Installing wireless card ACX111 ubuntu 8.04

gothicbob · 06-22-2008, 11:55 AM

I have Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Herron installed and its all running fine. But I've just moved home and need to use wireless, so I've got a wireless card that uses the acx111 chipset.

Loading ubuntu from a livecd automatically sets up this wireless card, however in my installed Kubuntu I don't know what I need to do to get it working. Is there a way of telling ubuntu that it needs to install the hardware? I've tried a few things like modprobe and insmod to load the driver, but I dont really know what im doing and wlan0 doesnt appear only eth0 and lo for my network interfaces.

I've searched the internet but can't really find anything useful to explain how to do it or any guides.

Thanks in advance

tredegar · 06-22-2008, 12:43 PM

These links may be useful:
http://acx100.sourceforge.net/
http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page

But the wiki says "The current stable release of the ACX "plain driver" is v0.3.38, which does not support WPA." so maybe that is not the way to go.

locate acx111 on my kubuntu 8.04 install shows a lot of /lib/firmware/2.6.24-19-generic/acx/2.3.1.31/tiacx111c19 files, so I expect (k)ubuntu is using ndiswrapper (a way of using the windows drivers under linux) to use this chipset.

Try searching for acx111 ndiswrapper debian or ubuntu (which is debian-based, so instructions for debian are likely to work) and I expect you'll find a HOWTO.

gothicbob · 06-22-2008, 04:33 PM

Ok, so I've just tried ndiswrapper following this guide http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=434983
I followed the guide, it all seems to go fine, however nothing links the card to an interface IE I cant access wlan0 to control the card and its not visible in knetworkmanager.

Code:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

here is the output of some commands that might be helpful.

Code:

ndiswrapper -l
wlanctg : driver installed
        device (104C:9066) present (alternate driver: acx)

Code:

ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1a:92:7d:04:13
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:23

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:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 B)  TX bytes:100 (100.0 B)

Code:

iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

tredegar · 06-23-2008, 03:24 AM

All I can suggest is that you: read /var/log/messages - there may be error messages
Try another guide, and follow that
Try finding a different version of the windows firmware (some are reported as broken)
If you are using a 64-bit kernel, it will not work at all

gothicbob · 06-23-2008, 04:59 AM

Yes, you were right about 64bit.

Code:

dmesg
[  108.461966] usbcore: deregistering interface driver ndiswrapper
[  108.462181] ndiswrapper (ntoskernel_exit:2708): object ffff81007d19ca30(2) was not freed, freeing it now
[  113.688331] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[  113.707896] ndiswrapper (check_nt_hdr:150): kernel is 64-bit, but Windows driver is not 64-bit;bad magic: 010B
[  113.707903] ndiswrapper (load_sys_files:210): couldn't prepare driver 'wlanctg'
[  113.708176] ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:112): couldn't load driver wlanctg;                                                                 check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'
[  113.708218] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

As I couldn't find any 64bit windows drivers to use with ndiswrapper, I went back to use to acx drivers which this time round I managed to get working perfectly.

This is what I did to get it working incase anyone else has a similar problem. First I removed ndiswrapper

Code:

sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper

removed the line in /etc/modules that loads ndiswrapper, and replaced it with acx.

Then to load the driver

Code:

sudo modprobe acx

from the output of wiconfig I could tell this had failed as no wlan0 was appearing, so I checked the output of dmesg again, and found that the acx driver needs firmware for the wireless card to be loaded in the correct place.

http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/F...8fc2095a08a9f3

I downloaded the appropriate driver (just the one they recommend) and then from what was said in dmesg gave away which driver it was looking for and where. In my ubuntu system the file needed to be placed in
/lib64/firmware/2.6.24-18-generic/acx/1.2.1.34/

Then you have to stop Knetworkmanager if you are using it as it doesn't properly communicated with the acx drivers, and manually configure it (there is probably a better way but this will do for me now)

Code:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid NETGEAR
sudo dhclient wlan0

This is all I did and now I can use linux again

woooo. Also if you require WPA then the new acx beta drivers will work, I haven't tried them yet though. Hope this was helpful

gothicbob · 06-23-2008, 05:08 AM

*EDIT: Also had to remove acx from the blacklist that prevents it from been loaded when ndiswrapper was installed

(sorry pressed reply instead of edit)

tredegar · 06-23-2008, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Yes, you were right about 64bit.

A lucky "grasping at straws" guess.

I liked your posted error message:

Quote:

ndiswrapper (check_nt_hdr:150): kernel is 64-bit, but Windows driver is not
64-bit;bad magic: 010B

Congratulations on getting it working!

Because you are (currently) unable to use WAP encryption, you really should set up a firewall on every PC connected to your network. The GUI-based ones are simplest to get right.

A badly configured firewall is probably worse than none at all, because it can give a false sense of security.

Enabling only connections from known hardware MAC addresses in your router will help keep out casual snoopers, but MAC addresses are very easy to sniff and spoof, so this is only a mild deterrent.

You may think there is nothing of interest on your PC, but trust me there will be plenty (Your name, address, postcode, utility company details, possibly your parent's first names, your bank account details - have you kept a copy of a letter you wrote to your bank one day maybe? - the list goes on).

In fact if I were you, I'd either get a better network card, not use wireless at all, or switch to a 32-bit kernel so I could use WAP. You probably will not notice any difference in performance.

Quote:

Last edited by gothicbob : Today at 11:09. Reason: im stupid.

You are not stupid - you have solved quite a complex problem with very little help from me apart from some encouragement and pointers - anyone can click the wrong button.

Have fun, and thanks for the follow-up, it'll help others.