adm8211 driver help needed

Hello, I have been trying to install my blitzz netwave point pci wireless card in my home pc. This card works ok under win98 (i downloaded the driver from admtec's website) but I cant seem to get it configured under suse linux 9.0.

heres where im at now:
I downloaded the linux drivers from admtecs website, they have some for red-hat and source code for everyone else.
I uncompressed into usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/8211 (i made 8211 directory)
then I typed make.
the file 8211.o was made
i typed insmod 8211.o
I re-booted per the read-me from driver
when system trys to load network devices it says failed after wlan0
I am a newish user of linux, any help would be cool!

other info:

I tried to run netconfig(per read-me) - but command not found

I tried yast , under network cards I added a wireless device with my 8211 as the module and set my essid , it saves it as wlan0, but it does not show up in iwconfig as wlan0 it shows up as eth0 and you cant change values.

lspci list the network card ok

lsmod shows 8211 loaded

iwconfig shows eth0 as supported

ifconfig shows only lo

after playing with it for weeks now I think I am not loading the right driver or am loading it incorectly.

this is the first time i have tried to load a module , so it could be a rookie mistake some how.

Thanks for any help[
Don Cook

There are three options for admtek chipset:

1) AdmTek factory driver... This driver has binary component that is not usable in later 2.4 kernels. Suse 9.0 is not in compatible.

2) Use ndiswrapper with windows drivers.. This works for me with Mandrake 9.1. Try searching the forums for ndiswrapper for guides to using ndiswrapper.

3) New open source driver at http://aluminum.sourmilk.net/adm8211/ . This project is being built designed for 2.6 kernel, but modifying make file should work for 2.4 kernel. WEP is not yet working.

Thanks for the info lightsail!
I tried to install ndiswrapper and got stuck at the point where dmesg should indicate that wlan0 is present, alas no such luck. here is the process I went through(rather lengthy Im afraid)

also iwconfig does not change values as you can see

any thoughts?

inux:/home/don # cd /usr/src
linux:/usr/src # ls
. .. kernel-modules linux linux-2.4 linux-2.4.21-99 linux-2.4.21-99-include packages
linux:/usr/src # cd /lib
. ADM8211.sys ChangeLog INSTALL ndiswrapper.spec.in Netadm11.inf utils
.. AUTHORS driver Makefile Netadm11.cat README version

linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # make install



make -C driver install
make[1]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
cc -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DMODVERSIONS -include /lib/modules/2.4.21-99-

error messages here

default/build/include/linux/modversions.h - /sbin/depmod -a
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/misc/8211.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/pcmcia/8211.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/pcmcia-external/8211.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/8211.o
make[1]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C utils install
make[1]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'
cc -Wall -g -c -o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.c
gcc -o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.o
cc -Wall -g -c -o loadndisdriver.o loadndisdriver.c
gcc -o loadndisdriver loadndisdriver.o
install -m 755 loadndisdriver /sbin
install -m 755 ndiswrapper /usr/sbin
install -m 755 wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx /usr/sbin
make[1]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # ls
. ADM8211.sys ChangeLog INSTALL ndiswrapper.spec.in Netadm11.inf utils
.. AUTHORS driver Makefile Netadm11.cat README version

linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # ndiswrapper -i Netadm11.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing netadm11
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # ndiswrapper -i /lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8/Netadm11.inf
netadm11 is already installed. Use -e to remove it
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netadm11 present
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # modprobe ndiswrapper
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # dmseg
bash: dmseg: command not found
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # ./dmseg
bash: ./dmseg: No such file or directory
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0kb/s Tx-Power=0 dBm Sensitivity:0/65535
Retry limit:3 RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # iwconfig eth0 essid pickles
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0kb/s Tx-Power=0 dBm Sensitivity:0/65535
Retry limit:3 RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # iwconfig eth0 essid "pickles"
linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0kb/s Tx-Power=0 dBm Sensitivity:0/65535
Retry limit:3 RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

linux:/lib/modules/ndiswrapper-0.8 # cd /
linux:/ # dmesg
Linux version 2.4.21-99-default (root@i386.suse.de) (gcc version 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)) #1 Wed Sep 24 13:30:51 UTC 2003


alot removed here ^ >

Vendor: SAMSUNG Model: CDRW/DVD SM-352N Rev: TA01
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
ADM8211 Linux driver version 1.05 (June 24, 2003)
8211: Hardware Address 00:E0:98:B4:4E:7E, IRQ 10.
eth0: ADMtek Wireless rev 17 at 0xec00
ohci1394: $Rev: 1045 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[10] MMIO=[df002000-df0027ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[004063500000f97e]


