ndiswrapper installed, driver installed. No device appears...

kurtwisener · 03-25-2006, 05:06 AM

So I have just tried to compile ndiswrapper from source. The install went great but when I opened up my network configuration it wouldn't show the wlan(0) ndiswrapper device. Any ideas?

jschiwal · 03-25-2006, 06:00 AM

look for the ndiswrapper module in the "lsmod" listing.

Check if the driver is loaded: ndiswrapper -l

Also, did you run the "ndiswrapper -m" step to update the depmod.conf file?
Did you run "modprobe ndiswrapper" as root?

Check if the kernel module exists. "ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/"

Another thing that could have gone wrong is if you loaded the wrong ndis windows driver.

Part of the build process runs "depmod -a". You could try running this manually as root, incase it wasn't done for some reason. Also, if the installation adds a library path, you could try running "ldconfig".

Make sure that you have the "wireless-tools" and "wpa_supplicant" packages installed.
The command from wireless-tools: "iwlist wlan0 scan" is a good way of seeing if the wireless device is operable.

kurtwisener · 03-25-2006, 09:46 AM

so my device shows, my kernel module is loaded, I can see my router, I just can't get a connection. please reference following outputs:

iwlist:

Code:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:12:17:25:E0:2C
                    ESSID:"linksys_SES_27441"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-70 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0
                    Extra:wpa_ie=dd180050f20101000050f20201000050f20201000050f2020000
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:06:25:76:0E:43
                    ESSID:"pederson"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-72 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ndiswrapper           244288  0 
ppdev                  42441  0 
autofs4                55241  1 
hidp                   83137  2 
rfcomm                104801  0 
l2cap                  91585  10 hidp,rfcomm
bluetooth             116933  3 hidp,rfcomm,l2cap
sunrpc                192137  1 
ip_conntrack_netbios_ns    36033  0 
ipt_REJECT             38977  1 
xt_state               35265  2 
ip_conntrack           92669  2 ip_conntrack_netbios_ns,xt_state
nfnetlink              40073  1 ip_conntrack
xt_tcpudp              36545  4 
iptable_filter         36289  1 
ip_tables              48385  1 iptable_filter
x_tables               48201  4 ipt_REJECT,xt_state,xt_tcpudp,ip_tables
nls_utf8               35265  1 
vfat                   47041  2 
fat                    86385  1 vfat
dm_mirror              54593  0 
dm_mod                 90257  1 dm_mirror
video                  50505  0 
button                 40545  0 
battery                43337  0 
ac                     38473  0 
sg                     69097  0 
ipv6                  398689  12 
lp                     47633  0 
parport_pc             62697  1 
parport                74061  3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
floppy                100617  0 
nvram                  42441  0 
usb_storage           103841  1 
ohci_hcd               54877  0 
ohci1394               67993  0 
ehci_hcd               65229  0 
ieee1394              391897  1 ohci1394
snd_intel8x0           68201  0 
snd_emu10k1_synth      40513  0 
snd_emux_synth         69313  1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi        40897  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul      39617  1 snd_emux_synth
emu10k1_gp             37185  0 
gameport               50385  2 emu10k1_gp
snd_emu10k1           153797  2 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_rawmidi            61249  2 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec        136089  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus           35777  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_util_mem           38593  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_dummy          37061  0 
snd_hwdep              44361  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_oss            66241  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     41025  2 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                89825  8 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device         42833  7 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            85457  0 
snd_mixer_oss          50881  2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm               126409  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
tulip                  85633  0 
snd_timer              59465  3 snd_emu10k1,snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    97129  14 snd_intel8x0,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore              44129  2 snd
snd_page_alloc         44497  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
forcedeth              57797  0 
i2c_nforce2            40769  0 
i2c_core               57409  1 i2c_nforce2
ext3                  164177  1 
jbd                    93545  1 ext3
sata_nv                43461  0 
libata                 93913  1 sata_nv
sd_mod                 50753  1 
scsi_mod              181137  4 sg,usb_storage,libata,sd_mod

I am becoming very confused.

