Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide

[Manyette]

First of all congratulations on a masterpiece of a help guide. It is greatly appreciated.

Of course, in my case it didn't help, which brings me here. I have gotten confusing results, to say the least. The machine is an Acer 5570Z with an Atheros chipset. Identified as an AR5BXB63. I have tried the front panel wireless switch in both positions on each test, and it seems to have little effect on any of the results. The "hardware drivers" screen shows both the Atheros drivers and HAL are installed and active. However, result of the tests were:

ndiswrapper -l
This has no output whatsoever.


$ lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 14
serial: 00:1b:24:53:21:e8
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical configuration: broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.20 firmware=N/A latency=0 module=sky2 multicast=yes
*-network
UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: cap_list
configuration: latency=0


$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
(This made no difference in any case)


$ lsmod | grep ndis
ndiswrapper 192920 0 usbcore 146412 7 ndiswrapper,snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usbhid,ehci_ hcd,uhci_hcd


$ dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan
[ 28.151429] wlan: 0.9.4
[ 181.645518] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[ 181.658114] usbcore: registered new interface driver
ndiswrapper


These make it appear to me that the drivers are in place (madwifi 0.9.4) and active. That ndiswrapper is present, and my real problem is that the results of the "dmesg" command looks as it does in your example, but the middle lines of the output are missing. I'm sure this should be pointing me to something, but I don't know what. If this gives a clue what is wrong, I would sure appreciate where to go from here. Anyway, thanks for all the info, it has gotten me further than I have after days and weeks of playing with with. Still no happiness, but I now know a bit more than I did before. Thanks again for any input you might have.

Don

And as an afterthought, why would Heron have loaded both madwifi and ndiswrapper, as it appears from these responses. I'm sure missing something here.

[pytheas22]

Manyette: you have an Atheros chipset, which shouldn't require ndiswrapper, since Atheros devices have very good Linux drivers already built into the kernel (in Ubuntu 8.10 and up, the Atheros drivers are the ath5k and ath9k modules; earlier versions of Ubuntu use ath_pci). However, it looks like the Atheros driver is not claiming your card for some reason. Unless you blacklisted it by adding it to your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file, I'm not sure what's wrong. I would therefore be interested in seeing the output of:

dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan
lsmod | grep ath
lspci -nn | grep -i atheros
uname -rm

which should provide some information on why the native driver doesn't want to claim your device.

For the time being, you may also want to uninstall ndiswrapper by typing:

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

ndiswrapper shouldn't be interfering with the native Atheros driver, but it won't hurt to get it out of the way just in case.

For several reasons, including higher speed and many more wireless features, the native drivers are preferable to ndiswrapper, so I really think they're the best route to take.

[Manyette]

Thanks very much for such a prompt reply. I have tried to follow your instructions, but got somewhat confusing results. I first issued the "dmesg" command as you suggested, and those results are posted below. I then tried to uninstall ndiswrapper, and for some reason the command dis not seem to "take" the first time, so I tried it again, when it seemed to work. I then issued the "dmesg" command againm with the results you see below. Apparently it reinstalled ndiswrapper, or am I misreading something?

Anyway, here is what I got from this exercise:

don@don-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan
[ 28.768282] wlan: 0.9.4
[ 30.817146] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[ 30.867329] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
don@don-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep ath
ath_pci 101024 0
wlan 207728 1 ath_pci
ath_hal 192592 1 ath_pci
don@don-laptop:~$ lspci -nn | grep -i atheros
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
don@don-laptop:~$ uname -rm
2.6.24-24-generic i686
don@don-laptop:~$


don@don-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get remove ndiswraper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
[sudo] password for don:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package ndiswraper-common
don@don-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-2.6.24-23-generic linux-headers-2.6.24-23
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
ndisgtk ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 565kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 115682 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing ndisgtk ...
Removing ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 ...
Removing ndiswrapper-common ...
don@don-laptop:~$

don@don-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan
[ 28.768282] wlan: 0.9.4
[ 30.817146] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[ 30.867329] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
don@don-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep ath
ath_pci 101024 0
wlan 207728 1 ath_pci
ath_hal 192592 1 ath_pci
don@don-laptop:~$ lspci -nn | grep -i atheros
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
don@don-laptop:~$ uname -rm
2.6.24-24-generic i686
don@don-laptop:~$

I hope this will provide some answers, and again, many many thanks.

