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DriverLoader - Known issues
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Some drivers (especially for Intel Centrino PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2100)
need significant stack space. Kernel stack size on Windows is generally
12k (3 pages) but only 8k - sizeof(task_struct) = about 6.5k on Linux.
Stack overflows, although rare but still theoretically possible can lead to
semi-random crashes. This is even more likely to happen when using kernels
compiled with CONFIG_4KSTACKS (which is the default in Fedora Core 2).
An experimental workaround for this can be enabled by running
"dldrconfig --enable-workaround=stack" but the safest solution is to
increase the kernel stack size to 16k. (see the download section at
http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/ for available pre-built
16K kernel packages and patch options).
Atheros USB adapters require loading of both the firmware driver (athfmwdl)
and the network driver (typically neta5agu).
Unfortunately there is no consistent way under 2.4 to prevent the
USB host controller from automatically re-submitting an interrupt request.
This issue can cause crashes when initializing a USB device under some
2.4 kernel and host controller driver combinations. If your system uses the
"usb-uhci" module, you could try switching to the alternate "uhci" driver.
If this does not resolve the problem, an experimental workaround can be enabled
by running "dldrconfig --enable-workaround=usbint".
The recommended solution is to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel, which is now used by
default in almost all current Linux distributions.
On some systems (Acer notebooks notably), adapter initialization sometimes
fails due to IRQ routing problems and interference with the video display.
The current workaround is to run "modprobe driverloader" before the X server
starts or with the display switched to a text-console (Ctrl-Alt-F1).
If the webconfd isn't running, some browsers redirect
http://localhost:18020/ to bogus sites like www.localhost.net.au
and www.netbreakthroughs.com when the "Smart Keywords" feature is enabled.
If you experience this, try disabling "Smart Keywords" in your browser or
using the IP address instead of a name (i.e. http://127.0.0.1:18020/) in the
URL.
Current noise levels are not reported for all cards due to the use of
proprietary NDIS OIDs by vendors. Signal level indications should be properly
supported though.
Some PCI cards based on Broadcom chipsets (most notably the Linksys WMP54G)
do not work properly in older machines. Symptoms are kernel messages like:
NdisWriteErrorLogEntry: ErrorCode=DRIVER_FAILURE NumberOfErrorValues=1
NdisWriteErrorLogEntry: ErrorValue 0=0x103
and also "lspci -v" indicating '[virtual]' next to the Memory setting
after driverloader has been started.
Older Broadcom drivers hang the system when associating with some access
points, or have problems with WEP. This is often seen with BCM4301 chips, used
in the Linksys WMP11 2.7 or Dell TrueMobile 1180 MiniPCI cards. These issues
have been fixed in newer driver versions, such as the one available from Belkin
for their 54G cards (Model F5D7010). Due to Broadcom's OneDriver architecture,
54G versions of bcmwl5.sys also seem to work fine with older BCM4301 chips.
Therefore we suggest trying the current Belkin driver even if you have another
card. Editing the PCI IDs in the INF (or NTF) file might be necessary.
Some older Realtek RTL8180L drivers cause significant system lags
when the adapter is not associated to an access point. The newest driver,
available from http://www.realtek.com.tw/ does not suffer from this problem,
but you might have to manually edit its .INF if your card has a different
PCI ID than the one it lists.
Spurious problems have been reported with 2.6.0-test7. We recommend that
2.6 users upgrade to the latest (presently -test9, which has been successfully
tested with DriverLoader).
Some cards do not seem to list or associate with access points that have an
empty ESSID, hence we recommend configuring your AP's ESSID.
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