ndiswrapper hangs on boot if running on battery

What does alt+sysrq+t say?

Hi Matt,

Thanks for taking the time to look into this problem.

The boot process hangs at "Loading modules..." at which point I hit ALT + SysRq
+ t, but no tasklist was dumped.

As a note, if I disable wireless in my BIOS as suggested by a forum user, I can
boot correctly on battery. I can then re-enable wireless once I have booted into
X with Fn + F2 and go about my business.

As a followup, this bug is still present using the 2.6.12-3.3 kernel in Breezy.

Due to the nature of ndiswrapper, there probably isn't much that we can do about
this bug, but it's worth a try to collect more information.

try alt+sysrq+[0-9] to ensure that the log level is set appropriately if you
aren't getting a task list

Sorry. Tried that with the same results... it's locked hard when it gets to
"Loading modules..."

Not a big deal since I know the workaround, thanks for your time!

This bug has been flagged because it is old and possibly inactive. It may or may
not be fixed in the latest release (Breezy Badger 5.10). It is being marked as
"NEEDSINFO". In two weeks time, if the bug is not updated back to "NEW" and
validated against Breezy, it will be closed.

This is needed in order to help manage the current bug list for the kernel. We
would like to fix all bugs, but need users to test and help with debugging.

If this change was in error for this bug, please respond and make the
appropriate change (or email <email address hidden> if you cannot make the
change).

Thanks for your help.

Reconfirming that this bug still exists in both Breezy and current Dapper.

In a rather ironic twist, ndiswrapper 1.5 showed up today via merge. I've
installed it on the affected system (which is running Dapper + 2.6.12-9-686) and
we'll see what happens.

(In reply to comment #8)
> In a rather ironic twist, ndiswrapper 1.5 showed up today via merge. I've
> installed it on the affected system (which is running Dapper + 2.6.12-9-686) and
> we'll see what happens.

Any luck with this test? I assume you will be using Dapper's 2.6.15 kernel,
since that's where ndiswrapper-1.5 is from.

I tried again with 2.6.12-9-686 and the problem is still the same.

(In reply to comment #10)
> I tried again with 2.6.12-9-686 and the problem is still the same.

You need to test 2.6.15-8-686.

Oops, I apologize for the confusion. I thought one thing and typed another-- I
did indeed test 2.6.15-8-686. Sorry for the mispost earlier!

Ok, please follow some steps here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSystemCrash

Also, may want to look at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingIRQProblems

As noted above, it's locked so hard that I can't even do Alt+SysRq+{1,t}. Is
there another way to get it to dump a trace?

I don't believe it's an IRQ conflict since it only happens on battery.

(In reply to comment #14)
> As noted above, it's locked so hard that I can't even do Alt+SysRq+{1,t}. Is
> there another way to get it to dump a trace?
>
> I don't believe it's an IRQ conflict since it only happens on battery.

Considering that battery operation is related to ACPI, and ACPI is responsible
for IRQ's, I would atleast appreciate that you try things out to be sure.
Currently, with just a hard lock and no output from the kernel, I've no way to
find the problem here. Doing the IRQ excercise may atleast find a system state
that will get us more information than a hard lock.

You can also add this to /etc/modules.conf

options ndiswrapper debug=2

To see if there is any extra output from ndiswrapper.

FYI:
I do not have this problem on my Inspiron 510m with the same Broadcom driver. Booting on battery works fine.
(card: Dell Truemobile 1400
driver version: 3.100.35.0, 11-27-2004
kernel: 2.6.12.10-686
Ubuntu Breezy
ndiswrapper + wpa_supplicant)

I want to share that this occurs with my Inspiron 8600 with dapper drake with most recent kernel *20.

the computer locks up at manual drivers, doing a recovery mode shows ndiswrapper laoding the correct hardware, but locoking up at irq. This is a major problem for laptop use :)

This bug is no longer an issue for me because the bcm43xx driver is working fabulously.

Ndiswrapper still exhibits this issue, however.

This bug may be fixed in the current edgy. In an effort to track this bug to our latest distribution, it is being targeted for edgy.

