# System lock-up with ndiswrapper

## murgilduta

Hello,

I'm experiencing random system lock-ups since I've installed a wireless card. Exactly, I'm talking about a SMC 2802W V2 which works using ndiswrapper (argh). Before installing the card, I could use my gentoo system uninterruptedly of course. If I disable the ndiswrapper kernel module there's no problem and I can work without any problem.

My kernel is 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 and ndiswrapper version is 1.43 (it's not possible to compile stable version with 2.6.20 kernel version).

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any interesting line related to this issue in /var/log/messages, just the load process:

```

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo ndiswrapper version 1.43 loaded (smp=no)

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo ndiswrapper: driver 2802w (SMC,04/29/2004, 3.0.11.1) loaded

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo ndiswrapper: using IRQ 11

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo wlan0: ethernet device 00:04:e2:b3:4c:51 using NDIS driver: 2802w, version: 0x3000b, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'SMC2802W 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter', 1260:3890.5.conf

May 16 20:05:13 gentoo wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA; AES/CCMP with WPA

```

Any thoughts, ideas... suggestions? All of them are welcome.

Thanks a lot.

----------

## RayDude

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

> Hello,
> 
> I'm experiencing random system lock-ups since I've installed a wireless card. Exactly, I'm talking about a SMC 2802W V2 which works using ndiswrapper (argh). Before installing the card, I could use my gentoo system uninterruptedly of course. If I disable the ndiswrapper kernel module there's no problem and I can work without any problem.
> 
> My kernel is 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 and ndiswrapper version is 1.43 (it's not possible to compile stable version with 2.6.20 kernel version).
> ...

 

The only idea that came to mind is try an older Windows Driver... Search google for people who have that exact chipset and see what version of the Windows driver they use, then try it.

In the future its a good idea to include basic system information, for example are your running x86_64? That info helps people think about possible causes.

Also, with wireless, post your config files (with passwords XXX out of course).

Raydude

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> 
> 
> The only idea that came to mind is try an older Windows Driver... Search google for people who have that exact chipset and see what version of the Windows driver they use, then try it.
> 
> In the future its a good idea to include basic system information, for example are your running x86_64? That info helps people think about possible causes.
> ...

 

Thanks for replying.

Well, after a long search I could install an older version of the windows driver. Although at a first view it seemed to work quite stable, then suddenly the system locked up. So it haven't resolved anything.

Also I've compiled the latest ndiswrapper version available (1.44), but the problem remains.

ndiswrapper FAQ says that kernels compiled with 4K stacks option can suffer crashes or freezes, but I haven't set my kernel to use 4K stacks.

I'm running x86, exactly my processor is an AMD Athlon.

My network config doesn't have anything special, so I'm sure it doesn't have nothing to do with the problem: I've just set the essid and mode in /etc/conf.d/net and the computer's IP (static) and router's address in /etc/conf.d/net.wlan0

Attaching emerge --info output

```

Portage 2.1.2.2 (default-linux/x86/2006.1, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5-r0, 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.20-gentoo-r7 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) processor

Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9

Timestamp of tree: Fri, 18 May 2007 10:50:01 +0000

ccache version 2.4 [enabled]

dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.0.31

dev-lang/python:     2.4.3-r4

dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5

dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r7

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.17

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.61

sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10

sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1-r3

sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.14

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.17-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/java-config/vms/ /etc/php/apache1-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/web2c"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="ccache distlocks metadata-transfer parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms strict"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"

LANG="eu_ES.UTF-8"

LC_ALL="eu_ES.UTF-8"

LINGUAS="eu"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --filter=H_**/files/digest-*"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="3dnow 3dnowext X aac alsa apache2 bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cli cracklib crypt ctype cups dbus dri encode esd fbcon ffmpeg flac gdbm geoip gif gpm gtk hal iconv imlib ipv6 isdnlog java jpeg libg++ mad midi mmx mmxext mp3 mysql mysqli ncurses nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia opengl pam pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt3support readline reflection session spl ssl svg tabs tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode userlocales vorbis win32codecs wma x86 xorg xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="eu" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nv"

Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

```

----------

## RayDude

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

>  *RayDude wrote:*   
> 
> The only idea that came to mind is try an older Windows Driver... Search google for people who have that exact chipset and see what version of the Windows driver they use, then try it.
> 
> In the future its a good idea to include basic system information, for example are your running x86_64? That info helps people think about possible causes.
> ...

 

Just for giggles try adding "noapic" to the end of your kernel line in grub.conf or lilo.conf.

Then try booting again.

