Wireless Trouble Linksys Card Detected But Won't Connect

[gigi1234]

OK I tried this question on beginner's but no luck.

Used to run Edgy (Thinkpad T21, Linksys WPC11 v.4 wireless card) -wireless worked out of the box.

Installed Hardy and wireless card was not detected. Used ndiswrapper to install the driver and card is now detected, but still won't connect to my 2WIRE231 router. The wired connection works no problem.

I have tried everything I can think of and it is a no-go.

Please can't someone point me in the direction of a solution?

I would be most appreciative.

[dmizer]

What chipset does your card use?

Please post the output of:
lshw -C network

[gigi1234]

Thanks for your reply. Requested output:

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: RTL8180L 802.11b MAC
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 20
serial: 00:0f:66:4f:6f:5a
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper+lsrtnds driverversion=1.52+Linksys,04/10/2003,5.135.41 latency=64 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=ndiswrapper multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b

[dmizer]

At first glance, it looks like everything is working correctly.

What kind of wireless security do you have in place?

[gigi1234]

Actually I don't really know. My router is a 2WIRE231 and there is a 10 digit code. I assume it is WEP hexadecimal. But how do I know for certain?

Before, in Edgy, I believe I entered this code as WEP hex and it worked fine.

I have run across several other threads describing issues like I am having. But none seem to offer solutions.

[dmizer]

What is the output of:
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

[gigi1234]

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 02:6A:9E:6D:88:8F
ESSID:"�J2"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Ad-Hoc
Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
Quality:23/100 Signal level:-81 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0
Cell 02 - Address: 00:1B:5B:DB:B6:79
ESSID:"2WIRE231"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel 8)
Quality:73/100 Signal level:-49 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0

[dmizer]

Well, your card works fine, so something else is blocking you. Do you have an IP address?
sudo ifconfig
If you do, then you may simply have a problem with DNS resolution or IPv6 interference.

[gigi1234]

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1956 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1956 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:97988 (95.6 KB) TX bytes:97988 (95.6 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0f:66:4f:6f:5a
UP BROADCAST 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:3c000000-3c000025

wlan0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0f:66:4f:6f:5a
inet addr:169.254.5.71 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
Interrupt:11 Memory:3c000000-3c000025

[dmizer]

Have you tried rebooting the 2wire?

[gigi1234]

No but I can try that when I get home later on today.

I was considering configuring the network manually via command line. Do you think that would help?

Thanks, Gigi

[dmizer]

If you like, but it's probably not necessary.

Please try disabling network manager: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkManager#Disabling%20NetworkManager

Then configure your card by going to: System > Administration > Network

[gigi1234]

How about just uninstalling Network Manager?

I will give it a try later on.

[dmizer]

How about just uninstalling Network Manager?

I will give it a try later on.

Uninstalling network manager will also remove the Ubuntu desktop meta package. This in itself is not bad, but it will prevent you from getting automatic update notifications in the future.

[gigi1234]

OK. I tried disabling Network Manager as per instructions. I configured the connection in Network (over and over). I rebooted the 2WIRE (twice). And I disabled IPV6 or whatever it is. Nothing works. Nothing.

I keep trying WiFi radar and it will not let me edit anything.

[dmizer]

Which windows version of the driver did you use? If you loaded the Vista driver into Ndiswrapper, it will not work.

Please post the output of:
ndiswrapper -l

[gigi1234]

the driver is an XP driver

output ndiswrapper -l:

lsrtnds : driver installed
device (10EC:8180) present

Sorry about the dup thread-didn't realize that was bad

[dmizer]

No worries. The problem with creating multiple threads is that you end up getting different people helping you but they can't see what others are doing, so you'll get conflicting and repetative directions.

If you think your post could be better served by being in a different forum, just use the "report" button, and enter a request for the thread to be moved and why.

I found this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=650066

Which says to use the XP driver from this site: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=26&PFid=5&Level=6&Conn=5&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true

and follow the directions here for installation: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/NdisWrapper_The_Ultimate_Guide/

[gigi1234]

If I download the Realtek XP driver all I get is a *.sys file, not an *.inf file which is what ndiswrapper wants.

So another brick wall...

[dmizer]

This link: ftp://210.51.181.211/cn/wlan/ndis5x-8180(173).zip contains the zip file with both the sys and inf file (you need both).

[gigi1234]

Oh Vista, I hate you so much.

Vista seems to be hiding the *.inf file from me. Oh so tricky.

Thanks for helping. I will keep trying.

:)

[gigi1234]

Still working...

Just out of curiosity do you know what happened to "device manager" in system>administration?

???

very perplexing...

[gigi1234]

I installed the alternative driver via ndiswrapper. I also blacklisted the probable native drivers. And I uninstalled the first driver I had installed using ndiswrapper.

After several reboots and several router resets nothing has changed. I still cannot connect.

Right now I can't put any more time into it, but if there are other suggestions I will try them some time in the future when I have some more time to burn.

Thanks for all your help!

