Hey all,

I'm running Ubuntu Edgy, fully up to date. The open source drivers for the Aironet 350 don't support WPA, so I'm trying to use ndiswrapper. Here's my problem:

root@lapdog:~# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netx500 driver present, hardware present
root@lapdog:~#
root@lapdog:~#
root@lapdog:~# modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.17-11-generic/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Invalid argument
root@lapdog:~#
root@lapdog:~#
root@lapdog:~#
root@lapdog:~# dmesg | grep ndisw
[17179968.452000] ndiswrapper version 1.22 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)
[17179968.492000] ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:129): loadndiswrapper failed (32512); check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'
[17179968.496000] ndiswrapper (wrapper_init:136): ndiswrapper: initialization failed

Nothing to speak of appears in the system logs. Any help out there?

Thanks,
doc

That is a big error, and nothing that comes afterwards is worth worrying about. Did you compile ndiswrapper from source or did you load a package? The reason I'm asking is that if you're using a package and it wasn't compiled against the kernel your running, it can cause all sorts of problems. In general, I've found that compiling your own ndiswrapper is the best way to go and is drop-dead easy to do. The ndiswrapper source code comes with excellent instructions, and there is a lot of distro specific help at their wiki.

Thanks for the advice. I recompiled the latest ndiswrapper, and am not getting the error any more. It's still not finding the card, but I guess that's a different issue. :-)

doc

OK, that's definitely progress. So what errors are you seeing now?

I'm not getting any errors at all. The driver simply isn't finding the card. I currently have the Linux drivers blacklisted so that the laptop boots with no wireless drivers at all. Then:

root@lapdog:/etc/apt# ndiswrapper -l
netx500 : driver installed
root@lapdog:# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@lapdog:# dmesg
<snip>
[ 9272.746000] ndiswrapper version 1.38 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
[ 9272.946000] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

So apparently it needs some help to a) not bother with the USB bus, since there's no wireless adapter on it, and/or b) to look on the PCMCIA bus instead.

Thanks,
doc

Usually when you run ndiswrapper -l, you should also get a "hardware present" message along with the driver installed bit. That suggests a couple of possibilities:

1) The power to the card is turned off. If this is a laptop, most of them have some sort of key combination that turns the power to the wireless card on and off. Make sure it is on.

2) The Windows driver you've got isn't happy under ndiswrapper. You might check the cards manufacturer's website for the latest XP driver. It also would be worth a look in the ndiswrapper wiki for any suggestions on drivers that have worked. Also, by any chance is this a 64 bit version of Ubuntu?

The amber activity light on the card is on solid. This is how it behaves if there's no driver that sees it. When I load airo and airo_cs modules at the command line, activity and status lights start blinking as one would expect and it works (with no WPA available).

Downloaded this driver from cisco.com a couple of days ago; it's current.

The only info on an Aironet 350 on the wiki is for a PCI card, not a PCMCIA card. :-(

This a 32-bit Ubuntu install on a Dell Latitude C600 (P3-700) lappy.

I did find some information at http://www.jmarki.net/drupal/?q=node/36 . Basically, it says to copy the 14B9:xxxx.5.conf file to 14B9:xxxx.8.conf, edit all references to bus type 5 (PCI) to 8 (PCMCIA), and change the bus type in the file also. Then you find the pci address of the PCMCIA bus and create a symlink: ln -s 14B9:xxxx.8.conf yyyy:yyyy.5.conf where xxxx:xxxx is the PCI address of the PCMCIA bus.

Unfortunately, when I follow this process, here's what I get:

root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# ndiswrapper -l
netx500 : driver installed
device (104C:AC51) present (alternate driver: yenta_socket)
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# rmmod yenta_socket
ERROR: Module yenta_socket is in use
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# dmesg
<snip>
[15191.889000] ndiswrapper version 1.38 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
[15191.907000] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

Same result: the driver doesn't find the card, which sits there with its solid amber light, silently mocking me. ;-)

I assume yenta_socket is the PCMCIA bus driver. I blacklisted it in /etc/modprobe.conf and rebooted the machine, but without yenta no amber light before or after "modprobe ndisrwapper."