Its really hard to track hang bugs. Have you looked at /var/log/messages to see if there's a message in it from the crash?

Sorry I can't be more help.

Raydude

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Just for giggles try adding "noapic" to the end of your kernel line in grub.conf or lilo.conf.
> 
> Then try booting again.
> ...

 

Adding "noapic" didn't work either :S

/var/log/messages doesn't give me anything more than dmesg does.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks a lot again.

----------

## RayDude

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

>  *RayDude wrote:*   
> 
> Just for giggles try adding "noapic" to the end of your kernel line in grub.conf or lilo.conf.
> 
> Then try booting again.
> ...

 

What kind of messages does dmesg have after you load ndiswrapper? I'm wondering if its giving any clues as to what it doesn't like about the windows driver.

You could try enabling debug support and crashdumps in the kernel to see if it catches a trap at all when it hangs...

You could also try using a different version of ndiswrapper. I'm using 1.44 right now with my BCM 4328. You could also try to go back to an older version to see if that works.

This is a significant problem, that an average user like me would be hard pressed to figure out... I wonder if you could search google and see if anyone else has had this problem...

If there's anything interesting in dmesg from ndiswrapper, let me know.

Raydude

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> 
> 
> What kind of messages does dmesg have after you load ndiswrapper? I'm wondering if its giving any clues as to what it doesn't like about the windows driver.
> 
> You could try enabling debug support and crashdumps in the kernel to see if it catches a trap at all when it hangs...
> ...

 

dmesg gives the same as I posted above (driver version has changed, of course):

```
ndiswrapper: device wlan0 removed

ndiswrapper version 1.44 loaded (smp=no)

ndiswrapper: driver 2802w (SMC,04/29/2004, 3.0.11.1) loaded

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

ndiswrapper: using IRQ 11

wlan0: ethernet device 00:04:e2:b3:4c:51 using NDIS driver: 2802w, version: 0x3000b, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'SMC2802W 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter', 1260:3890:1113:EE03.5.conf

wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA; AES/CCMP with WPA
```

I've searched on google a lot before posting here, and nobody seems to have the same problem. Just a similar: system locks while loading the ndiswrapper kernel module. But that's not my case.

I wonder if this could be an IRQ issue...

----------

## RayDude

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

>  *RayDude wrote:*   
> 
> What kind of messages does dmesg have after you load ndiswrapper? I'm wondering if its giving any clues as to what it doesn't like about the windows driver.
> 
> You could try enabling debug support and crashdumps in the kernel to see if it catches a trap at all when it hangs...
> ...

 

I got another idea last night.

See if there's another device using IRQ 11 in dmesg. It may be an irq sharing problem...

If there is, see if there's a way to move the cards around so the wireless card isn't sharing with anyone (or maybe a bios setting).

One other thing to try: make sure irq sharing is enabled in the kernel, and if its already there, remove it and see what happens...

Just some ideas.

Raydude

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I got another idea last night.
> 
> See if there's another device using IRQ 11 in dmesg. It may be an irq sharing problem...
> ...

 

Although I don't know which kernel options gives me the option to enable/disable IRQ sharing, I see that it's enabled since I can see messages like this:

```
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:00:07.3
```

/proc/interrupts tells me that IRQ 11 is shared between acpi, ndiswrapper and via686a (I have doubts about the last one, if it refers to the on-board audio or to the hardware sensors :/)

```

           CPU0       

  0:     314090    XT-PIC-XT        timer

  1:       2977    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade

  7:          0    XT-PIC-XT        parport0

  8:          2    XT-PIC-XT        rtc

 10:          0    XT-PIC-XT        uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2

 11:     139427    XT-PIC-XT        acpi, VIA686A, ndiswrapper

 12:      99458    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

 14:       8999    XT-PIC-XT        ide0

 15:      54632    XT-PIC-XT        ide1

NMI:          0 

LOC:          0 

ERR:          0

MIS:          0

```

So, I've tested different kernel options: pci=routeirq and irqpoll at first, but I don't see much sense on those, because if I'm not wrong they are useful when hardware is not being recognized correctly.

After removing those options, I've added pci=noacpi and acpi=off to turn off acpi. No effects  :Sad: 

Then, as you said before, I've moved the card to another PCI slot. It has affected directly on the assigned IRQ numbers:

```

           CPU0       

  0:     116072    XT-PIC-XT        timer

  1:       3817    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade

  7:          0    XT-PIC-XT        parport0

  8:          2    XT-PIC-XT        rtc

  9:      48892    XT-PIC-XT        VIA686A

 11:      27455    XT-PIC-XT        uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2, ndiswrapper

 12:      57218    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

 14:      10206    XT-PIC-XT        ide0

 15:      18830    XT-PIC-XT        ide1

NMI:          0 

LOC:          0 

ERR:          0

MIS:          0

```

But things stay on the same. As you can see, now IRQ11 is shared between ndiswrapper and usb, is it strange?