I am compiling ndiswrapper 1.10 from source and installing the same broadcom inf that was working so beautifully for my FC4 build. I am running an x86_64 architecture in case that matters.

I can see my networks but I can't connect (I am entering the right WEP key as well). One point of note is that wlan0 will not show up under ifconfig. dmesg seems to be showing everything loading just fine. As mellon-ticklers go this one's a honeydew for me.

-Kurt

jschiwal · 03-25-2006, 11:17 AM

Ndiswrapper seems to be loaded and working. You need to configure the interface for your network and encryption type. I don't know which wireless network is yours in the iwlist scan. The first one is using wpa encryption. Don't use WEP! Anyone can crack in in 30 minutes time. You have wireless-tools installed. How about wpa_supplicant?

However, I noticed a difference between your lsmod listing and mine:
ndiswrapper 215784 0
usbcore 140596 5 usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ndiswrapper

This may not be important. The interface not showing up in ifconfig tells me that the interface isn't starting.
For example, if I shutdown an interface ( In SuSE, by " sudo /sbin/rcnetwork stop wlan0", the interface will disappear from the ifconfig listing. ) I think in Fedora, you can run "ifup wlan0". There may be something like "service network start wlan0" but you will need to read your documentation to be sure. First try manually starting the interface, and then see if it shows up in ifconfig. Also look at the "iwconfig" output.

If starting the interface manually causes it to be displayed in ifconfig, the restart the dhcp client and see if you get an IP address assigned. If that works, then look into why the interface isn't being started by the network service when you boot up. You will either have to turn off encryption at the router, to test the dhcp client, or setup encryption first. You will need to be able to associate before you will be assigned an IP address by dhcp.

----

Check in "sudo cat /proc/net/ndiswrapper/wlan0/hw"
for a line like:
encryption_modes=WEP; TKIP with WPA; AES/CCMP with WPA
at the bottom of the listing.
This will give the capabilities of ndiswrapper. If you don't see TKIP with WPA, install a newer version. This is what you would use at home. This uses a pre-shared key, that is entered for all wireless devices in your network.

kurtwisener · 03-25-2006, 12:24 PM

So I somehow got a connection but it configured very strangely. Somehow wlan0 won't find an IP but eth1 finds one, which is really amazing since eth1 is not physically connected to anything. See ifconfig output below.

ifconfig:

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0F:EA:89:04:49  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0x6000 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:C5:53:BF:1C  
          inet addr:169.254.214.159  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::200:c5ff:fe53:bf1c/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:69 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:22 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:21
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:21 Base address:0x6000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:2344 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2344 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2713921 (2.5 MiB)  TX bytes:2713921 (2.5 MiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:E5:53:2A:E7  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:22 Memory:f1004000-f1006000

I think God hates me. I managed to get a traceroute from the router and I can still see the router from my machine it's just trying to go through eth1. Any ideas?

jschiwal · 03-25-2006, 03:10 PM

Yes, sometimes the wireless is referred to as eth1. The wired NIC interface is eth0. You want to configure eth1.

You may need to shut down eth0 also before things work.

Also it looks like you have an IP address. Did you configure it for dhcp. If so, then you are probably associated with the Access Point. Try pinging the router.

Also check the /etc/resolv.conf file. With dhcp, the client will overwrite this file with the value of the DNS servers (nameservers).
The output of "route" will display the routing table. You can determine if the default gateway is correct. If it is, you might only need to powercycle the router. It's also a dhcp client on the WAN side, and may need to restart the dhcp client on the ISP side before you can get on the internet.

If you use KDE, I would recommend using KInternet. An icon shows up in the panel tray. You can simply click on it to reconnect to the AP. Also, you can right-click on it and select "wireless connection..." to check the status of the connection or to scan for other networks and select one to associate with.