Wireless PCI Adapters

thinice15 · 08-24-2008, 10:53 PM

I was curious if someone can recommend me a PCI Wireless internet Adapter for my apache web server on Slackware 12.0?

PatrickNew · 08-24-2008, 11:18 PM

How much traffic does it do? Do you need 802.11n or is b/g good enough. Do you have/forsee any need for this machine to act as an access point as well?

I went to newegg, found the cheapest pci 802.11g card, plugged it in and had wireless via ndiswrapper. That'll probably work for you, ndiswrapper's coverage is quite good these days. I'd just find cards I liked, then google them with "linux" and/or "ndiswrapper".

thinice15 · 09-01-2008, 03:23 AM

do you know of anything else besides ndiswrapper because its giving me a error and cant figure out how to fix it?

PatrickNew · 09-01-2008, 07:08 AM

What error does it give? Depending on the card, there may be a native driver you can use. What card is it? Can you list the output of the command lspci ?

forum1793 · 09-01-2008, 09:01 AM

I got the Asus WL-138G V2 recently. It does not use ndiswrapper, although I've heard it can. It uses the b43 drivers. But you will still need to get the firmware which varies depending on the kernel you are running. See directions. This works for me using newer kernels. No promises of course.

I agree with previous poster that you should try and resolve situation for current card. Any different card might have same issues.

thinice15 · 09-01-2008, 01:27 PM

Well for starters i found this ok linksys usb wireless network adapter.and when i type "lsusb" i get

Code:

BUS 001 Device 002: ID 5041:2235 Linksys (?)
BUS 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

when i built the ndiswrapper-1.53.tar.gz i untared it "tar zxvf ndiswrapper-1.53.tar.gz" then i "cd ndiswrapper-1.53.tar.gz" and i type "make distclean" and "make" then "make install" and when im done with make install it gives a note saying that the windows driver is not installed.

Then i got my drivers that i needed i unzipped the file and went to the .inf file and type "ndiswrapper -i WUSB54G.inf" and it said "Installing drivers...".

and when i type "ndiswrapper -l" to see the drivers i get this

Code:

wusb54g : driver installed
         device (5041:2235) present (alternate driver: p54usb)

and when i try "ndiswrapper -v" i get this

Code:

modinfo: could not find module ndiswrapper
module version is to old!
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '0'
modules details:
modinfo: could not find module ndiswrapper

and when i try to start the module its not found "modprobe ndiswrapper" i get this

Code:

FATAL: module ndiswrapper not found

So if yall know anything i did wrong or anything that can help please share thanks.

PatrickNew · 09-01-2008, 07:24 PM

The "alternate driver: p54usb" message means that a native driver exists for the card. I'm not sure if the native drivers are any good, but google tells me that the p is for "Prism", and I know that some linux Prism drivers are very good. If this is that Prism driver, then you're well off.

Basically, the first thing I would try is a

Code:

modprobe p54usb

and see if a "wlan0" or "eth1" or something else appears in the output of iwconfig or ifconfig.

forum1793 · 09-01-2008, 07:31 PM

On my slackware 12.0 machine I'm running ndiswrapper 1.52. Your 1.53 seems to be having problems.

One problem with simple ./configure, make, make install, is it can be tough to remove as opposed to packages. Hopefully the program is all loaded in you /usr/local area? Look into this as you MAY need to delete. If you can safely delete presence of your ndiswrapper, do so.

On my slack 12.0 machine I'm currently running this version of ndiswrapper. Do not untar this or try to build. It is ready to go. In X (kde) open KDE Button (start button)-->System-->kpackage and load the downloaded .tgz. Or, if at command line read up on and try installpkg or pkgtool.

For me, lsmod shows ndiswrapper, the -v shows:

Code:

bash-3.1# ndiswrapper -v
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.21.5-smp/misc/ndiswrapper.ko.gz
version:        1.52
vermagic:       2.6.21.5-smp SMP mod_unload 686

Your's should of course be different due to different card/driver.

After install follow (probably similar) instructions to install for your card/driver.

This only loads driver into ndiswrapper. You still need to tell scripts (/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf OR /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless) what to do. There appears to be a SLIGHT favorite for putting all info in rc.inet1.conf and deleting/renaming rc.wireless.conf. In any event if you use wpa_supplicant your ssid and key should go into /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.

