WMP11v4 and Breezy

First off this is my first post, I have been reading the forums for some time now but I need some help now and everyone here seems to be very knowledgeable here.

I am quite new to the Linux world and after a lot of research I decided that Ubuntu 5.10 (for AMD 64 CPU's) would be the best place to start. I guess my research fell short when I tried to get online with my wireless card. I just installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my home PC (dual boot with WinXP) and I am having a problem getting it to "use" my wireless PCI card, it's a Linkysys WMP11 version 4 that is giving me a pretty large headache.

I spent about an hour and a half last night talking with a friend (who has helped me a great deal so far) and we couldn't get the OS to utilize my card.

If I go into Device Manager I see that it recognizes my card, I loaded all three of the drivers (downloaded the most up to date drivers from Linksys' website) using ndiswrapper (ndiswrapper -utils), which I installed from my install CD using Synaptic.

What I did was:

ndiswrapper -i "driver name.inf"
modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper

I did this for all three of the drivers, and if I do an ndiswrapper -l it says:

lsbcmnds     driver present
lsipnds      driver present, hardware present
wmp11nds     driver present

But when I do an iwconfig it says:

lo No wireless extensions
eth0 No wireless extensions
sit0 No wireless extensions

The last thing I did was:

echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

I am sure I have done this all correctly, anyone have any ideas? BTW this is my kernel info:

2.6.12-9-amd64-generic

Please help me!!!

- Derik

PS, I have read almost every thread on here but none of them seemed to work.

A couple of possibilities come to mind.

First, are you sure that you've got the 64 bit drivers for your card? Trying to use the 32 bit drivers simply isn't going to work.

Second, did you run ndiswrapper -m? That adds a line to your modprobe.conf file that associates the ndiswrapper module with wlan0.

Originally posted by Hangdog42 A couple of possibilities come to mind. First, are you sure that you've got the 64 bit drivers for your card? Trying to use the 32 bit drivers simply isn't going to work. Second, did you run ndiswrapper -m? That adds a line to your modprobe.conf file that associates the ndiswrapper module with wlan0.

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it.

When I run ndiswrapper -m it returns:

modprobe config already contains alias directive

I wasn't aware there were 64 bit drivers for my wireless card, do you know where I can get them?

Originally posted by abbeyroadd I wasn't aware there were 64 bit drivers for my wireless card, do you know where I can get them? [/B]

The only place you are going to get them is from the manufacturers web site. The unfortunate reality is that you can't mix 64 bit stuff with 32 bit stuff, so if Linksys doesn't offer a 64 bit driver, you either have to go without wireless or go to a 32 bit OS. Annoying, but that is the current state of affairs.

Damn, that really sucks. I guess I can setup a hardline from my router to my PC, oh well.

One other question, will a 32 bit version of Linux run fine even though I am using a 64 bit CPU? Also, how hard is it to remove Linux from my system so I can install a 32 bit version of 5.10?

I haven't actually done it, but I see no reason why a 32 bit OS shouldn't run just fine on a 64 bit chip. I'm pretty sure the AMD64 is compatible with a 32 bit version of Linux. As far as removing Linux goes, when you install a new version, you usually have the option to format the partitions your using. If you do that you should be fine. You really don't have to uninstall the 64 bit Ubuntu as long as you are installing over the same partition.

Oh ok, cool...now let me ask another question.

Should I use a 32 bit version of 5.04 or 5.10?

BTW thanks for the help so far.

My preference would be for 5.10, but that is mostly a personal preference. 5.10 is going to have the latest versions of things and will probably be supported better. In fact, if I understand how Ubuntu works, versions before 5.10 aren't really supported any more. If you run the auto-upgrade, you've got a 5.10 box. I've installed 5.10 on machines for a couple of friends and I've been pretty impressed with it so far.

Thanks, I will be d/ling a 32 bit version of Breezy tonight and get it installed as soon as possible. I will let you know the outcome, thanks again for your help.

- Derik

Little update, I just installed a 32 bit version of Ubuntu 5.10, loaded ndiswrapper, and installed the wireless card drivers and now I have a wlan0.

The only thing that is holding me up is configuring it correctly I tried but I am not getting online. If you have any links to some sites or walkthroughs that explain how to do this correctly I would appreciate it.

Thank you for the help,
Derik

Probably the best way to configure the card is via the command line. I'm sure Ubuntu has some tools that will allow you to store the configuration commands, but my experience is that the GUI interfaces usually only mask the errors you need to see when things go wrong.

All you really need to do is use iwconfig to set the mode, SSID and WEP key (if you use one) and then either use DHCP to get an IP address or assign a static one.

For configuring the card, you should be able to do this (you'll probably have to use sudo to get the configs to take):

iwconfig wlan0 essid YourAPSSID
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed (or Auto if Managed doesn't work
iwconfig wlan0 key WEPHexKey

A read through man iwconfig will also help explain what else it does.

To get an IP address, I thin ifup wlan0 should request an IP address.

If you want to try a static IP address (like if DHCP isn't working) you use ifconfig to assign one (again using sudo)

ifconfig wlan0 X.X.X.X

Then you have to set up the route to your router

route add default gw Y.Y.Y.Y Where the Y bit is the IP address of your router.

The last part of the static set-up is editing your /etc/resolv.conf file to include your ISPs nameservers. For each namserver they have (you can usually find this info on your router) you add a line:

nameserver Z.Z.Z.Z and replace the Z with the actual IP address

Ok well I was going to try and use your instructions to configure my card but when I booted up today I didn't have a wlan0.

