ndiswrapper says driver and hardware present...but nothing.

[kewldude606]

I am using the Windows Wireless Drivers panel under the System --> Administation. I installed the exe files on a windows machine and got the proper inf and sys files, and loaded them into that panel. Now it is saying "Driver present, hardware present". I still can't connect. I was searching everywhere and this is the info I think might help:

• I have no wlan0... interfaces, only eth0 to 2. This is some of the output of iwconfig:

  eth2      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"Finnie"
            Mode:Auto  Channel=10  Access Point: Invalid
            Sensitivity=0/200
            Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
            Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
            Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

  I put the SSID and Channel in there by myself.
• Before I did the whole ndiswrapper stuff, my network settings listed my wireless card as being wireless and active. It still didn't work when I unplugged the ethernet and rebooted, however.
• My WAP has no encryption
• I am using a Linksys WUSB54G
• It is connected via a hub (powered hub)..worked under Windows.
• I started to follow the Installation directions from the ndis wiki, but got stuck right above "Configure Interface." "ndiswrapper: driver ''driver1'' added" and "wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" weren't in the system log (dmesg | grep ndis is the command I used). The lights on the card did light up, but it was the power light and not the activity light.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Dr. Nick]

You say you had a wireless in your control panel before starting ndiswrapper?

That means ubuntu had drivers for your card already, they just werent working.

To get ndiswrapper to work you have to disable the built in drivers, if you dont it will never attempt to use ndiswrapper.

Run

lsmod

from a terminal and look for anyting named prism, If your card is usb and you dont have a prism entry then post all that appears on the line starting with usbcore.

You can remove any listed module by running

sudo modprobe -r module

If you see a module for your card loaded try to remove it then run

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

any time you reboot or unplug the card the module will get reloaded until you remove the file itself. If removing the module works ill help you remove the file if needed

[kewldude606]

I didn't see prism anywhere. Here is the usbcore line

usbcore               130692  7 ndiswrapper,hci_usb,islsm_usb,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

These are the things I saw relating to wireless: ndiswrapper, ieee80211, ieee80211softmac, ieee80211_crypt. I did the modprobe thing to ndiswrapper, and I tried to do it to ieee80211 (and all the rest starting with ieee80211) but I got an error, "FATAL: module in use."

[blurredbrain]

YOu know, I'm having the exact same issue, only I have an internal broadcom card on my Compaq Presario v2000, and its showing up under usbcore with the ndiswrapper. Is this my problem?

[Cinvent]

I have a Compaq Presario V2000 with an AMD64 Turion. I tried several options, but the only way it works for me was using a 64-bit driver.

On the ndiswrapper wiki

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List

I used the drivers from entry number 7.

Driver: bcmwl5.inf, BCMWL564.SYS, had to go for a 64 bit version from [ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...it/80211g.zip]

Perhaps you could try this. I hope it works.

[kewldude606]

Cinvent, you are responding to blurredbrain, right? Because I have a 32 bit proc.

[Dr. Nick]

If you have a built in module for you wireless card showing up on the same line as ndiswrapper it will take priority, So if you have a builtin module that doesnt work and you want to use ndiswrapper you must remove the builtin module before ndiswrapper will work

If you have a 64bit install of ubuntu and want to use ndiswrapper you will need a windows 64bit driver, You can not use a 32bit driver with ndiswrapper 64bit.

But if you have a standard 32bit ununtu (thus ndiswrapper) install you can use any 32bit driver, just not 64.


@kewldude606

I googled the islsm_usb module on your usbcore line and it appears to be the native driver you are looking to destroy

Try

sudo modprobe -r islsm_usb

and see if ndiswrapper starts to work. If it does you will either have to blacklist the islsm_usb file to keep it from starting on the next boot, or just delete the file entirely

[kewldude606]

I did the sudo line you suggested. Now the Windows Wireless Drivers still says Driver and hardware present, but in iwconfig everything is listed as "no wireless extensions." eth2, where the wireless extensions used to be, isn't listed anymore. I then did sudo modprobe islsm_usb everything was back to the way it was in the 1st post by me.

[blurredbrain]

Yeah, I now have the 64 bit drivers but it doesn't make any difference. Its doing the exact same thing.

[Dr. Nick]

Originally Posted by kewldude606 I did the sudo line you suggested. Now the Windows Wireless Drivers still says Driver and hardware present, but in iwconfig everything is listed as "no wireless extensions." eth2, where the wireless extensions used to be, isn't listed anymore. I then did sudo modprobe islsm_usb everything was back to the way it was in the 1st post by me.

I just checked that on mine and have the same situation, I just updated my kernel so my wireless driver that doesnt work that well came back.

What I did was modprobe -r the kernel driver,
then find the actual module file and remove it
then modprobe -r ndiswrapper
and finally sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

I would try that and see how it goes. You should first try without deleting the file just to be safe. Just unload ndiswrapper, and the islsm_usb and reload only the ndiwswapper and see how that goes.