How do i get rid of the bcm43xx reference and use

[SomeLinuxGuy]

my ndiswrapper WLAN driver all the time? I am really new to Linux (3 weeks now) and I am using PC Linux OS on my laptop. I have a Linksys WPC54G Ver. 3 PCMIA wireless card and it works with ndiswrapper just fine.

Problem is when i log out or shut down i have to reload the ndiwrapper driver. i don't mind but my fiance does. So how do i get it so linux will always use the ndiswrapper driver and not the bcm43xx driver?

[deathadder]

Hi,

Welcome to Just Linux.

I've linked to a few wiki entires you might find useful. Basically you can add the bcm43xx module to /etc/hotplug/blacklist and it won't get loaded.

http://docs.pclinuxos.com/Ndiswrapper
http://docs.pclinuxos.com/Wireless_networking
http://docs.pclinuxos.com/RemovingHotplug

[SomeLinuxGuy]

And i already had the ndiswrapper thing working. but it doesn't work when i log in or boot up. I still have to run the configuration tool to get it to work. also there is this error message in the /var/log/syslog:

"Sep 16 12:08:40 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep 16 12:08:41 localhost firmware.sh[24574]: Cannot find firmware file 'bcm43xx_microcode5.fw'
Sep 16 12:08:41 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed."

Right now the wireless is working because i ran the configuration tool and loaded the ndiswrapper driver then selected my wireless network. but when i reboot or log back in i have to run it again. the changes i made to stay. how do i make the changes stay so i don't have to run the configuration tool every time? How do i get it to always load the driver from ndiswrapper?

I blakclisted the bcm43xx driver like the links provided stated to do. but it still hasn't solved my problem yet. thanks though! i am on the way!

[phlipant]

And i already had the ndiswrapper thing working. but it doesn't work when i log in or boot up. I still have to run the configuration tool to get it to work. also there is this error message in the /var/log/syslog:

"Sep 16 12:08:40 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
Sep 16 12:08:41 localhost firmware.sh[24574]: Cannot find firmware file 'bcm43xx_microcode5.fw'
Sep 16 12:08:41 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed."

Right now the wireless is working because i ran the configuration tool and loaded the ndiswrapper driver then selected my wireless network. but when i reboot or log back in i have to run it again. the changes i made to stay. how do i make the changes stay so i don't have to run the configuration tool every time? How do i get it to always load the driver from ndiswrapper?

I blakclisted the bcm43xx driver like the links provided stated to do. but it still hasn't solved my problem yet. thanks though! i am on the way!

Blacklisting is good, I had to do that as well. The other thing I had to do is, put the statement

/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

into /etc/rc.local

I am still mystified as to why. Nothing I could do with modprobe.conf would make it work. And I cannot recall where I found this fix.

[phlipant]

Also, your error messages suggest you are still loading bcm43xx. You might want to run bcm43xx-fwcutter on your bcmwl5.sys file, and place the firmware into /lib/firmware.

[phlipant]

OK. I remember now. Blacklisting bcm43xx was not enough, I also had to blacklist bcm43xx_mac80211. Otherwise the bugger kept appearing at boot.