ndiswrapper woes

[augereffect]

I have just been trying to install ndiswrapper according to the instructions at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation.
I have gotten to the point of installing the windows driver with ndiswrapper -i <driver>.inf, and it will give me this:
Installing <driver>
Forcing parameter RadioState|0 to RadioState|1
Forcing parameter RadioState|0 to RadioState|1
Forcing parameter RadioState|0 to RadioState|1
Forcing parameter RadioState|0 to RadioState|1
Then, when I try ndiswrapper -l, it tells me
Installed ndis drivers:
<driver> invalid driver!
What do I do now? I know this is probably very simple, but I know almost nothing of Ubuntu.

Thanks.

[mlomker]

What do I do now? I know this is probably very simple, but I know almost nothing of Ubuntu.

Is this a laptop with a BIOS or hardware switch that turns on the wireless card? It sounds like it is failing to turn on the card.

[lordofkhemenu]

Is this a laptop with a BIOS or hardware switch that turns on the wireless card? It sounds like it is failing to turn on the card.
I second that. I had a laptop that had a hardware switch to turn the wifi on/off. A "d'oh" moment when i finally looked and saw it was off

[Zelut]

I get "driver present, hardware present" but when I run 'sudo modprobe ndiswrapper' I get this error.

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted

[augereffect]

I don't think there is a BIOS or hardware switch, because I have used this card with windows on the same computer. Is this some kind of really obvious linux thing that needs to be adjusted?

[mlomker]

I have used this card with windows on the same computer.

Well, that doesn't mean a lot. The driver is designed for Windows, so it'd turn the card on when it is loaded...ndiswrapper won't do that.

I have yet to see a laptop that didn't have a BIOS setting, hardware switch, or a Function hotkey that enabled/disabled the card. My previous laptop used a Function key and my current one has the button.


Is this some kind of really obvious linux thing that needs to be adjusted?

Unfortunately you won't know until after you find it. I've scoured the forums on issues like this because people post about them every day and I haven't found a magic setting that'll fix every card. All the laptops are a little different. You can often discover a lot by searching Google for you machine's model# linux. Even if it's a different version of linux, ndiswrapper is still the same.

[Zelut]

I just got mine working again and I noticed that I had to reinstall for it to work. My guess is it has something to do with the latest kernel updates we've been getting. I had originally updated with the latest kernels & then tried ndiswrapper with no success.

Last nite I did a fresh install & did the ndiswrapper config before I did the updates. Everything worked perfectly on the first try...

[augereffect]

Big breakthrough!

I successfully installed a different version of the driver, and it seems to work fine. It says the hardware is present. I'm having issues with configuration now. I have been following the instructions at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=19978
and I have gotten to step 6, where you put in "iwconfig" Here's what I get:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:off/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr:2432 B Fragment thr:2432 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-95 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

So far, this seems good. The computer seems to acknowledge the existance of the card. Then I put in "ifconfig" and it gives me this:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:47:07:2A:33
inet6 addr: fe80::290:47ff:fe07:2a33/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Memory:11000000-110000ff

Supposedly this is supposed to show me whether I have a connection to an access point and an IP address. "iwconfig wan0 essid <00:90:47:07:2A:33 - what I think is the access point> gives me this:
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device wan0 ; No such device.

Someone said that from this point, I just needed to use "networking" from system administration, but I don't know what to do with that. I don't know what my access point is called, (news to me that it had any designation at all) and it has no WEP key. It is also worth noting that the LEDs on the card are not lighting up. Could anyone enlighten me as to how to make this work?

Thanks

[mlomker]

"iwconfig wan0 essid <00:90:47:07:2A:33 - what I think is the access point> gives me this:
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device wan0 ; No such device.


wlan0

The essid is whatever name you configured in your access point. You'll have to look at the settings if you don't know. The default is often linksys or similar. The iwlist wlan0 scan command is supposed to give you a list (I've had mixed results with that).

[Zelut]

You can find your access point name by going to http://192.168.0.1 or sometimes http://192.168.1.100 (depending on the make/model). If you haven't changed the settings it'll most likely be the default name (ie; linksys, netgear, etc).

If you look in the network settings in System > Admin you may need to set 'this card is configured' and activate it. That may be all you need to do..

[augereffect]

One more piece of progress. It now gives me this when I use dhclient:

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:a0:c5:94:75:8d
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:a0:c5:94:75:8d
Sending on Socket/fallback
the ip here looks wrong should it not be my routers ip?
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

The doodad in the corner of the screen registers the wireless network, but says its disconnected. What do I do now? And what's the ESSID thing? And what if my network doesn't have a wep key?

Thank you very much for your patience.


P.S. Similar problem: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=69669

[mlomker]

Post the output of iwconfig and ifconfig wlan0 at the least.

Haven't you looked at the configuration of your access point yet? You installed it and that's something we can't check for you.

The link that you provide is a guy who has encryption turned on in his access point, I'm sure.