Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide

[bedake]

I just installed ndiswrapper for my broadcom 4318 rev 02 card in order to get support for WPA. After installing the card I lost my wlan0 interface and seemed to of gained a pan0 interface. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what caused my wlan0 to dissapear and how I may regain my wireless interface?

I made a thread located here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1098895

To verify ndiswrapper was installed:
ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:431 present (alternate driver: ssb)


I just entered lshw -c network and the output was:

WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:c0:9f:b0:79:74
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 ip=192.168.1.100 latency=64 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=8139too multicast=yes
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:06:06.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=32 module=ssb
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 1
logical name: pan0
serial: e6:99:49:ad:3e:fd
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes

Iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

[pytheas22]

etherealethel: thanks for that information. Since you're sure the router seems to be configured correctly, we can give ndiswrapper a try, which will drive the card with Windows drivers instead of the Linux ones. To get ndiswrapper going, you will need first to install it by typing:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 wine

After that command finishes, please refer to the first post in this thread, which contains instructions for extracting the necessary parts of the Windows driver from the Windows installation CD for your card. Please try at least to get through step 11 of those instructions so that you have the 'Drivers' folder copied to your desktop or another easily accessible location. Once you get that far, we can install the .inf file into ndiswrapper, and hopefully your device will work.

bedake: I'll reply in your thread.

[etherealethel]

I don't think I can download ndiswrapper - does apt-get need an internet connection? My pc is nowhere near router - but have laptop upstairs - can download on laptop if necessary?

[etherealethel]

Hi Pytheus, I am getting completely stuck - trying to follow another thread on how to install ndiswrapper

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=574501

- have copied ndiswrapper-1.54.tar.gz (downloaded from web onto my laptop and then transferred) into a folder in my home directory, and trying to follow thread on how to install - but when i try to do
tar -zxvf ndiswrapper-1.54.tar.gz it just says
cannot open: no such file or directory
tar: error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: child returned status
tar: error exit delayed from previous errors

No idea what is going on now, let alone follow steps 1-11 on your thread - can't even do step 1!

The other thing is that according to Synaptic Manager, Ndiswrapper is already installed, but when I do step 1 it doesn't return anything at all ???

[pytheas22]

etherealethel: sorry, I thought you had a wired connection available. The easiest way to install ndiswrapper without being online is to use the Ubuntu live CD, which contains the ndiswrapper packages. To do that, insert the CD into the drive, then go to System>Administration>Software Sources. Under the 'Ubuntu Software' tab, you should see a box to enable your CD for use as a repository. Make sure it's checked, then close the window. If you're asked about reloading the sources list, say yes. Then try running this command again:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

It will hopefully install using the packages on the CD.

If you don't already have wine (the program for running Windows applications on Linux) on your computer, the steps that I linked to for extracting the driver files from Setup.exe on your driver CD will probably not work under Ubuntu. However, if you put the CD into a Windows computer and run the installer there, you should still end up with a folder in C:\Program Files called 'Drivers' (if it's not there, search your computer for the file 'dr71wu.inf' to locate the right folder). Copy that folder over to Ubuntu, and then we can finish getting ndiswrapper set up.

Sorry this is proving to be so difficult; thanks for the patience.

[dugh]

My wireless stopped working in the last day or two. iwconfig gives this output:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11a  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:32 dBm   
          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   
          Power Management:off
          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

pan0      no wireless extensions.

ndiswrapper -l

bcmwl5 : driver installed
	device (14E4:4312) present (alternate driver: wl)

lshw -c network

  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4312 802.11a/b/g
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:19:7e:4b:6a:42
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper+bcmwl5 driverversion=1.53+Broadcom,10/12/2006, 4.100. latency=0 module=ndiswrapper multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11a
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:19:b9:72:72:f9
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.94 firmware=5752-v3.19 ip=192.168.0.102 latency=0 module=tg3 multicast=yes
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: pan0
       serial: 16:4c:b3:95:10:a6
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes

The networkmanager applet just shows no networks at home or at work, when I know there are.

[etherealethel]

Pytheus you have the patience of a saint! I'm just sorry I'm do dim I can't seem to follow instructions!

Ok, have re-installed Ndiswrapper from disc - but basically told me it was already installed. Synaptic says wine is also installed.

