER_US

$ sudo /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
$ sudo /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l

$ sudo vi /etc/modprobe.conf
> Add/modify:
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

$ sudo /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

$ sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
> Add/modify:
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wlan0
HWADDR=<Actual-MAC>
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=<dhcp-host-name>
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID=
CHANNEL=
MODE=Auto
SECURITYMODE=off
RATE=auto

If avahi and NetworkManager are not already installed and running, then:

$ sudo yum install avahi NetworkManager
$ sudo /sbin/chkconfig avahi-daemon on
$ sudo /sbin/chkconfig NetworkManager on
$ sudo /sbin/service avahi-daemon start
$ sudo /sbin/service NetworkManager start

You may need to reboot the system at this point.

Hope that helps.

Steve