I’m fairly new to Linux, and was in the process of getting a PCI Wireless Network Adapter up and running with ndiswrapper. The last part of the instructions said I had to add a line to some config file, which wasn’t present in openSUSE. I googled and found that I needed to add an item MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT=“ndiswrapper” to /etc/sysconfig/kernel. I ended up using vi, which I am not at all familiar with, and I think that I’ve deleted the contents of the file. The system just hangs now. Is there some way of recovering the file?
The system should not hang when that file is missing. It isn’t even used during boot, it only contains parameters for creating the initrd.
Maybe it hangs because of ndiswrapper?
Anyway, you should find a default copy in /var/adm/fillup-templates/.
Re-installing the package “mkinitrd” should re-create /etc/sysconfig/kernel, or just run:
Many thanks for that info. Problem is the system won’t boot now. Do I need to go to the installation DVD and Rescue mode? If it is ndiswrapper causing the problem, how would I get around that?
When you try to use ndiswrapper I assume that you have a problem getting your wifi card running. Did you ask in the Wireless forum for help? Did you read the stickies in the Wireless forum so you know how to gather information about the device and what to add to a thread asking for help with your wireless?
I ask specialy because I haven’t heard of people having to fall back to ndiswrapper to get wireless running in a long time.
Good questions. The Adapter in question is a Marvell (shown as Libertas chipset in Device Information), but I believe it was originally a Yukon Adapter (it came from a desktop I built for my grandson, which he has now grown out of). I did the research and could find no mention of the chipset it uses (either Libertas or W8300) on lists of LInux supported cards. I did however find Windows drivers with same id 11ab:1fa6 as that of my driver. I was in the process of having ndiswrapper do its stuff with the Windows 98 drivers, and was then rebooting when it didn’t. So although I had looked at a lot of threads regarding Wireless adapters, I hadn’t posted any questions, believing that I had found answers. Live and learn!
OK. I now have a booting system. The Linux system dual boots with Windows XP, so I booted XP and downloaded Ext2fd to see if I could do something about the missing data in the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file. To my surprise when I finally got to the file, it was complete (how is is it that
more /etc/sysconfig/kernel
cat /etc/sysconfig/kernel
both replied with the prompt as if there were no content?). I commented out the line that I had added and saved it, rebooted Linux and here we are!
So now I’ll head over to the wireless section of the forum and see if I can get some native Linux drivers for my ancient bit of kit
On 03/14/2014 11:26 AM, Gazzamo wrote:
>
> hcvv;2630437 Wrote:
>> When you try to use ndiswrapper I assume that you have a problem getting
>> your wifi card running. Did you ask in the Wireless forum for help? Did
>> you read the stickies in the Wireless forum so you know how to gather
>> information about the device and what to add to a thread asking for help
>> with your wireless?
>>
>> I ask specialy because I haven’t heard of people having to fall back to
>> ndiswrapper to get wireless running in a long time.
>
>
> Good questions. The Adapter in question is a Marvell (shown as Libertas
> chipset in Device Information), but I believe it was originally a Yukon
> Adapter (it came from a desktop I built for my grandson, which he has
> now grown out of). I did the research and could find no mention of the
> chipset it uses (either Libertas or W8300) on lists of LInux supported
> cards. I did however find Windows drivers with same id 11ab:1fa6 as that
> of my driver. I was in the process of having ndiswrapper do its stuff
> with the Windows 98 drivers, and was then rebooting when it didn’t. So
> although I had looked at a lot of threads regarding Wireless adapters, I
> hadn’t posted any questions, believing that I had found answers. Live
> and learn!
Are you aware that ndiswrapper allows a Windows driver to have unchecked access
to the kernel data structures. It is highly likely that enabling it is the
reason for your inability to reboot. In addition, I doubt that Win 98 drivers
would ever work. If your Linux system is 32 bit, then the Windows XP drivers
might work. For 64-bit Linux, forget ndiswrapper.
I would not devote too much effort to making this device work. For $8, you could
purchase a Netgear WG111v2 through E-bay. It only handles 802.11g, but those
devices are quite reliable, and do not require any external firmware. If you
absolutely must have 802.11n capability, write back and I will recommend a device.
I assume that the next is now completely superfluous (but on the other hand, everybody thinks always that it is superfluousm but you managed to forget it):
Allways make a backup copy first of any system file you are going to tinker with.
It is not a bad idea though to include /etc in your regular system backup.
If you ran those commands in the Installation DVD’s rescue mode, you would of course see the rescue mode’s /etc/sysconfig/kernel file, not the one on your hard disk.