Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide

[pytheas22]

jr0dy: no, unfortunately they never responded to me. It's been a while since I've thought about this issue, but have you taken a look at this page? For the people there, getting the device working appears deceptively easy. I'd give that a try first, and let me know how it goes.

[jr0dy]

pytheas22:

I did in fact try that page last night, to no avail. I actually reinstalled Ubuntu after seeing that page in my excitement that I would finally be able to get it to work.

For some context, I'm building a box to essentially serve as a wireless repeater. The EUB-362 EXT is rigged to a cantenna to broadcast the signal across a large piece of property, and I was really hoping to get this going in Ubuntu for reliability and uptime - I have it working in Windows with ICS no problem, but this is going to be managed by my in-laws and I know that's going to bomb out periodically and require restarts, remote management, etc., and they won't be able to deal with all that.

EDIT: Now I feel like an idiot. I just booted the box up for the first time today since late last night, and it works; the problem appears to have actually been that I had another USB WiFi dongle inserted while troubleshooting last night, and they appear to be mutually exclusive with one another (it is not being recognized by Network Manager now, only the EUB-362 EXT is). I know it works fine otherwise, however, as it was working last night. So now I guess my real problem is how to get Ubuntu to recognize both devices simultaneously.

EDIT: After finding this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=501221 , I was finally able to get Network Manager to detect both devices simultaneously after commenting out the auto declaration in /etc/network/interfaces per Mr. C.'s suggestion. Can it be that this nightmare is finally almost over?

EDIT: Jumped the gun - now it's not recognizing the EUB-362 EXT when both are plugged in. This is incredibly frustrating. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[pytheas22]

jr0dy: at least you did finally get the device working--that's the most important part

As for figuring out why NetworkManager doesn't want to deal with two devices simultaneously, please plug them both in, then post the output of:

lshw -C Network
iwconfig
ifconfig
cat /etc/network/interfaces
cat /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
lsusb
lspci -nn

Also, what exactly are you trying to do that requires two wireless cards? I'm guessing you want to have one interface connected to a wireless network with a gateway to the Internet, then bridge that interface to a second interface, which will either broadcast a new essid or repeat the one to which the first device is connected. If that's the case, you may be able to pull it off with just one wireless card instead of two, but that's tangential to the discussion at hand.

[Colinchocolate]

Ok I'm back... I've since upgraded to the newest version of ubuntu, and still would like to get an internet connection without drilling a hole in my wall to connect to the router.. I don't know if there is a later and greater version of ndiswrapper, and wicd... I'm still using a D-Link WUA-2340.

[pytheas22]

Colinchocolate: as I recall, you never were actually able to try wicd before because it wouldn't install, due to errors. Please try downloading it again using the installer at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wicd...l.deb/download If it complains about a conflict with NetworkManager, try running:

sudo apt-get remove network-manager

then try installing the package again. With wicd installed, see if you can connect. (Open wicd from the Applications>Internet menu.)

This of course all assumes that you have ndiswrapper installed and are able to scan for networks. If you don't have it installed, please configure it again as you did last winter.

[dccmgb]

Thanks so much for this comprehensive review. I was able to find my issue in your third paragraph regarding the message of "Invalid Driver". I did not realize that you needed the .sys file located in the same directory as the .inf file. Once I completed that, my Windows driver was recognized as valid and my wireless adapter (Motorola WN825G, which is a Broadcom chipset) began to work just fine.

Also, since I am not a command line unix person, I was able to complete most all of the work to install the driver via enabling the appropriate Synaptics repositories (such as ndiswrapper). dc

[pytheas22]

dccmgb: glad it helped you; thanks for the feedback

[mytaz]

I have a strange problem with ubuntu 10.04 (last kernel)
On a Dell 530 Workstation bi-xeon with 2 HD, one with XP, the other with Ub. 10.04, I cannot have wifi when I boot on Ubuntu ; I can have wifi when I boot on XP, then reboot on Ubuntu !!!
I use ndiswrapper, and with network_manager or wicd i have always the same error messages : errors -16 & -22

uname : 2.6.32-24-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03eb:7614 Atmel Corp. AT76c505a Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 058f:9254 Alcor Micro Corp. Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2770:905c NHJ, Ltd Che-Ez Snap SNAP-U/Digigr8/Soundstar TDC-35
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

ndiswrapper -l
netv5a8 : driver installed
device (03EB:7614) present (alternate driver: at76c50x_usb)

dmesg | grep ndisw
[ 26.912626] ndiswrapper version 1.55 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)

[ 27.997224] ndiswrapper: driver netv5a8 (ATMEL,12/5/2003,4.10.9.424) loaded


[ 3137.136026] usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
[ 3137.290337] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3137.416033] usb 2-1: reset full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6
[ 3138.588023] ndiswrapper (wrap_reset_port:1093): locking failed: -16
[ 3140.772023] ndiswrapper (wrap_reset_port:1093): locking failed: -16
[ 3140.775483] ndiswrapper (mp_init:219): couldn't initialize device: C0000001
[ 3140.775493] ndiswrapper (pnp_start_device:435): Windows driver couldn't initialize the device (C0000001)
[ 3140.775511] ndiswrapper (mp_halt:262): device dd7e9ba0 is not initialized - not halting
[ 3140.775517] ndiswrapper: device eth%d removed
[ 3140.775556] ndiswrapper: probe of 2-1:1.0 failed with error -22

I have read a great number of pages, but never found any good explanation - all these messages are good when booting first on XP (and atmel usb wifi dongle activated) !!!

[pytheas22]

mytaz: that's a bit strange, although I have seen similar situations before where wireless cards work only after rebooting into Ubuntu from Windows. Does the wireless work if you unplug the card, then plug it back in, while booted in Ubuntu? What if you boot without the card plugged in and plug it in after Ubuntu has loaded?

If experimenting with unplugging and replugging the wireless card doesn't work, we can try some other options. There is a (somewhat old) native Linux driver that looks like it may support your device, since it has an Atmel AT76c505a, so perhaps that would be a better option if ndiswrapper doesn't want to work.

[mytaz]

Full thanks for your message, now, I write under Ubuntu, always after a first boot on XP
I used ndiswrapper because the first time I installed 10.04, the driver at76c50x_usb didn't work... If I disconnect the device & reconnect after booting on Ubuntu (without XP first) iwconfig has always bad messages !!!
To continue...
Thank you again...