If you intend to use wpa2, you will need wpa_supplicant. If your OK with no encryption or WEP maybe you don't need.

For wpa2 (and others) I've had good luck with and you could try wicd (here for 12.1 but might work or here.
For second link you will also need to get that version of source code and you can find code in that link.

Note if you wicd route, you should make /etc/rc.d/wicd executable or at least start it with sh /etc/rc.d/rc.wicd. Then in X (kde), kde start button --> Internet -->Wicd. Then add your info.
Note: it appears that wicd install emptied (and backed up) rc.inet1.conf and rc.wireless.

Edit: patricknew posts looks good. Try that first and you will still need scripts or wicd.

forum1793 · 09-01-2008, 07:45 PM

On my slackware 12.0 machine I'm running ndiswrapper 1.52. Your 1.53 seems to be having problems.

One problem with simple ./configure, make, make install, is it can be tough to remove as opposed to packages. Hopefully the program is all loaded in you /usr/local area? Look into this as you MAY need to delete. If you can safely delete presence of your ndiswrapper, do so.

On my slack 12.0 machine I'm currently running this version of ndiswrapper. Do not untar this or try to build. It is ready to go. In X (kde) open KDE Button (start button)-->System-->kpackage and load the downloaded .tgz. Or, if at command line read up on and try installpkg or pkgtool.

For me, lsmod shows ndiswrapper and:

Code:

bash-3.1# ndiswrapper -v
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '1.9'
module details:
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.21.5-smp/misc/ndiswrapper.ko.gz
version:        1.52
vermagic:       2.6.21.5-smp SMP mod_unload 686

Your's should of course be different due to different card/driver.

After install follow (probably similar) instructions to install for your card/driver.

This only loads driver into ndiswrapper. You still need to tell scripts (/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf OR /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless) what to do. There appears to be a SLIGHT favorite for putting all info in rc.inet1.conf and deleting/renaming rc.wireless.conf.

If you intend to use wpa2, you will need wpa_supplicant. If your OK with no encryption or WEP maybe you don't need.

For wpa2 (and others) I've had good luck with and you could try wicd (here for 12.1 but might work or here.
. For second link you will also need to get that version of source code and you can find code in that link.

Note if you wicd route, you should make it executable or at least start it with sh /etc/rc.d/rc.wicd. Then in X (kde), kde start button --> Internet -->Wicd. Then add your info.

thinice15 · 09-01-2008, 09:01 PM

when i type "iwconfig" i get this

Code:

lo      no wireless extensions

eth0    no wireless extensions

PatrickNew · 09-01-2008, 09:04 PM

Okay, is that the output before or after a "modprobe p54usb"?

thinice15 · 09-01-2008, 09:14 PM

yes its says that after i type "modprobe p54usb".

Edit:Oh and when i type "modprobe p54usb" it works when i type "lsmod" i see p54usb running.

PatrickNew · 09-02-2008, 10:15 AM

Hrm. And you did have an eth0 before right? It looks like this driver isn't working, but just for kicks, try a

Code:

ifconfig up wlan0

and see if that does anything. If not, then it sounds like ndiswrapper should still work if you repair the installation or (probably the far easier option) just install it from slackware packages.

thinice15 · 09-02-2008, 02:16 PM

when i type "ifconfig up wlan0" i get this

Code:

wlan0: Host name lookup failure
ifconfig: '--help' give usage information.

it seems like ndiswrapper is installed just not the module because i used installpkg and the pkgtool to install ndiswrapper it even trys to run ndiswrapper on startup theres just no module it says this.

Code:

FATAL: no ndiswrapper module found.

Edit: I ran that installpkg again and it said it compiled the kernel module for the 2.6.21.5 kernel and im currently using the 2.6.24.5 kernel should i compile the 2.6.21.5 kernel and boot of it to get ndiswrapper working?

thinice15 · 09-02-2008, 03:25 PM

The package i installed using "installpkg" says it installed the module for the 2.6.21.5 kernel and im currently using the 2.6.24.5 kernel so i went in to (usr/src/slackbuilds) i found ndiswrapper.Slackbuild i ran it and it said what kernel do you want to build ndiswrapper for.I tried to install the ndiswrapper kernel module for config-huge-2.6.24.5 and it said your kernel config file is not the same as (/usr/src/linux-2.6.24.5/.config) file so i have no idea what to do?