Before having this card on my computer I had a wired ethernet card in the same PCI slot without problems. So I don't know what should I think...

----------

## RayDude

If its failing because of IRQ sharing, its an ndiswrapper problem.

And amazingly. I've been having problems with acpi. I can't get my cpu throttling to behave itself...

I just went to my system and checked out interrupts, check this out:

```
srim ~ # cat /proc/interrupts

           CPU0       CPU1

  0:    7591805     919052    XT-PIC-XT        timer

  1:         10          0    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

  2:          0          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade

  5:      82489      19237    XT-PIC-XT        libata

  7:    1012834    8128737    XT-PIC-XT        ehci_hcd:usb2

  9:     307497      50097    XT-PIC-XT        acpi, ndiswrapper

 10:         61          7    XT-PIC-XT        HDA Intel

 11:     126121      23161    XT-PIC-XT        ohci1394, ohci_hcd:usb1, sdhci:slot0, nvidia

 12:        780         82    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

 14:      20318        977    XT-PIC-XT        libata

 15:          0          0    XT-PIC-XT        libata

NMI:          0          0

LOC:    8510552    8510575

ERR:    8943042
```

Yep, ndiswrapper sharing with acpi. DAMN.

I think this could be a real issue. I'll try to search the ndiswrapper archives to figure out if it even supports sharing. I suspect not, or maybe there's a bug...

Another option you could try is changing your BIOS from edge triggered interrupts to level active interrupts (or visa versa). I can't do that because the bios in my laptop sucks beyond all comprehension.

Update: I have KLaptop controlling the kernel cpufreq throttles and its working pretty well. It seemed to be unresponsive at first but now its working perfectly. So I think my IRQ sharing hunch may be off base.

Raydude

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> If its failing because of IRQ sharing, its an ndiswrapper problem.
> 
> And amazingly. I've been having problems with acpi. I can't get my cpu throttling to behave itself...
> 
> I just went to my system and checked out interrupts, check this out:
> ...

 

I don't understand what you mean with "changing your BIOS from edge triggered interrupts to level active interrupts". Well, I can't see nothing similar to that in my BIOS settings. Are you referring to acpi_sci kernel parameter?

What I've been able to do is disabling the BIOS from setting IRQs for USB and VGA. In that way, I've managed to get ndiswrapper just "alone" with its own interrupt (IRQ 11):

```

           CPU0       

  0:      16655    XT-PIC-XT        timer

  1:        548    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade

  7:          0    XT-PIC-XT        parport0

  8:          2    XT-PIC-XT        rtc

  9:          0    XT-PIC-XT        acpi, uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2

 10:          0    XT-PIC-XT        VIA686A

 11:       3367    XT-PIC-XT        ndiswrapper

 12:        446    XT-PIC-XT        i8042

 14:       5505    XT-PIC-XT        ide0

 15:       1982    XT-PIC-XT        ide1

NMI:          0 

LOC:          0 

ERR:          0

MIS:          0

```

But nothing has been solved. In any case, the kernel is supposed to handle different devices on the same IRQ, isn't it?

In the end, I don't know if this could be a motherboard - wifi-card issue rather than a ndiswrapper issue. But the real fact is that I'm getting hopeless with this!

Should I try islsm module? I think my card is supported (it has a ISL3890 chip) and it would be a 'cleaner' way than using ndiswrapper. It's a pity that the islsm ebuild isn't official...

Anyone with experience using islsm module?

----------

## RayDude

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I don't understand what you mean with "changing your BIOS from edge triggered interrupts to level active interrupts". Well, I can't see nothing similar to that in my BIOS settings. Are you referring to acpi_sci kernel parameter?
> 
> What I've been able to do is disabling the BIOS from setting IRQs for USB and VGA. In that way, I've managed to get ndiswrapper just "alone" with its own interrupt (IRQ 11):
> ...

 

The bios on many motherboards have the ability to change the kind of hardware interrupt used. The original IBM used edge triggered interrupts. In other words, the interrupt occurred when a signal transitioned from low to high.

Level triggered interrupts are better because as long as the signal is high, the interrupt is active. With edge triggered its possible to miss an interrupt if the software isn't just right.

Maybe I'm too much in the 90's. Maybe all interrupts are level sensitive now. At any rate I think its the wrong idea, sorry about that.