So pretty clearly ndiswrapper is having problems finding this card on this PCMCIA bus. Blech.

When I do ndiswrapper -a 104c:ac51 (PCI address of the PCMCIA bus) netx500 it generates a symlink, but still no worky.

Some hopefully worthwhile info below my sig.

doc

root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator (rev 10)
00:10.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c556 Hurricane CardBus [Cyclone] (rev 10)
00:10.1 Communication controller: 3Com Corporation Mini PCI 56k Winmodem (rev 10)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility M3 AGP 2x (rev 02)
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspci -n
00:00.0 0600: 8086:7190 (rev 03)
00:01.0 0604: 8086:7191 (rev 03)
00:03.0 0607: 104c:ac51
00:03.1 0607: 104c:ac51
00:07.0 0680: 8086:7110 (rev 02)
00:07.1 0101: 8086:7111 (rev 01)
00:07.2 0c03: 8086:7112 (rev 01)
00:07.3 0680: 8086:7113 (rev 03)
00:08.0 0401: 125d:1998 (rev 10)
00:10.0 0200: 10b7:6055 (rev 10)
00:10.1 0780: 10b7:1007 (rev 10)
01:00.0 0300: 1002:4c46 (rev 02)
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspcmcia
Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.0)
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.1)
Socket 1 Device 0: [-- no driver --] (bus ID: 1.0)

I'm starting to think this is the main purpose for the existence of this card.......
Yeah, that's right. There are a couple of other PCMCIA drivers as well in the kernel but my understanding is that they are for the support of older PCMCIA buses. If you've got a CardBus compatible PCMCIA system, then yenta_socket is the driver.

That obsession with the USB bus is weird. Do you know if Cisco uses the same driver for both their USB and PCMCIA cards? I'm wondering if somehow you got a USB version of the Windows driver and that is why it keeps looking in the wrong place. The JMarki link you posted suggests that the .sys file can distinguish what device is attached so it might be worth looking at other .sys files if they are there.



After doing some googling, the JMarki link you've got is the ONLY place I've seen anyone getting this driver to work with WPA. Beyond messing with other .sys files, the only other options I can come up with are kind of ugly.

1) Drop back to WEP. Yeah, I know. Still its better than nothing, particularly if you can add MAC filtering to boot.

2) Get a different wireless card that has reasonable Linux support.

I'm starting to think you're right. Ironically, I'm a WAN Engineer and work with Cisco stuff all day. I figured this would be an ideal Linux wireless card because a) Hey, it's Cisco! and b) I already owned it. :-)

[QUOTE=Hangdog42]That obsession with the USB bus is weird. Do you know if Cisco uses the same driver for both their USB and PCMCIA cards? I'm wondering if somehow you got a USB version of the Windows driver and that is why it keeps looking in the wrong place. [QUOTE=Hangdog42]

The 350 is an older b-only card. There are PCMCIA and miniPCI versions, no USB. The driver package from Cisco pukes up a .sys file for each flavor. The minipci driver has mp at the end of the filename (go figure), so telling em apart was pretty simple. I had read something early on advising me to install only the correct .sys file in ndiswrapper, which made sense to me.

I can't figure out this USB obsession either. The ndiswrapper docs say you can turn USB off at build time, which I didn't do. I suppose I could. I'm not sure how much more time this card deserves, however.

Yeah, it's really slim pickings out there. I posted a question at that link to see if there's a step missing in his doc regarding filenames. If not, I think I'm about done with this. As you note, WEP + mac filtering is probably adequate for my wireless in the living room.

Thanks again for the help,
doc

For the record, since this thread may end up being googled, here's where this stands:

1) I have not gotten my PCMCIA Cisco 350 Aironet card working with ndiswrapper.

