[driverloader] How to try different versions of the driver

[Linuxant support (Jonathan)]

Hi,

the easiest and the recommended way to replace a Windows XP driver is 
with the Web Configurator. First, remove the installed Windows XP driver 
and then install the new Windows XP driver you want to test.

You can also directly modify the contents of the '/var/lib/driverloader' 
directory as you suggested. I order to do this, first, please remove the 
DriverLoader module from your kernel with the 'dldrstop' command in a 
root shell.

Then, please remove the contents of the '/var/lib/driverloader' 
directory, you can create a backup of this directory if you want. You 
will also have to remove the configuration files with the following 
command in a root shell :

---
rm -f /etc/driverloader/config/*
---

Then, you can copy the Windows XP driver to the '/var/lib/driverloader' 
directory. You must convert all the file names to lower case before you 
copy them to the directory. Please note that some Windows XP drivers 
might require more files than just a .sys and a .inf file. If you are 
lacking some files, their names will appear in the output of 'dmesg' 
when you will insert the DriverLoader module into the kernel.

Finally, to try out the installed Windows XP driver, please run the 
'dldrconfig -i' command in a root shell, it will insert the DriverLoader 
module in your kernel. You can now use the your Linux distribution 
specific command to bring up the wireless interface driven by DriverLoader.

Between versions of the Windows XP driver, the .sys file is probably 
different even if it doesn't look like it as there are generally bug 
fixed in the driver itself between such versions so the .sys file will 
be different.

We do not recommend that you only change one part of the Windows XP 
driver, for example, only change the .inf file and leave the older .sys 
file there, unless you know what you are doing.

Regards,


Jonathan
Technical specialist / Linuxant
www.linuxant.com
support at linuxant.com


Jonathan Baron wrote:
> Often the other Jonathan's response to questions on this list is:
> 
> "please try with different versions of the Windows XP driver to see if
> there is a difference."
> 
> What is the easiest way to do that? 
> 
> For example, I notice that (with Fedora Core 2 and driverloader
> 2.06) I have two files in /var/lib/driverloader/.  One is
> bcmwl5.sys, and the other is bcm43xxa.inf.  The "sys" file seems
> to be pretty much the same for different versions of the driver.
> The "inf" file seems to be what changes from version to version.
> 
> Can I just simply (after backing up the current "inf" file)
> replace it with the "inf" files of different versions, keeping
> the same name (bcm43xxa.inf)?
> 
> And, if so, do I need to re-start anything to see if it works
> better?
> 
> Jon