[dmizer]

The only suggestion I have for a future endeavor is to try an Edgy live cd. You indicated that Edgy worked OOTB, so you can use the information from Edgy to determine how to get Hardy to work.

[steve_d]

I installed the alternative driver via ndiswrapper. I also blacklisted the probable native drivers. And I uninstalled the first driver I had installed using ndiswrapper.

After several reboots and several router resets nothing has changed. I still cannot connect.

Right now I can't put any more time into it, but if there are other suggestions I will try them some time in the future when I have some more time to burn.

Thanks for all your help!

This is interesting, I have the same laptop (T21) with the same linksys wifi card WPC11 v4 and I can't get it to work either. Same situation, the driver is in place, shows my settings through ifconfig/iwconfig, lets me see the router I'm trying to connect to, but I can't actually get a DHCP lease, I've tried a static address as well with no success.

If you ever figure this one out, drop me a PM and let me know :)

-Steve

[steve_d]

Ok, so I just figured out part of the problem. Its the WPA security protocol. I just switched over to WEP (temp, don't like my network too exposed) and my T21 grabs an IP and connects right away. I've tried WPA and WPA2 and both fail to connect, so I'm set at WEP until I can do some updates, and then I'll try again and see if anything changes.

EDIT: none of the security updates fixed this problem, although I didn't install any of the recommended updates as none of the descriptions had much to do with networking.

I also ran across a thread where someone mentioned Wicd Manager gave them better results when trying to use WPA with hardy, and although I can get it up and running, it will only connect with WEP.

Its kind of ironic actually, I wanted this laptop setup so I could test my wpa security and see if it was crackable, and even I can't log in with wpa...lol.

[steve_d]

Ok I think its summed up quite nicely in this link:
http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/NDISwrapper_and_the_GPL

Being just a common Linux user, I have no idea what they're on about other than there seems to be some disagreement about ndiswrapper running under a GPL and that its using proprietary drivers so it shouldn't be allowed to interact with the new kernel as directly as it wants to.

I get the feeling that Linus is really pushing the ethical high ground of "free" software and that Linux should have no affiliation with proprietary software... nice in fantasy land, but what about all of us out there with older hardware.... Pay less or nothing for software, so I can pay more by buying hardware that is natively supported by linux to replace something that already works perfectly fine...

[dmizer]

Ok I think its summed up quite nicely in this link:
http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/NDISwrapper_and_the_GPL

Being just a common Linux user, I have no idea what they're on about other than there seems to be some disagreement about ndiswrapper running under a GPL and that its using proprietary drivers so it shouldn't be allowed to interact with the new kernel as directly as it wants to.

I get the feeling that Linus is really pushing the ethical high ground of "free" software and that Linux should have no affiliation with proprietary software... nice in fantasy land, but what about all of us out there with older hardware.... Pay less or nothing for software, so I can pay more by buying hardware that is natively supported by linux to replace something that already works perfectly fine...

That whole thing was from several months ago. Everything's resolved now, and NDISwrapper is (as you can see with Hardy) still very much alive and part of Linux.

Sometimes, that's just the way Linus decides to discuss Linux GPL related issues. Without his "ethical high ground" Linux wouldn't have even pretended to make it as an operating system.

Edit:
Additionally, the beauty of open source is that ... if you don't like it, you're welcome to change it. So even if Linus had decided not to allow NDISwrapper into the kernel, the submitted patch could easily have been added to Ubuntu by the developers, or individually as needed.

[steve_d]

I shouldn't have posted my opinion of that topic, I get the feeling this is a long battled controversy and I have no intention of continuing it.

Anyways, if this ndiswrapper situation was resolved, I guess the problem is in a different direction. There must be some other conflict at play seeing as I can connect with WEP but not WPA. I've read a lot of threads but can't seem to get anywhere, any ideas which direction I should go?

EDIT:

I haven't found anything to fix this in 8.04, but I just loaded up 7.1 and I can connect to my WPA secured router. 7.1 seems to be running a bit smoother than 8.04 on this ancient laptop so for now I'm happy :)

[gigi1234]

I couldn't connect with WEP either-dunno what the problem is. I pretty much just gave up!

[sidlu2008]

I have the same problem with my 2WIRE262 access point. I think the ndiswrapper and the linksys WPC driver were fine because network manager could detect the wireless card. However, the problem was that when a dialog asks you about WEP phrase/hex/ASCII code (whatever you select from drop-down list box), you just don't know what KEY you should put in. The workable KEY used for Windows XP wireless WEP was not the key for ndiswarpper.:confused:

[Spunky__Monkey]

Hi, I was having the exact same problems with my setup (ubuntu 8.04 with netgear MA521 card). The network would be discovered but for some reason i just couldn't connect. I managed to solve it by changing the settings on my wireless router from "802.11 performance" to "802.11 compatible". I'm not sure what technical changes that made because i don't have a manual, but it DOES let me connect using WPA-personal security. Hope this is of some help to people.