2) I've installed the current Cisco Win XP drivers in ndiswrapper 1.38.

3) modprobe ndiswrapper inserts the driver, but the driver cannot find the card.

4) I tried to follow the process at http://www.jmarki.net/drupal/?q=node/36 . Other than ndiswrapper reporting differently (it now says it sees hardware with the PCMCIA driver as an alternate driver for it), I got no improvement.

In addition to the output from the machine a post ago, here are copies of my edited ndiswrapper config files (that don't work).

doc

root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# ndiswrapper -l
netx500 : driver installed
device (104C:AC51) present (alternate driver: yenta_socket)
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500#
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500#
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspci
...
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
...
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500#
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500#
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspci -n
...
00:03.0 0607: 104c:ac51
00:03.1 0607: 104c:ac51
...
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lspcmcia
Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.0)
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.1)
Socket 1 Device 0: [-- no driver --] (bus ID: 1.0)
...
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# lsmod
Module Size Used by
...
ndiswrapper 182036 0
...
usbcore 130200 2 ndiswrapper
...
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# ls -al
total 180
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-03-13 09:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2007-03-12 11:54 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 2007-03-13 09:48 104c:ac51.5.conf -> 14B9: D29B.8.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 357 2007-03-12 11:57 14B9:0340.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 351 2007-03-12 12:04 14B9:0350.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 343 2007-03-12 13:44 14B9:0350.8.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 335 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:2500.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 368 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:3100.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 368 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:3101.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 351 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:3500.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 351 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:4500.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 351 2007-03-12 11:54 14B9:4800.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 379 2007-03-13 09:41 14B9: D29B.8.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30083 2007-03-12 11:54 netx500.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 82432 2007-03-12 11:54 pcx500.sys
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500# cat 14B9: D29B.8.conf
NdisVersion|0x50001
Environment|1
class_guid|4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318
mac_address|XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
driver_version|,03/19/2002, 8.2.3
#sBusType|8
#SlotNumber|01

#AdapterType|1
BusType|8
#CardType|PCMCIA
FormFactor|PCMCIA
InfrastructureMode|1
MediaDisconnectDamper|10
NodeName|
PowerSaveMode|0
RadioName|PC3500
Service|PCX500
SSID1|
SupportedRates|0
UpperRange|ndis5
root@lapdog:/etc/ndiswrapper/netx500#

Adding/removing the comment markers in the file does not change the behavior. The file is an edited version of the default 14B9:3500.5.conf file created when I installed the driver into ndiswrapper. I put in the spaces in filename 14B9: D29B.8.conf so that : and D aren't made into a smiley face.

Thanks for posting the current status. If nothing else, when the next poor sod comes along at least they'll know they aren't alone.

Okay, I'm that Jmarki dude. =p

Anyway, here are some things you might need to look at:

1) I didn't compile usb functionality into the package, so maybe you can try disabling it at compile time.

2) Maybe you can upgrade the firmware used in the card to the latest available (in Windows, can't do this in Linux). Since you are a Cisco engineer, I hope you have access to their access restricted download site. Of course, this dooms any chance of you able to use the native Linux drivers in the kernel, as that is developed using a (much) earlier version of the firmware.

3) My yenta_socket driver is compiled into the kernel, i.e. not a module. You might need to edit your modules.conf file to load yenta_socket the moment you load ndiswrapper. I am wondering if the system is using ndiswrapper as the driver for the PCMCIA slot, instead of yenta_socket. Note that "alternate driver: yenta_socket" message. That will account for the card always in solid orange state.

The standard blacklisting of the module when one encounters "alternate driver" is not the solution here, since you want yenta_socket to be used.

4)You seem to have 2 PCMCIA slots, but you only linked to one slot. Are you sure the card is plugged into the correct slot? Sorry if this question sounds insulting, but often I do stupid things like that, so... =(

Sorry for the terse post. Busy with projects and upcoming exams, so may take a while to respond. Good luck. =)