FS#24705 - ndiswrapper removed from repository

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by David (Gleighton) - Sunday, 12 June 2011, 21:33 GMT
Last edited by Andrea Scarpino (BaSh) - Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 09:03 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category General
Status Closed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Architecture All
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version 3.5.2
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 8
Private No

Details

Summary and Info:

ndiswrapper has been removed from the repository, as it was called "obsolete" at
http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2011-June/020609.html

But still, some users rely on this as still a number of wireless devices have no original Linux support or are still not supported in the most recent kernel.

Steps to Reproduce:

At upgrading to kernel 2.6.39, pacman reports:

error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: ndiswrapper: requires kernel26<2.6.39

This is because it is no longer in the repository as described above.

To update to kernel 2.6.39 , it is required to remove ndiswrapper. What should be noticed that after removing ndiswrapper, the Internet on most ndiswrapper users no longer works, making it also impossible to update without a wired internet connection...

Please reconsider the removal of ndiswrapper as still not all wifi devices are supported by the kernel.

Also, see: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=120655
This task depends upon

Closed by  Andrea Scarpino (BaSh)
Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 09:03 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't implement
Additional comments about closing:  not a bug
Comment by Tobias Powalowski (tpowa) - Monday, 13 June 2011, 06:39 GMT
AUR, ABS is your friend then.
Comment by Gianpiero (4javier) - Monday, 13 June 2011, 12:22 GMT
Depending on how many people needs it. rt2500 based wi-fi adapter are really common, and rt2500usb is absolutely unusable. If there are other popular wireless chips those lack good native support, you should consider to re-include it into official repo. Otherwise...move gnome and kde into AUR: ABS is our friend anyway. Please let this bug open to make a kind of count of the people who needs ndiswrapper.
Comment by langaga (langaga) - Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 21:33 GMT
I need this thing, ipw2100 (for my card) is full of bugs, so I can't connect to some WPA2 protected networks :(
Comment by mike (yawns) - Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 07:14 GMT
I don't understand how the conclusion that ndiswrapper was, "no longer needed," was arrived at. Many native wireless drivers are so buggy they may as well not even exist. Others "work," but provide only weak or slow connectivity, or are missing core features. RT2500 is pretty popular (my Linksys PCI card uses it), and the native drivers for that chipset have literally never worked correctly, going back before they were even adopted into the kernel. Those of us with rt2500-based cards will probably be dependent on Windows drivers for a very long time.
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 08:40 GMT
If native drivers are buggy, then report bugs to their authors. ndiswrapper has encouraged you to not do so and use a broken solution instead. If you need ndiswrapper, then build it from AUR yourself, it's not like that's hard to do.
Comment by langaga (langaga) - Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 08:48 GMT
But for ipw2100 are these bugs reported cca 8 years and nobody works on them, so I must use ndiswrapper.
I know, that building ndiswrapper from AUR is not so hard, but it is uncomfortably...
Comment by Gianpiero (4javier) - Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 09:03 GMT
comment number 2

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