When I run iwconfig I get:

lo No wireless extensions
eth0 No wireless extensions
sit0 No wireless extensions

If I run a modprobe ndiswrapper I get:

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.12-9-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted

What gives, first it recognized and was going to utilize my wireless card, now after booting up again it's all gone.

you're on the rght track and you really close, but 2 things. First you say you are new to linux, and as far as I'm concerned ubuntu is fairly user-friendly if you are switching from windows to linux, because it has a lot of documentation, but if you want REALLY easy to use you should try SuSE 10.0 and the latest version of Mandrake. they have windows-like interfaces, while still letting you know how it's working for linux. The second is that you were misled a little, yes 32-bit drivers won't work on 64-bit systems, but that's usually on laptops with built-in wireless. I happen to know for a fact that linksys WMP11 v4 drivers work on both 32 and 64-bit systems, linksys is HUGE (it's a division of CISCO) they have, and think of everything, and the PCI bus is the same. I think when you had the 64-bit breezy on your box, you didn't have the wireless-tools package installed. I am using SuSE 10.0 and I did this to get my WMP11 v4 to work, but I've used these steps for mandrake too, and I'm positive they'll work on ubuntu (with the exception of steps 11-13).

1. make sure you have the kernel-source-<version> package installed, where <version> is your kernel's current version. and also the wireless-tools package installed.

2. download the latest version from: http://sourceforge.net/project/show...?group_id=93482

3. make sure you have the correct WINDOWS drivers for your card, by getting them from the manufacturer's site.

4. open konsole or whatever terminal you want to use. log in as root by issuing the command: su, give the root password when it asks you for it.

5. now, get rid of the old version that SuSe had with it. use: rm /lib/modules/<kernel version>/extras/ndiswrapper.ko

6. now we extract ndiswrapper. make sure you know where the ndiswrapper-<version>.tar.gz package is and use the command cd <directory> to get to it. now use the command tar -zxvf ndiswrapper-<version>.tar.gz to unzip ndiswrapper into a folder in the current directory.

7. now use cd ndiswrapper-<version> to go into the ndiswrapper folder. and now we to install the module into the kernel. use: make distclean, then: make, then: make install

8. you can now use ndiswrapper to install your windows drivers, do this by using ndiswrapper -i </path/to/infile>.inf, then to list all of the drivers you have isntalled use ndiswrapper -l

9. once you have all required drivers installed you are ready for the system to activate your wireless card use: modprobe ndiswrapper, to activate the card.

10. now to see if it is working, if you know an area that you are positive you can pick up a wireless network go to it, and issue the command: iwlist wlan0 scan to have the kernel scan for wireless networks. if you didn't pick up any, make sure you are within range. if you did pick up one (or more) then you are set.

11. you should now be able to configure your wireless card with the YaST interface. to do this go to YaST and disable all other network cards and add a new one. make it a wireless card and DO NOT select from list, this is just to let the YaST know there is a device named wlan0. continue through the steps and put your (preferred) essid, and your encryption settings in their respective places.

12. click next until you are back to the main YaST interface, DO NOT JUST EXIT, you will lose all changes you have made to your devices, instead, just keep clicking next, you should see a saving changes screen.

13. now this is where it gets funny, it's a lot of "if... then's," so pay attention. open you K menu and go to internet>data exchange>WLAN manager. if it opend and says no interface, then go back to konsole and log in as root again. try modprobing again. if kwifimanager doesn't update close it and open it again. if it shows a signal, then try accessing the internet or you network or whatever you wanted it for.

14. if you aren't getting anything, then you should probably do some more research. and I'm sorry I couldn't help.

Originally posted by abbeyroadd Ok well I was going to try and use your instructions to configure my card but when I booted up today I didn't have a wlan0. When I run iwconfig I get: lo No wireless extensions eth0 No wireless extensions sit0 No wireless extensions If I run a modprobe ndiswrapper I get: FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.12-9-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted What gives, first it recognized and was going to utilize my wireless card, now after booting up again it's all gone.

A couple of things...

You need to be root to run modprobe. I'm guessing that is why you weren't allowed to add the ndiswrapper module.

Second, the commands that you used to configure the card don't survive a reboot. Basically all you need to do is write a quick script that takes care of things for you. Something along the lines of this (modify as needed):

#!/bin/sh
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig wlan0 ssid SSIDNAME
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
ifup wlan0

If you save that as a text file, then make it executable, any time you need to get your wireless card running, you just run the script. I have something like this that runs at boot time and configures my card.

Originally posted by Hangdog42 A couple of things... You need to be root to run modprobe. I'm guessing that is why you weren't allowed to add the ndiswrapper module. Second, the commands that you used to configure the card don't survive a reboot. Basically all you need to do is write a quick script that takes care of things for you. Something along the lines of this (modify as needed): #!/bin/sh modprobe ndiswrapper iwconfig wlan0 ssid SSIDNAME iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed ifup wlan0 If you save that as a text file, then make it executable, any time you need to get your wireless card running, you just run the script. I have something like this that runs at boot time and configures my card.

Good call, I forgot to be in root.

For configuring the card, you should be able to do this (you'll probably have to use sudo to get the configs to take): iwconfig wlan0 essid YourAPSSID iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed (or Auto if Managed doesn't work iwconfig wlan0 key WEPHexKey

I did this tonight but I wasn't able to get any sort of packets transmitting through, I am not to sure if I am doing this right...I feel that if I "push" to hard I am going to break something.