I put in the D-link disk and it does run a set up - but doesn't seem to finish it properly - asks to reboot but then doesn't reboot, but if I reboot manually nothing much happens so I don't know if it installed properly or not.

Anyway, I searched for the drivers folder and found it in program files/d-link/ - so copied whole folder to my home directory. Then found the Dr71WU.inf file in the WIN64 folder - there isn't one anywhere else.

I then tried to follow the other thread and did

"sudo ndiswrapper -i/home/lisa/drivers/WIN64/Dr71WU.inf"

It seemed to do something - and returned to the prompt. I then typed

"ndiswrapper -l"


but instead of giving me any output re. the driver etc.. it simply returns to the prompt - lisa@lisa-Ubuntu-desktop:-$

Where am I going wrong? Seems like ndiswrapper can't see the driver at all?

[trendyabinash]

Hey just install ndisgtk (GUI of ndiswrapper) from the ubuntu CD and you will find windows wireless drivers under administration(System->Administration->Windows Wireless Drivers).

Open it and click on install new driver, then select the .inf file and its done.

the command line mode might create some trouble.(I am not against it but if there is an easier way why to opt to the hard one?)

I hope my post might have helped you.

Pytheus you have the patience of a saint! I'm just sorry I'm do dim I can't seem to follow instructions!

Ok, have re-installed Ndiswrapper from disc - but basically told me it was already installed. Synaptic says wine is also installed.

I put in the D-link disk and it does run a set up - but doesn't seem to finish it properly - asks to reboot but then doesn't reboot, but if I reboot manually nothing much happens so I don't know if it installed properly or not.

Anyway, I searched for the drivers folder and found it in program files/d-link/ - so copied whole folder to my home directory. Then found the Dr71WU.inf file in the WIN64 folder - there isn't one anywhere else.

I then tried to follow the other thread and did

"sudo ndiswrapper -i/home/lisa/drivers/WIN64/Dr71WU.inf"

It seemed to do something - and returned to the prompt. I then typed

"ndiswrapper -l"


but instead of giving me any output re. the driver etc.. it simply returns to the prompt - lisa@lisa-Ubuntu-desktop

Where am I going wrong? Seems like ndiswrapper can't see the driver at all?

[pytheas22]

dugh: it looks like your card is operating in 802.11a mode, which is probably the problem--your network is most likely being broadcasted in 11b or 11g mode, so if your card is in 11a, it won't see your router.

I'm not sure why the card would have switched modes, but you can try putting it back into 11g by typing:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode 3

(For 11b mode, type 'sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode 2'.)

Please give that a try and let me know if it helps. If not, you may want to try purging ndiswrapper by typing:

sudo apt-get remove --purge ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

and then reinstalling everything.

etherealethel: the Windows 64 driver won't actually work with your system; you need a 32-bit driver, since your Linux kernel is 32-bit. Do you have any other files ending with the .inf extension in the program files/d-link/ folder? If so, please try installing them into ndiswrapper.


If there are several .inf files in your D-Link folder, please copy them here and I'll tell you which is the one you need. You can also figure it out yourself by opening the .inf files in a text editor and searching for the string '3c03' (the second half of the device ID for your wireless card). Any file that contains that string should work.

Also, maybe it was just a typo, but I noticed that you typed this command before to install the Windows driver into ndiswrapper:

sudo ndiswrapper -i/home/lisa/drivers/WIN64/Dr71WU.inf

You should actually have typed this:

sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/lisa/drivers/WIN64/Dr71WU.inf

Note the space between the '-i' and '/home/lisa/...'.

Otherwise, the syntax looks correct. As trendyabinash notes below, you could install the ndistgk package (which I believe is also on the Ubuntu live CD, but I'm not positive; otherwise you can download the .deb from packages.ubuntu.com) if you prefer a graphical frontend to ndiswrapper.

[etherealethel]

Hi Pytheus/Trendyabinash - the only Dr71WU.inf file is in WIN64. There is a Dr71WU.sys file on the CD, but I don't know what that is?

There are a few other .inf files on the CD -
NetA3AB.inf
NetRt61G.INF
NetRTAGU.inf
PRIMSA02.inf

Have opened all in text editor, but none have string 3c03 in them.