Please confirm whether this bug exists in edgy. If not, then please re-attach all related output (e.g. dmesg, oops output) while under edgy.

Latest Edgy CD's can be downloaded from:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/edgy/knot-1/

If this image does not boot from you, you can also download a current daily build from:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

Note that it may only be necessary to boot the LiveCD to see if your bug is fixed. In this case, you do not need to upgrade your installed system at all to confirm it. Certain bugs may require that you do an actual installation.

I confirm this bug exists in edgy: I installed it today from knot3 liveCD, then I upgraded to get the latest changes.

I disagree with Seth: I tried both ndiswrapper and bcm43xx "drivers" and I get the same result (see first description).

What can I do to help developers solving this bug?

The ndiswrapper forums contain a thread that could possibly be of value to this discussion:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=250&highlight=battery

Hello

I am running a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Edgy on it.

I would like to confirm that this bug happens to me with a clean install of Edgy. A clean install does not come with ndiswrapper, and I do not use it, although my wireless card does work.

The system hangs at loading network interfaces during boot if it is not on AC power. A new piece of info that makes this more confuzing is that if I reboot several times in a row, with AC not plugged in, it does eventually boot, but this seems to be a slim chance. Furthermore, the error that the system raises (after a long wait) is the CPU soft lock on Cpu0 (I don't recall the exact wording, but I hope you know the one, it's a common error) (I have a Centrino duo in the system).

I am willing to get more info for this bug if someone tells me what to do, but I do not know enough to do it by myself.

However, unless I am needed, I will enable the BOIS mode that seems to fix this problem, as suggested here: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=695&sid=4d3265ea70c1186497b6a1ec026229f8#695

Cheers to all the open source contributors, thanks a lot for making open source so very cool.

-AT

I tried all kernel options advised by Ben, as suggested here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingIRQProblems

All these options bring to freeze.

Then, I tried the following scenario:

- blacklist bcm43xx
- reboot machine (no freeze)
- modprobe bcm43xx
-> it freezes.

I think it was obvious for experts, but the problem is not only related to the boot sequence.

As I said in a previous comment, the bug is not only related to ndiswrapper too! Should the bug title be changed?

Furthermore, I know for sure that this problem does not only affect Dell computers, since it happened to my Toshiba (as posted earlier).

I really think this bug should be re-opened since this could lead to some relatively sizable bug in the boot sequence or in the network stage.

This got to be the strangest bug I've ever seen. It got me installing and reinstalling ndiswrapper over and over again, till I decided to search launchpad. And indeed, I just had to plug the AC power cord.

This is a Macbook C2D, running Feisty and ndiswrapper 1.38. Unfortunately, I don't have the SysReq key here. Let me know if there's an alternative way of doing that.

I hope we fix this. This sure is annoying.

I should comment that in my case this problem got fixed by upgrading to ndiswrapper 1.41. My Macbook seems to be behaving well now. Indeed in the changelog they mention that they fixed something for atheros cards.

Just a comment

I've seen this problem on a dell 5600 (I hope I got the number correct). The machines were dual-boot with Win-XP, and when booting on battery, the only way to get wireless up was first booting into windows and then warm-booting onto linux...

On a dell latitude d600, ndiswrapper hangs when the bios setting "Boot POST" is set to Minimal, which is also known as quick boot, but not when it is set to Thorough. This is true even when ndiswrapper is run after the system has booted.

I'm running ndiswrapper 1.38 and Feisty.

[Expired for linux-source-2.6.17 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Hi,

My acer 5570z system lockups on battery. Recovery mode shows it when loading manual drivers which is ndiswrapper 1.47. Is there a fix for this.PLease fix this!!!

Thanks
Regards
Jimmy

This occurs on one of my Compaq Presario laptop. Everything was fine until was booted this morning and it hung at the same spot. As soon as it assigns an IRQ it locks up tight. The only option is to turn it off.

It doesn't matter if the laptop is plugged in or not. It hangs either way.