If there's a module with open source code that supports your card you should give it a try. If nothing else there will be better support.

Does the card work under windows? If it does, its a software problem.

Raydude

----------

## RayDude

There's a new version of ndiswrapper in portage that has some fixes that may help you...

 *Quote:*   

> Version 1.45 has been released. Short summary of changes since 1.44:
> 
>     * Fixes 'NOHZ: local_softirq_pending: 08' warnings from tickless kernels
> 
>     * Fixed issues with RT-preempt enabled kernels
> ...

 

----------

## murgilduta

 *RayDude wrote:*   

> There's a new version of ndiswrapper in portage that has some fixes that may help you...
> 
>  *Quote:*   Version 1.45 has been released. Short summary of changes since 1.44:
> 
>     * Fixes 'NOHZ: local_softirq_pending: 08' warnings from tickless kernels
> ...

 

No luck with 1.45.

I've also tried kernel 2.6.21 but still the same. I wanted to give a try to islsm, but since I'm not able to get that module working...

The very last thing I can do is to wait until the wireless-dev kernel tree is merged into the official tree, because it contains several softmac drivers for wireless cards (including my card's chipset). Yes, true, I can compile directly a wireless-dev kernel from git, but nowadays I don't think it's quite stable at all..

Another option would be to change the card, but at the moment I don't have time to do so!

Thanks for the info and the support !!

----------

## ilm2

islsm works perfect here, still using kernel 2.6.19 though,

heard there were problems with later ones, they were some patches i added to ebuild. but didnt test them (as i still have .19)

if you want i perhaps can upgrade to latest kernel and see if i can get it working, you're experiencing compile errors

or difficulties modprobing ?

i think the first one should be the easiest to fix, possible some simple interface changes

also, try checking out and compile islsm yourself

----------

## murgilduta

 *ilm2 wrote:*   

> islsm works perfect here, still using kernel 2.6.19 though,
> 
> heard there were problems with later ones, they were some patches i added to ebuild. but didnt test them (as i still have .19)
> 
> if you want i perhaps can upgrade to latest kernel and see if i can get it working, you're experiencing compile errors
> ...

 

It would be very thankful if you could try upgrading to the latest kernel and test it there.

The errors I'm experiencing are modprobing errors (unresolved symbols...), as I said on the ebuild's bug. How did you manage to get that working? What card are you using?

Thanks !!

----------

## ilm2

so i compiled 2.6.21

then emerged islsm and it my amazement it compiled and modprobed fine. detecting my card (a Phillips CPWUA054 btw)

after a bit of searching, it seemed i could reproduce the patch by using the old patch file (i referred to the old one, but that was corrected a couple of post laters)

to be clear, use the one of Chi-Thanh Christopher Nguyen (https://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=117485&action=view)

retrying with the 'false' patchfile i get the same problem as you, compiles fine but modprobing fails (spits out mismatch magic version on dmesg)

so i'm fairly sure, using the patch from Chi-Thanh Christopher Nguyen, will get it working

though the patch does not seem to take into account kernel versions. so i think it wont compile on older kernels than .21

----------

## murgilduta

Hello again,

The previous occasion I used the patch you have mentioned. So, just in case, I have given it another try. But still the same errors modprobing.

Here's my dmesg output:

```

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'

ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13

ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>

islsm: Unknown symbol release_firmware

islsm: Unknown symbol request_firmware

islsm: Unknown symbol crc_ccitt

islsm_device: Unknown symbol isl_debug

islsm: Unknown symbol request_firmware

islsm: Unknown symbol crc_ccitt

islsm_device: Unknown symbol isl_debug

islsm_device: Unknown symbol islsm_alloc_dump

islsm_device: Unknown symbol isl_fn_exit

islsm_device: Unknown symbol islsm_ping_device

islsm_device: Unknown symbol isl_fn_enter

islsm_device: Unknown symbol isl_fn_exit_v

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol release_firmware

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol unregister_islsm

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol free_islsm

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol islsm_wait_timeout

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol alloc_islsm

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol isl_debug

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol isl_fn_exit

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol islsm_data_input

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol islsm_free

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol uart_init_dev

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol register_islsm

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol islsm_request_firmware

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol uart_release_dev

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol isl_fn_enter

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol isl_fn_exit_v

islsm_pci: Unknown symbol isl_dump_bytes

```

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or so... These are the steps I follow, using /usr/local/portage as portage overlay:

```

$ ebuild islsm-9999.ebuild digest

$ USE="islsm_2.7.0.0" ebuild islsm-9999.ebuild unpack

$ ebuild islsm-9999.ebuild compile

$ ebuild islsm-9999.ebuild install

$ ebuild islsm-9999.ebuild qmerge

```

Is there something wrong?

