Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide

[arjay1]

arjay1: After some more research, I found instructions here for installing this driver that should be easier to follow than those on the German forum that I linked to earlier. (The German instructions don't work well because they're based on a dead link; they're also a little out of date. And of course they're in German, which I can only barely read thanks to some obscure college course on the DDR, but I digress.)

[/CODE]

Brilliant mate. Worked first time on my PCLinuxOS machine which has an ethernet connection anyway, but I used it to follow the links as a test exercise.

Then I copied over the firmware and compat-wireless to the notebook I need it on because there is no working ethernet socket. It looks like it will work OK, but, unfortunately, the lubuntu install is very light on needed files. For example, it has no gcc which is needed to compile compat-wireless etc.

I have tried to download gcc on another PC and copy it over but it is complaining that it is the wrong version and there are also missing dependencies.

Any idea how to install the right version of gcc for the lubuntu kernel without any internet connection? (gcc is not even on the CDROM!!)

Kernel is 2.6.32.21-generic lubuntu...

Very fine work on the guide and on your continued support.

Regards

Richard

[pytheas22]

arjay1: glad it worked. Keep in mind that you will have to repeat the process whenever your kernel is updated via Ubuntu Updates, because the drivers in compat-wireless will need to match the new kernel.

The gcc package for Ubuntu 10.04 should also work on Lubuntu 10.04, as far as I know. Did you get it from http://packages.ubuntu.com? You will also need to download additional packages to satisfy whichever dependencies gcc has, but as long as you do that, it should work.

Another strategy for getting the wireless driver on the Lubuntu computer that should theoretically work, provided the kernels on your PCLinuxOS and Lubuntu systems are exactly the same, would be to copy the wireless modules from your PCLinuxOS machine to the same location on your Lubuntu computer. The files you will want should be everything in /lib/modules/2.6.32-21-generic/updates/. Copy all those files over using a USB stick and put them in the same place on Lubuntu, then reboot and see if you can get the ath9k_htc module to drive your card.

As a warning, although this should theoretically work, I've never tried it myself and it could potentially do something bad and prevent your Lubuntu system from booting. So if you can't take that risk, the safer approach would be to try installing gcc using a package.

[tom king]

Off subject slightly but thank you Christopher Tozzi for the explanation of those Warning msg's I have been getting when I boot 10.04.

Tom in sunny Florida (when it's not raining)

[CharlieHough]

Configuring wireless card mn-720 with Broadcom chipsets

I am useing ndiswrapper-common_1.52-1ubuntu1_all.deb,ndiswrapper-utils-1.9_1.52-1ubuntu1_i386.deb,mn720-ankh,bcmwl5.

I have lights blinking on my adapter which are normally solid? No internet connection.

I have got to this point below. How do I configure these files?


root@dragonfly-laptop:~# modprobe ndiswrapper
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, it will be ignored in a future release.
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, it will be ignored in a future release.
root@dragonfly-laptop:~#

Thanks for the support, Charlie

[pytheas22]

CharlieHough: the lines reading "WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper, it will be ignored in a future release" are actually not anything to worry about. They always appear.

In order to figure out the real source of your problem, I'll need to see output from some other commands. Please run the following and post the output here:

dmesg | grep -e ndis -e b43 -e wlan -e wl
lshw -C Network
uname -rm
ndiswrapper -l
sudo iwlist scan

[ghosh_rajk]

pytheas22, Excellent guide. Following these steps I could successfully startup my wifi.
I got the needed drivers for my INTEL PRO 3945 from the link
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1504211 (supplied by Dell)

Any idea why the Blue Led for the wifi keeps blinking when the wifi is actively sending/receiving data ?

I am on a HP nx7400 laptop with Ubuntu 10.04 installed.

Thanks

[tom king]

FYI: I installed maverick and could not access web via wireless. I re-installed karmic side by side and it works perfectly. I use ndiswrapper.

Seems like there may be a bug in this area in maverick.

[pytheas22]

ghosh_rajk: glad you were able to get it working, although with an Intel 3945 chipset you shouldn't actually have needed ndiswrapper--Ubuntu comes with the iwl3945 driver for your card, which should make it work out-of-the-box. But if you have it working with ndiswrapper and the Windows driver, that's fine as well.

As for the light activity, I don't know of any way to change that. I suspect it would probably work better if you switched to the native Linux (iwl3945) driver instead of using ndiswrapper, and it might also work better using a different Windows driver than the one you currently have installed. But if it's not that big of a deal to you, you might want to leave well enough alone.

tom king: thanks for the note. Maverick is still in beta and won't be officially stable until October, so hopefully whatever bug you experienced will be cleared up by then.

[mytaz]

Hello
Always same problem with atmel at76c505a : without a first boot & activate under XP, I can't connect on wifi and only with ndiswrapper !
I tried also with a Sagem adapter, lsusb knows it as "0cde:008 Z-Com Sitecom Wireles Network Adapter 100G+ WL-125" : it uses p54usb & claims for firmware isl3887 &/or isl3887_bare : doesn't work at all. Then tried with ndiswrapper & install by wlanuig.inf : seems to work, but if nm-applet sees several networks, I can't connect on any one (even with first boot under XP)!!!
Bad luck !!! I fear there is no solution !!!

[pytheas22]

mytaz: maybe we can get the Sagem adapter to work using the p54usb driver, rather than ndiswrapper. Under p54usb, it will hopefully work better.

What is the output of these commands with the Sagem device plugged in:

lsusb
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo rmmod p54usb
sudo modprobe p54usb
sudo iwlist scan
lshw -C Network
dmesg | grep -e wlan -e p54 -e ndis -ie firmware