How to add ndiswrapper to geexbox

In this page I will explain how I compiled geexbox with the ndiswrapper driver.

Prepare windows driver

Ndiswrapper needs the windows driver of your wifi adapter. With the kernel module is also provided a small perl script, called "ndiswrapper". This script is used to install the windows driver in /etc/ndiswrapper/*

Since geexbox doesn't include perl, we need to prepare the driver on a working linux system, and then we will copy the /etc/ndiswrapper directory in geexbox.

Install and test the driver on your linux system to be sure that all is ok.

When you are ready, tar the directory:

cd /etc/ndiswrapper
tar -cf win_driver.tar rsc4usb
gzip win_driver.tar

Note: rsc4usb is the name of the directory containing the driver I use. Others drivers have different names.

Add the "ndiswrapper" package

Get the sources of geexbox: you can get the stable release or the devel one, it's the same.

Since now, I will assume that you have the geexbox src in ~/geexbox

Edit ~/geexbox/scripts/gentree , and add just after $SCRIPTS/install cpufreqd $1

$SCRIPTS/install ndiswrapper $1

Create the dir ~/geexbox/packages/ndiswrapper

Put these files inside it:

• win_driver.tar.gz (the tar previously created)
• url

http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.19.tar.gz

• build

!/bin/sh

. config/options

$SCRIPTS/build toolchain

KERNEL=~/geexbox/build.i386/linux-2.6.17

curdir=`pwd`
cd $BUILD/$1*/driver
make KVERS=2.6.17 KERNDIR=$KERNEL KSRC=$KERNEL KBUILD=$KERNEL
cd $curdir
cd $BUILD/$1*/utils
make CC=$CC

• install

#!/bin/sh
. config/options

install -D $BUILD/ndiswrapper*/driver/ndiswrapper.ko $INSTALL/lib/modules/2.6.17/misc/ndiswrapper.ko

mkdir -p $INSTALL/sbin
install -D -m 755 $BUILD/ndiswrapper-1.19/utils/loadndisdriver $INSTALL/sbin/loadndisdriver

mkdir -p  $INSTALL/etc/ndiswrapper
cd $INSTALL/etc/ndiswrapper
tar xvzf ~/geexbox/packages/ndiswrapper/win_driver.tar.gz

Assign "execute" permission to "build" and "install".

Build the generator

From ~/geexbox , run "make generator".

Create the ISO image

After the building process, you should have a tar called "geexbox-generator.....tar.gz"

Extract it and enter in the directory "geexbox-generator..."

Edit the file "iso/GEEXBOX/etc/modules" and add "ndiswrapper" (it's not important where, you should just put it as first line)

Run the generator: "./linux-i386-generator" and follow the ususal steps to get an iso image.

Burn and enjoy!

Burn the iso image you have just created and enjoy your geexbox.

Remember that if you want to install it to disk, the partition hasn't to be FAT (due to file naming problem). ext2/3 are safe.

info, corrections and questions: pierluigi88 (at) gmail (dot) com

Thans to all geexbox developers for their work, and specially to ben and khyron for their help in the forum.