[sclug] Odd problem with Netgear wireless adapter and ndiswrapper

[Neil Haughton]

Hi,

 I'm experiencing a strange problem with my Netgear W3G11V3 wireless 
adapter. Can anyone throw any light on it?

About 2 times out of every 5 bootups, the boot sequence hangs when 
trying to configure the wireless adapter (I'm using ndiswrapper with the 
Netgear Windows XP driver). When bootup is successful the wireless 
connection works like a dream. On those occasions when it won't boot, a 
press of the reboot button usually cures the problem.

This has me puzzled. Clearly there is nothing inherently wrong, so what 
could be the problem? It never occurs when I boot into with XP, so I 
guess that means it is not the card or the XP driver. Is it a flaw in 
ndiswrapper, or something else?

Here's my system log which shows what happens when the wireless adapter 
fails to initialise:


Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179612.936000] ndiswrapper version 
1.8 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179613.408000] ndiswrapper: driver 
wg311v3 (NETGEAR,02/22/2005,3.1.1.7) loaded
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179613.408000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 
0000:00:0e.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179613.412000] ndiswrapper: using 
irq 177
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179614.472000] wlan0: vendor: ''
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179614.472000] wlan0: ndiswrapper 
ethernet device 00:14:6c:31:6d:30 using driver wg311v3, 
11AB:1FAA:1385:6B00.5.conf
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179614.472000] wlan0: encryption 
modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, 
WPA2, WPA2PSK
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179617.596000] NET: Registered 
protocol family 17
Nov  3 10:42:52 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] ffffffff
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] PREEMPT
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] Modules linked in: 
af_packet ndiswrapper nls_iso8859_1 vfat fat reiserfs nls_cp437 ntfs 
ext2 sg sd_mod dm_mod md_mod lp rsrc_nonstatic pcmcia_core snd_seq_dummy 
snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq i2c_viapro tsdev 
usb_storage scsi_mod floppy analog parport_pc usbhid pcspkr parport 
snd_via82xx gameport snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus snd_pcm_oss 
snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer snd_page_alloc snd_mpu401_uart psmouse 
via_rhine snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device rtc serio_raw via_ircc snd mii irda 
nvidia i2c_core crc_ccitt via_agp agpgart mrv8k ieee80211 
ieee80211_crypt shpchp pci_hotplug soundcore evdev ext3 jbd ide_generic 
ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore ide_cd cdrom ide_disk via82cxxx generic 
thermal processor fan capability commoncap vga16fb vgastate fbcon 
tileblit font bitblit softcursor
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] CPU:    0
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] EIP:    
0060:[<ffffffff>]    Tainted: P      VLI
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] EFLAGS: 00010286   
(2.6.15-27-386)
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] EIP is at 0xffffffff
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] eax: cf5a2260   ebx: 
cfb70250   ecx: cfeee000   edx: ffffffff
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] esi: 00000286   edi: 
b7eac16c   ebp: 00000000   esp: cfeeff7c
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] ds: 007b   es: 
007b   ss: 0068
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] Process 
S40networking (pid: 3886, threadinfo=cfeee000 task=cfe17570)
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] Stack: c01ce748 
cf5a2260 cfb70250 c01ce7de cfb70250 cfeee000 cfe17570 c011eb85
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]        ce9fbb80 
00000000 b7eac16c cfeee000 c011ef8f 00000000 00000000 c0102feb
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]        00000000 
b7eae127 b7eae0e0 00000000 b7eac16c bf8188a8 000000fc 0000007b
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] Call Trace:
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  
[put_io_context+40/96] put_io_context+0x28/0x60
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  
[exit_io_context+94/112] exit_io_context+0x5e/0x70
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  [do_exit+85/1008] 
do_exit+0x55/0x3f0
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  
[do_group_exit+47/176] do_group_exit+0x2f/0xb0
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  
[sysenter_past_esp+84/121] sysenter_past_esp+0x54/0x79
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000] Code:  Bad EIP value.
Nov  3 10:42:53 localhost kernel: [17179636.252000]  <6>ACPI: Power 
Button (FF) [PWRF]


I'm running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, BTW.

Regards

Neil