SliTaz Forum

Tim

Member

Registered: 2016-02-13

Posts: 11

WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

Hi all,

I have an old Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 7400 notebook with a button to activate WiFi.

I installed Slitaz 5.0 RC3 on the hard disk.

Previously, I had Lubuntu 12.04 on it and I needed to insert the kernel module "wistron_btns" in order to enable this key (and WiFi subsequently).

If the module isn't loaded the key has no function and the WiFi adapter stays hard-locked. This can be seen in both: the dmesg output and the "rfkill list" output.

As it seems the latest 5.0 RC3 kernel 3.2.71 does not come with this module and I can't find it either in the modules folder structure.

So, I guess I need to compile it but how.

I found the source code wistron_bnts.c in the source tree on kernel.org but I have no idea how to build the module. All instruction I found so far seemed to be made for the 2.6 kernel.

Any help and advice highly appreciated.

Thanks

Tim

llev

Member

Registered: 2011-12-09

Posts: 568

Re: WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

OK, we need some knowledgeable dev to turn CONFIG_INPUT_WISTRON_BTNS to "m" in the kernel config, and add the relevant module to linux-input-misc if I understand correctly (https://lwn.net/Articles/150579/ mentions path "drivers/input/misc")...

(To the devs: do we just need to edit linux-slitaz.config(64) in linux/stuff? Should this edit be done with the help of [c]make menuconfig[/c]?)

mojo

Administrator

Registered: 2011-03-29

Posts: 2,174

Re: WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

I verify option path and depends required by the new configuration are set correctly and edit linux-slitaz.config.

I use Linux Kernel Driver Database to find this information.

http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/INPUT_WISTRON_BTNS.html

The driver is 32bit kernel only: X86_32

Option string: CONFIG_INPUT CONFIG_INPUT_MISC

All options are enabled on linux-slitaz.config

Make edit and commit :

CONFIG_INPUT_WISTRON_BTNS=m

linux-input-misc-3.2.71.tazpkg now owns wistron_btns.ko.xz as it picks up all modules in drivers/input/misc

When packaging a module with the kernel in linux-<version>.tazpkg you add full path and name to the modules.list file and it is removed from the module package before compression.

llev

Member

Registered: 2011-12-09

Posts: 568

Re: WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

Thanks Richard, topic added to my favorites

Tim

Member

Registered: 2016-02-13

Posts: 11

Re: WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

Hello Mojo,

I tested it just now. Works perfect!

The package "linux-input-misc" in the repository had already been updated a few hours ago to include the wistron_btns module.

Just installed the package with the package manager, added "wistron_btns" to the modules to be loaded at boot time in /etc/rcS.conf "LOAD_MODULES=" and Wireless came up without any problems.

Thank you very much for your super quick response! Slitaz helped to breathe some new life into this oldie PC :-) With Midori one can even reasonably surf the internet.

One more remark:

The WiFi adapter in this machine is an Intel ipw2100. The adapter is recognized and the module is loaded correctly with the Slitaz default configuration (that is after I copied the firmware blobs manually from a Lubuntu installation into the /lib/firmware folder, because the package get-wifi-firmware is partly broken/outdated).

However, on every boot the the machine seems to hang for a very long while at the step "Configuring loopback" before the network is started and DHCP gets configured.

I was able to shorten this waiting time substantially by adding the ipw2100 module to /etc/rcS.conf  "LOAD_MODULES=" Don't know why this is but it speeds up the boot process a good deal.

mojo

Administrator

Registered: 2011-03-29

Posts: 2,174

Re: WiFi Button does not work, kernel module wistron_btns needs to be compiled

Hi SliTaz Friends,

Good to hear the driver is working. :^)