Thanks again.

----------

## PaulBredbury

There is no need to go through those steps, just digest and then emerge it.

For "unknown symbols", see the hundreds of threads on compiling your kernel.

----------

## murgilduta

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> There is no need to go through those steps, just digest and then emerge it.
> 
> For "unknown symbols", see the hundreds of threads on compiling your kernel.

 

Well, the steps in the end do the same thing  :Smile: 

I've managed to solve the unresolved symbols doing a "make mrproper", enabling CONFIG_FW_LOADER and CONFIG_CRC_CCITT which were not set and then recompiling the kernel. After that I've re-emerged islsm and now it loads fine.

However, the card doesn't seem to work:

```

ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13

ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>

Loaded islsm_pci driver, version 0

PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered

PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 0000:00:09.0

islsm: allocating device

islsm: islsm_geo_init

islsm: 14 channels

islpci: using PCI ISL3886 firmware [0x3890]

islsm_pci: Request firmware for 'isl3886_pci' failed: -2

eth1: could not upload firmware ('isl3886_pci')

eth1: islpci_reset: failure

islsm_pci: unable to boot device

islsm_pci: Request firmware for 'isl3886_pci' failed: -2

eth1: could not upload firmware ('isl3886_pci')

eth1: islpci_reset: failure

islsm_pci: unable to boot device

islsm_pci: Request firmware for 'isl3886_pci' failed: -2

eth1: could not upload firmware ('isl3886_pci')

eth1: islpci_reset: failure

islsm_pci: unable to boot device

SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks first.

SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is device up?

islsm: islsm_set_ecnode netdev [f7e3c000] , info [dfd19ec4], data [dfd19f48] , extra[f7ce8

d60] , islsm [f7e3ce2c], ieee [f7e3c340] 

islsm: set security called

islsm: netdev[f7e3c000] , islsm[f7e3ce2c] , sec[dfd19ddb] , secinfo[f7e3c344] islsm: loopi

ng through keys from 0 to 4islsm:checkings security flags...

, .level = 0, .enabled = 0, .encrypt = 0

islsm: finished setting security :-)

SoftMAC: Canceling existing associate request!

SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks first.

SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is device up?

SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks first.

SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is device up?

SoftMAC: Canceling existing associate request!

SoftMAC: Unable to find matching network after scan!

```

Any thoughts on this?

----------

## murgilduta

 *murgilduta wrote:*   

> 
> 
> However, the card doesn't seem to work:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

OK, the thing is the ebuild doesn't rename the firmware file from 2.7.0.0 to isl3886_pci . After doing that manually it seems the firmware gets loaded because the card's LED turns on. But immediately I get a kernel panic which hangs my system (caps lock keys blinking).

On the one hand I've tried with the given firmware (2.7.0.0 from the ebuild), as I said getting a kernel panic. On the other hand, I've extracted the firmware from the windows sys driver, getting the same result.

I'm surprised not seeing anywhere references to isl3886_pci. isl3886 is what appears everywhere as the firmware's name but if I rename it like that, nothing gets loaded.

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## murgilduta

Googling a little bit I've found a lkml post which reports a similar problem as mine: system freezes specially when dealing with heavy disk activity. Yes, I've realized that my problem specially occurs in that moments, e.g. syncing the portage tree, compiling something big (Firefox) or even downloading big files or at "high" speed rates (kernel source).

The biggest difference is that he has a card with Prism GT chipset (so, v1 card) and he's using prism54 driver, but on the other hand I have the same chipset (via kt133/vt8363). So, almost exactly the same hardware and the same problem as a result.

I've been searching for people having problems with ndiswrapper + kt133 chipset but nobody seems to have any (lucky people  :Smile: . Since I don't see any more possible solutions, should I report a bug to ndiswrapper? (Oh yes, I've tested the latest 1.46 release)

(Islsm doesn't seem to like my card so this would be another subject which I should forward to prism54.org forum)

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## RayDude

Someone posted a bug to the forums at ndiswrapper's home pages and got a problem with bcm4328 fixed. I'm trying it now.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=34&func=view&id=94&catid=3#94

Maybe you should post your problem and see if they can help you out.

Raydude

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## murgilduta

Yes, I posted there too but it doesn't seem a resolvable issue.

Finally, I've managed to get another card (d-link g520+) and surprisingly it works very well, no lockups since then  :Smile: 

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