It is happening (randomly on boot-up) also on my Thinkpad T22 with Broadcom 43xx chipset, no matter what version of Broadcom drivers I use. It happens about 1/4 of boots.

The hang goes after these lines:
[ 24.820000] ndiswrapper: driver bcm4306v4.10 (Broadcom,11/02/2005, 4.10.40.0) loaded
[ 24.820000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
[ 24.820000] PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
[ 24.820000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:03.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
[ 24.828000] ndiswrapper: using IRQ 10
[RANDOMLY HANG!]

... When lucky, this is the next one to show:
[ 25.308000] eth0: ethernet device 00:0b:6b:48:6f:79 using NDIS driver: bcm4306v4.10, version: 0x40a2800, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: '', 14E4:4320.5.conf

Try recompiling your kernel with the CONFIG_4KSTACKS flag off.

It is recommended somewhere in the ndiswrapper documentaton and it actually fixed a similar bug I had with
a usbwifi key (TEW-424UB with RTL8187B chipset, wifi-radar freeze on DHCPDISCOVER).

The funny part is I also have this well known "wifi-freeze-on-battery" bug on my D600 (hence my post here)
but when I try to run the same modified kernel without CONFIG_4KSTACKS on my D600, ndiswrapper fails
(silently) to activate my wlan0 interface even when running on wired power. Still investigating, anyone
successful please post foillowup here. (my last unsuccessful try was with FC6, kernel 2.6.22, ndiswrapper
1.51, bcmwl5 drivers provided by Dell in R81435 and SP3308).

Olivier.

Has anyone tried this with hardy?

Yes me.

...

And it wooooooorks!!!!!!
After 3 years waiting for a fix, I can now go outdoor and turn on my laptop on battery without freezing :-/

Alas, I installed hardy 8.04 on my Latitude D600 and had the same issue. Changing the BIOS POST seems (based on 1 boot) to be a workaround that works. I don't know who discovered this, but thanks!

Have the same problem on a Zepto 6214w (danish company). Intel cpu, chipset, wireless.
normal boot on ac, but hangs on boot on battery, then if I press and hold space (?!?!?!?) it continues the boot process after while as usual. Releasing space before, and it hangs again.

ubuntu 8.04.1
Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic

The 18 month support period for Feisty Fawn 7.04 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.20 Feisty Fawn kernel task. However, please note that this report will remain open against the actively developed kernel. Thank you for your continued support and help as we debug this issue.

Hi
I finally found problem that is somehow related to my problem.

I have Lenovo ThinkPad R60 (9461-DXG - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/quickPath.do?quickPathEntry=9461DXG ) and Intrepid (8.10) is upgraded from Hardy (8.04).
After I have upgraded to Intrepid, I noticed that when laptop is on battery, it is booting OK, until when it has to start GDM Login window.
When it should show gdm login, it doesn't show anything. Before that it was scrolling usplash screen. I tried to press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to F8 and nothing changes. At least I don't see anything. The only buttons which are working is Ctrl-Alt-Del. With C-A-Del, laptop normally restarts.

When laptop is on AC power, everything is working OK.
I am using fgrlx driver in xorg.
lspci: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X1400

Thank you

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

The 18 month support period for Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 has reached its end of life -
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-7.10-eol . As a result, we are closing the
linux-source-2.6.22 kernel task. It would be helpful if you could test the
new Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 release and confirm if this issue remains -
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904overview. If the issue still exists with the Jaunty
release, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux (Ubuntu)"
task from "Incomplete" to "New". Also please be sure to run the command below
which will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this
report. Thanks in advance.

apport-collect -p linux-image-2.6.28-11-generic 16247

After 2 months and still no feedback to comment 41, https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/16247/comments/41 , I'm closing this bug. In order for a bug to qualify for a stable release update it must be confirmed as fixed in the actively developed release - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates . If you are able to provide the previously requested information and run the apport-collect command to attach updated debug files, please feel free to reopen this bug by setting the status back to New. Thanks.

Since 2.6.15 was reached EOL a long time ago I'm closing this task as well.