Hello
I think I am almost there... just need a final hint (please).
Briefly: the system can see the Access Point ESSID with iwconfig
but konquerer cannot load pages from internet.
First a description of my setup. Then more detail about problem.

H/w
Sony VAIO pcg737 notebook (pentium 586mmx 233MHz I know it is slow)
PCMCIA: Belkin f5d7010xx (VER1212uk) 802.11g 32bit cardbus.

Modem and router is Netgear 834gt 802.11g/b (up to 108Mbps) that
connects to upstream is ADSL BB 1MBps
Router works fine with Axim PDA, Tosh (M$XP) and WG511T and at this
moment it is connected to my MDK 9.2 desktop by ethernet cable.

S/w
Mandrake 9.2 (i.e. download edition from LXF 47 )
kernel 2.4.22-10mdk
ndiswrapper.o and loadndiswrapper from martin whittaker site
(URL removed due to posting rules)
Installed wireless toolkit from MDK 9.2 disks
From CDROM bcmwl5.sys bcmwl5.inf placed in /lib/ndis

Diagnostics:
dmesg output when card inserted
cs: cb_alloc (bus5) vendor 0x14e4 device 0x4320

eth0: ndiswrapper ethernet device aa:bb:cc:xx:yy:zz
So correct MAC address reported.

iwconfig finds local APs and chooses mine as cell01.
I have a unique name for the ESSID and so I know it is finding the
router.

When I use the router management software (from desktop wired system)
I occassionally see the wireless system MAC address is detected.
For initial investigations (even with PDA and ToshXP) I wind down the
security to wide open, just to reduce the complications.

Mdk control centre does not detect any wireless card nor does it
offer any wireless options.


What system files should I look at to access internet? Perhaps
something was not installed by Mandrake installer cause it would
not have seen a network at that time.

Thanks for all the help so far, can anyone advise?

Mark Richardson

Hi Mark. You need to build ndiswrapper yourself and not just place the files in the required directories. Whilst the latter option may work its easier (and more stable) to do the make install from the source download. It also tells you if anything has gone wring with the install. So visit ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net and download version 1.1 from there. Then after you have unpacked it follow the instructions (you might want to print them out if you can as there are none in the ndiswrapper file) at the same site to install the module. Make sure you have also downloaded the windows driver for your card.
Hope this helps
Chris

Hello,
thanks snecklifter.

I have sort of fixed the situation (this post is being written through
konqueror on the sony vaio).

Problem is now I have to bring up eth0 with ifconfig first.

1. insert card
(oh and loadndisdrivers - ndiswrapper module is loaded with errors below)
2. ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 up
3. iwconfig essid "MyESSID"
(I will close up security next I use WEP with other devices)
4. route add default gw 192.168.0.1

5. kick off web browser

I am concerned though because this is output by dmesg (below).
I think I will investigate compiling ndiswrapper myself.
I also need to add wlan0 because I use eth0 for a pcmcia
when I connect wih CAT5 X-over cable when disconnected from Inet.


===START DMESG OUTPUT==
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
cs: cb_alloc(bus 5): vendor 0x14e4, device 0x4320
PCI: Enabling device 05:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ndiswrapper version 0.4 loaded
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 05:00.0 to 64
__alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x21/0)
failed to allocate shared mem
ndiswrapper: error log: C0001389, length: 1 (0000000d)
ndiswrapper: Driver init returned error
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
cs: cb_free(bus 5)
cs: cb_alloc(bus 5): vendor 0x14e4, device 0x4320
PCI: Enabling device 05:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 05:00.0 to 64
eth0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:30:bd:f6:5d:fa
======END DMESG OUTPUT====


Mark R. (also a yorkshireman - displaced fr Hx)

Good to see you got it working Mark. I'd be looking at upgrading to a later version of ndiswrapper as the version you are using there is pretty old and there have been a ton of bug fixes since then. However as for automating I know 10.1 has some GUI tools to do this for you but I cant speak for MDK9.2. You might want to have a look in Control Center for this or check out how to automate the card on start up - it usually involves editing you the modprobe.conf file.
Hope this helps,
Chris