Support for Netgear WNA3100 USB Adapter?

[victoryred]

Everyone,
I have been in touch directly with Broadcom regarding the WNA3100. I gave them the information they requested and are willing to assist. They recently released other new Linux drivers. Let's see what happens. I will post whatever news I get, when I get it. Please check back.

-M

[victoryred]

Update 10/11/10.

Very much appreciate Broadcom's support. They have been very helpful. I think this will get solved for everyone. Stay hopeful.

If a moderator is monitoring this thread, I have a question. If a fix is found how is configuration managed and implementation released?

VR

[soderstrom]

Hello,
optimized Driver 32/64bit for Netgear WNDA-3100 v3 ID 0846:9020 here

http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/be.../#post-2612284

Supported ID's:
050D:825C (Belkin)
050D:6050 (Belkin)
050D:615A (Belkin)
0846:9020 (Netgear)

wnda3100 is a dual band device. Not the same as wna3100.

I didn't read your note and installed the driver he recommended. It actually got activated and could see the access points, but when trying to connect it failed after a while. Maybe there is a way to find out?

[victoryred]

soderstrom

That's actually interesting. On p[oint that needs to be made is that the bcmwlhigh5 driver is used with a 32bit OS and the bcmwlhigh6 is used with a 64 bit OS. What I find interesting is that the ID is the same for BOTH NetGear devices (WNA3100 & WNDA3100). I stand by my statement that the "D is for a dual band device. Since I don't own a WNDA3100 I expected the ID to be different. But it may be immaterial.

As I mentioned Broadcom is working this issue and I believe they may also be in contact with the NdisWrapper contributors to solve the single symbol error I describe in an earlier post. I am very willing to offer my support to either of them because I do enjoy solving problems.

Finally, as I mentioned in an earlier post I did get the Ndiswrapper source, copy a code block to make the stub and compiled as I described. Alas, I did find that wlan would disconnect. It took more energy than I had at the time so I started looking for another solution just like many of the rest of you. This is just my opinion, but I have a hunch that an NdisWrapper maintainer will fix this for both 32 bit & 64 bit Linux OSes but I'm not a fan of wrapping handler functions around drivers written for another OS. Drivers should ne native.

One other piece of the puzzle- There have been several very good guides written and distributed on this forum regarding troubleshooting ndiswrapper etc. Everyone has made a good contribution to the community. In my efforts I tired I think at least three of the guides. The part that sent my WNA3100 down hard is that there are at least a couple of Networking Configuration programs available to the Linux user. ndisgtk is one and I'm looking throuhg my notes for the other. What I think I ran into again is side effects of using one versus the other. When I used ndisgtk I ran into the case where the wlan would run a wile and disconnect. The other program (I will post the program name when I find it) listed detailed information about the WNA3100 device but after I exited the program without making any changes, I was unable to get the WNA3100 started at all after that. My suggestion is to be conservative and careful. This whole proccess is personally time consuming for you to perform and if it breaks you'll be frustrated.

I hope I'm helping.

VR

[victoryred]

soderstrom,
The 32 bit bcmwlhigh5 and 64 bit bcmwlhigh6 distinction is IMPORTANT. I assumed someone would catch on. In an earlier post I mentioned that bcmwlhigh6 had more symbol errors while loading with NdisWrapper than bcmwlhigh5. I believe this is because of the 32 vs. 64 bit OS difference. Maybe someone with a 64 bit Linux OS can shed some light on this.

VR

[victoryred]

Last post for this evening. There is source code for the Broadcom B43xx chipset available. Unfortunately, they are for a PCI based device. In the source they include a precompiled object file that is the interface to the chipset. The open source is mostly for the PCI interface. My hope is that they release the source for a USB version or at least give the community a loadable native USB wlan driver. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

However, USB wlan networking appears to be a "class of" type problem across many devices looking for Linux drivers. You see it on other boards. Can anyone tell me where I can find Linux system architecture documentation?

VR

[victoryred]

Oct 15, 2010

Ok, finally. I have just retraced my steps posted earlier on this thread. Yes Ndiswrapper with bcmwlhigh5 is working right now on a 32 bit Linux system. Yes, I am using Linux and my wna3100 to post this. Here are the quick steps.

1.) Get the ndiswrapper source from sourceforge latest is version 1.56
2.) add the code I posted earlier
then
sudo make uninstall
make
make install

then
ndiswrapper -v it should report version 1.56 not 1.55
then
cd over to the directory that has both the bcmwlhigh5.inf and bcmwlhigh5.sys files in it.
finally
ndiswrapper -i bcmwlhigh5.inf

At this point use the wireless network manager to create the wireless network and don't forget WEP if your wlan uses it.

Not simple but it does work.
VR

[victoryred]

michael@michael-desktop:~$ ndiswrapper -v
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic-pae/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
version: 1.56
vermagic: 2.6.32-24-generic-pae SMP mod_unload modversions 586TSC

michael@michael-desktop:~$ ndiswrapper -l
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, it will be ignored in a future release.
bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed
device (0846:9020) present


michael@michael-desktop:~$ nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool

State: connected

- Device: eth0 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Wired
Driver: sky2
State: unavailable
Default: no
HW Address:

Capabilities:
Carrier Detect: yes

Wired Properties
Carrier: off


- Device: wlan0 [Auto ] --------------------------------------------------
Type: 802.11 WiFi
Driver: ndiswrapper
State: connected
Default: yes
HW Address:

Capabilities:
Speed: 54 Mb/s

Wireless Properties
WEP Encryption: yes
WPA Encryption: yes
WPA2 Encryption: yes

[victoryred]

I just submitted the code stub and supporting information to the Ndiswrapper maintainers. They can implement the releaseable fix.

Best Wishes,
VR

[victoryred]

Oct 16, 2010

Well everything is running fine, but I have an update .........about updates.

After successfully getting my wba3100 adapter up and running, this afternoon I decided to go into update manager and get everything.......well up to date. The update manager dutifully did this. I'm loving having a connection to the 'net again.

Well, the update manager also updated the OS to 2.6.32.25 from 2.6.32.23. As you can imagine the 2.6.32.25 kernal didn't have the "special" version of ndiswrapper. At the reboot it was just like I hadn't fixed th problem.

Fortunately, I caught it and did the following:

sudo make uninstall
sudo make install

then rebooted.........everything is fine again. Word to the wise. Once you get your WNA3100 running until the ndiswrapper fix gets into distribution when the kernel gets updated perform the two steps above to keep your system on the net.

Best,
VR