Don

[pytheas22]

manyette: first of all, it looks like you're using an old version of Ubuntu. If it's possible for you to upgrade to 8.10 or 9.04, that might be the easiest solution, because your wireless should "just work" in a more recent version. You can upgrade either by reinstalling the system entirely (this is the best method) using a CD that you download from http://ubuntu.com/getubuntu; alternatively, you can upgrade your existing system to a more recent release by typing:

sudo update-manager -c

and following the instructions on the screen (note that upgrading in this way doesn't always proceed perfectly; that's why it's better to just reinstall from scratch using a more recent version, if possible).

If upgrading Ubuntu is not an option for you, then please try running these commands; they should hopefully make your wireless work, but if they don't, they'll provide more useful diagnostic information:

sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo rmmod ath_pci
sudo modprobe ath_pci
lshw -C Network
dmesg | grep -e ath -e wlan

Please post all the output from the above commands.

I then tried to uninstall ndiswrapper, and for some reason the command dis not seem to "take" the first time, so I tried it again, when it seemed to work.

It looks like there was a typo the first time you ran that command--you forgot one of the p's in 'ndiswrapper'

I then issued the "dmesg" command againm with the results you see below. Apparently it reinstalled ndiswrapper, or am I misreading something?

Don't worry about this. The reason that ndiswrapper was still mentioned by dmesg the second time is that dmesg contains a log of system activity since the last reboot--so the lines regarding ndiswrapper won't go away until the next time you reboot your computer.

[Manyette]

Hello again, Prior to your latest post, I thought that perhaps I had screwed up ver. 8.04.2 with weeis of trying to get this to work. So I loaded ver. 8.10, downloaded all updates, and went through your troubleshooting guide again. This time, however, ndiswrapper is not loaded in this version. So I used the lshw -C network command and got the following:

don@don-laptop:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 14
serial: 00:1b:24:53:21:e8
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.22 firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.200 latency=0 module=sky2 multicast=yes
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: cap_list
configuration: latency=0
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 2
logical name: pan0
serial: fe:38:bf:2c:7a:15
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes

Driver hardware shows that the atheros drivers and HAL are present and activem but it is still unclaimed as you can see. I then tried dmesg as follows and the result was:

don@don-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep -e wlan -e ndis
[ 13.045516] wlan: 0.9.4

Network tools does not admit that there is a wireless card present even.

As you can guess, I'm still puzzled! Again, many thanks, although since you were troubleshooting ndiswrapper problems, this may now take it out of your bailiwick. But if you have suggestions, I'm sure willing to listen. Thanks again - Don

[pytheas22]

manyette: I'm sorry to hear that even after installing Ubuntu 8.10, the wireless doesn't work. It really should...

Please try running the following commands. According to this page, this should work on Ubuntu 8.10 with your hardware (I modified the instructions slightly to address broken hyperlinks in the original set):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion
mkdir madwifi
cd madwifi
wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r4031-20090529.tar.gz
tar -xzvf madwifi*
cd madwifi*
make
sudo make install
echo blacklist ath5k | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo blacklist ath9k | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
echo ath_pci | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

After this, reboot. With any luck (and let's cross our fingers), things should work. If they still don't, please let me know the output of:

dmesg | grep -e wlan -e ath
lsmod | grep ath
lshw -C Network
cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Again, sorry this is proving to be so difficult--it's kind of an embarrassment to Ubuntu that Atheros wireless cards don't "just work," since Atheros has always been a model company when it comes to Linux support--but we'll get it figured out soon.

[Manyette]

Sorry, but carefully typed the wget line 3 times with my wife reading it to me and watching over my shoulder, and I keep getting "invalid option 'z'".

[pytheas22]

Manyette: it sounds like you're trying to run two commands at once. The wget command is just:

wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r4031-20090529.tar.gz

The next command, 'tar -xzvf madwifi*', should be run on a separate line, after the wget command finishes and returns you to the command prompt.

Also, do you not have any Internet connection currently available on Ubuntu (which is why you're not copying and pasting)? If so, the wget command won't work, because it needs to download things from the Internet. If it's impossible for you to plug into the Internet temporarily, let me know and I'll modify the instructions to address that (but I probably won't be able to get back to you till tomorrow).

[Manyette]

man page doesn't list a z option either, although I've seen it in other contexts ? - Don

[Manyette]

don@don-laptop:~/madwifi$ tar -xzvf madwifi*
tar: madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r4031-20090529: Cannot read: Is a directory
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r4031-20090529.tar.gz: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
don@don-laptop:~/madwifi$

corrected previous error, tried to do the "tar" and got this response?