and here

ndiswrapper version 0.8 loaded
ndiswrapper adding adm8211.sys
linux:/ # modeprobe ndiswrapper
bash: modeprobe: command not found
linux:/ # modprobe ndiswrapper
linux:/ # ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netadm11 present

end of dmesg

linux:/ # dmseg
linux:/ # ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netadm11 present
linux:/ # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0kb/s Tx-Power=0 dBm Sensitivity:0/65535
Retry limit:3 RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

linux:/ # ifconfig
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:70 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:70 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4564 (4.4 Kb) TX bytes:4564 (4.4 Kb)

linux:/ # modprobe
modprobe: Nothing to load ???
Specify at least a module or a wildcard like \*
linux:/ # man modprobe
Reformatting modprobe(8), please wait...
linux:/ # modprobe -v ndiswrapper
linux:/ # man modprobe
Reformatting modprobe(8), please wait...
linux:/ # modprobe -v -l *
linux:/ # modprobe -l *
linux:/ # cd etc
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # ls
. .. netadm11
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # modprobe hu
modprobe: Can't locate module hu
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # modprobe ndiswrapper
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # modprobe -v ndiawrapper
modprobe: Can't locate module ndiawrapper
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # modprobe -v ndiswrapper
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper # dmseg
bash: dmseg: command not found
linux:/etc/ndiswrapper #

Wireless can be a real pain to get started.

Try setting a channel and essid.

iwconfig eth0 channel 1 essid nickname

Sometimes the card will need a nudge to get started.

I still use ndiswrapper 0.4 on the Mandrake 9.1. Most of my time is currently spent on Mandrake 10.0 running the new open source ADM8211 driver.

One guess that I have about much of the trouble with wireless is that the the TCP/IP subsystem does not work well with the extra delay that wireless causes.

well, I agree about the real pain part, thats for sure! ;-)

any way , what should I change in the make file to make the open source driver work with my version linux? I think I'll try that next.

thanks again
Don

I do not have access to Linux at moment,,,

I suspect that make file may have issues as to location of source file at minimum.

You can try a build and review the errors and then adjust make file accordingly. I will try later to build on Mandrake 9.1 and report back.

When using ndiswrapper, did you get both activity and link LED on?

If you are getting a green LED link, then manually reseting each wireless setting my find the problem. Set mode, channel, key, essid manually to confirm that the settings that are in iwconfig are in reality being used.

Possibility exists that you have wireless link But TCP/IP is not configured to use the wireless link.

I also set IP manually:
ifconfig eht0 192.168.2.XX address 255.255.255.0 netmask ..use your own IP numbers!

and made router default gateway..

route add default gw 192.168.2.1.. use your own IP numbers!

Test setup with ping of gateway

after getting a successful ping I use DHCP on Mandrake its: dhclient eht0

Thanks again lightsail, I will wait for your post. After thinking some more about this and reading my dmesg, it looks like the card was recognised on boot, I just cant configure it correctly.

my 2 issues are:
I cannot make changes with iwconfig
when I type iwconfig eth0 essid "name"
it excepts the command OK but when I then type iwconfig again the changes are not reflected in the screen printout as I tried to show in above post.

also the ndiswrapper does not leave the correct message in dmesg according to the install instructions.

Don

Did you remember to remove the 8211.0 before switching to ndiswrapper? Is your system trying to load both? 8211.0 and ndiswrapper.
check with lsmod to check for 8211.0 if loading

I did not remove 8211, will do that tonight and re-install ndiswrapper, what your saying is they cannot both load at the same time then?
Thanks

Yes, you should only have one driver loaded at a time. You can have both on system, but only load one at a time. I tried a straight build of open source driver from Michael Wu, which did not build on 2.4 kernel. I am trying some changes to to make file.

OK - good progress , I decided to re-install my suse 9.0 ( i messed with too many files me thinks ;-) Then installed ndiswrapper, installed windows driver, ran modprobe , typed iwconfig and BAM!! I got a wlan0 with all the correct settings , dmesg shows the proper entry and I can configue with iwconfig now !! OK so then I noticed on boot that dhcp was not loading so opened suse control panel and made a entry for wlan0 and set it to dhcp and typed in ndiswrapper as the module to use, big mistake , computer freezes on boot when dhcp treis to load. I need to undo that tonight and do something else. What do you think? how to I get dhcp to load?

thanks again for the help
Don

I also set IP manually in terminal as root:
ifconfig eht0 192.168.2.XX address 255.255.255.0 netmask ..use your own IP numbers!

and made router default gateway..

route add default gw 192.168.2.1.. use your own IP numbers!

Test setup with ping of gateway

after getting a successful ping

use dhcp eth0