getting wifi to work with ndiswrapper

zchoyt · 09-23-2004, 03:20 AM

I have been using this guy's blog to help me out...
dell wifi

Well anyway I got ndiswrapper all installed and followed ihjis page.

I alredy have a 10/100 nic that is eth0

I tried to remove the wifi driver with the command:
ndiswrapper -e ....inf

It reports back and says that ...inf is not installed and to use -l to view a list of installed drivers.

that command reports badk:
"Installed ndis drivers:
bcmw15a hardware present"

Next he tells me to type:
ndiswrapper -m //This put an entry to /etc/modprobe.conf
that entry is "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper"

Now is where everything starts getting screwed up. He says to type:
"iwconfig eth1 Mode managed"
returns: "Error : unrecognised wireless request "MODE"
iwconfig eth1 end restricted
returns: "Error : unrecognised wireless request "end"
iwconfig eth1 key <your_key_here>
returns: Error for wireless request "Set Endoce" (8B2A)
iwconfig eth1 essid <home_network>
returns: bash: syntax erroir near unexpectedtoken 'newline'

now I type isconfig, but when I do it says:
lo no wireless connection
sit0 no wireless connection
eth0 no wireless connection

Does anyone have any iday how to help me? I need wifi for school and would really like to get this up. I know it dan be done, I just don't know how.

bathory · 09-23-2004, 03:43 AM

Quote:

"alias wlan0 ndiswrapper"

The interface name is wlan0, so use iwconfig with wlan0 instead of eth1
Regards

david_ross · 09-23-2004, 01:08 PM

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Wireless Networking and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

zchoyt · 09-23-2004, 02:35 PM

I did try to substiture that for eth0, but it didn't work either. I can't remember what it was telling me. I can post when I get home. I think it said something like "device doesn't exist". I also tried to change the name in that file to eth1. That didnt' work either.

zchoyt · 09-23-2004, 03:17 PM

OK, so on the link for the dell 8600
I get to the part in the wireless section that tells me start entering iwconfig commands.

It says to enter:
iwconfig eth1 Mode managed.
It didn't like eth1, so I substituted wlan0 (that's what the alias is in that /etc/modprobe.conf.
It spit an error "unrecogized wireless request "Mode".
I changed it to "mode" so the command looked like:
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
it spit out "error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8b06) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; no such device.

It is like it is not recognizing the wireless device, yet
ndiswrapper -l /outputs
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5a hardware present

ndiswrapper -m /outputs
This put an entry to /etc/modprobe.conf

Anyone with a little XP in this, please help me. I can run any commands you want and post the outputs.
Let me know please.
Zakk

zchoyt · 09-23-2004, 03:25 PM

Also, check this out.....

if is use ndiswrapper -i /../bcmw15a.inf to reinstall it, it states that it is already installed, use -e to remove it.
if is use ndiswrapper -e /../bcmw15a .inf to remove it, it states that it is not installed, use -l to list installed drivers
if I use ndiwrapper -l it says "Installed ndis drivers", bcmw15a hardware present.

It is all confused. Should I try to uninstall the ndiswrapper rpm and start over?

bathory · 09-23-2004, 04:48 PM

Does lsmod shows ndiswrapper loaded? You didn't mention about:

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

You can try a different version of ndiswrapper because there are some problems with different versions.
To remove the driver you have to to do:

Code:

ndiswrapper -e bcmw15a

zchoyt · 09-23-2004, 05:46 PM

Yeah, I tried that (see my previous post). It won't let me because it says that it is not installed, but it is installed......Why does it have to be so difficult?

w4rth0g · 09-23-2004, 07:47 PM

hey zchoyt,
check to see if you have "ifcfg-wlan0" file in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/. As you know the file is needed if you call >wlan0 up<.
I just finished getting my realtek 8180 working with mandrake 10.0, I had to go through the install for ndiswrapper 3 times before it finally worked.
P.S. be careful with spelling when calling the iwconfig!
w4rth0g

bathory · 09-24-2004, 01:38 AM

Quote:

Yeah, I tried that (see my previous post). It won't let me because it says that it is not installed

You must write: ndiswrapper -e bcmw15a (without the .inf).
Also before removing everything and start over do a:

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

to see if it loads OK, or there are errors on loading the module.

zchoyt · 09-24-2004, 10:36 AM

Ok, I tried

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

and it returned

Code:

FATAL" Module ndiswrapper not found.

What should I do from here? Or what do you suggest?

Zakk

zchoyt · 09-24-2004, 10:53 AM

Still,

Code:

# ./ndiswrapper -e bcmw15
Driver bcmw15 nis not installed. Use -l to list installed drivers.

so then I try that

Code:

# ./ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmw15  hardware present
bcmw15a  hardware present

And still:

Code:

# modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

and:

Code:

# iwconfig wlan0 mode managed                                  //where wlan0 is the alias in modprobe.conf
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : 
    Set failed on devide wlan0 ' Mo such device.

How do I remove ndiswrapper? It is possible that I installed the wrong version for fedora C2. I would like to start over.

bathory · 09-24-2004, 04:17 PM

If you cannot remove the driver (with ndiswrapper -e ...) then you have not installed ndiswrapper correctly. That's why you don't have the module. As for the fact that it lists the 2 drivers, it reads the driver name from a file in /etc/ (I think it's /etc/ndiswrapper.conf or something, not sure and I don't have a linux box handy). Find that file and delete it and then start over:
In the link you mentioned there is nothing about installing the module. So after untaring the source, go into the newlly created directory (named ndiswraper-version-number) and do a:

Code:

make install

After that add the driver for your card: ndiswrapper -i /path/to/driver.inf
Then: modprobe ndiswrapper
and if there are no problems, as ndiswrapper has various problems from a version to another, you can use iwconfig to configure your card.
Good luck

kersten78 · 09-24-2004, 05:57 PM

Make sure you have root access when you install ndiswrapper.