Linux - Wireless NetworkingThis forum is for the discussion of wireless networking in Linux.
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Are you sure you installed the ndiswrapper packages for your kernel? To be honest, it is so easy to compile ndiswrapper from source, that I would do that rather than mess with packages. Then you are assured it is being installed in the proper place. There are excellent instructions for compiling on the ndiswrapper wiki as well.
I rebooted and got error messasge Error couldn't find bcm43xx_microcode5.fw and something like couldn't turn on radio.
So I found these instructions:
Code:
echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
sudo rmmod bcm43xx
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils
sudo rm -r /etc/ndiswrapper/
sudo rm -r /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils
sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/dave/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -m
sed -e 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/' /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
NOTE: Be sure to uninstall bcm43xx-fwcutter if you installed it already. Also, make sure to get the correct bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files from Dell or whoever.
I rebooted. Error Setting flags: no such device
In terminal (as root) I did:
Code:
debian-etchtop:# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.
debian-etchtop:# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)
debian-etchtop:# modprobe ndiswrapper
debian-etchtop:# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.
eth0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
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
debian-etchtop:# iwconfig eth0 essid AMD-NET
debian-etchtop:/home/replica# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.
eth0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
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
So I got this far, but I can't seem to change the ESSID using iwconfig. Still says ESSID: off/any What should I do from here? I have to do:#modprobe ndiswrapper everytime I reboot for it to show under iwconfig. Also does it have support for WPA AES keys?
Last edited by replica9000; 03-07-2007 at 05:16 PM.
OK, you've got a bunch of stuff going on here. The biggest problem is that you have both bcm43xx and ndiswrapper loading. That's not good because they will conflict (and that is probably a big part of the problem here). Given that you have a 4318, you should go with ndiswrapper, so you need to add the bcm43xx module to your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file. That will keep it from loading on boot.
Now check the output of lsmod. If you see both ndiswrapper and bcm43xx, remove bcm43xx with modprobe -r bcm43xx. I would also remove and reload ndiswrapper and see what the output of iwconfig looks like then.
Quote:
I have to do:#modprobe ndiswrapper everytime I reboot for it to show under iwconfig.
Personally, I use a script to load and configure ndiswrapper at boot time. It is pretty easy to do. Once we get some of the other nonsense sorted out we can get something in place.
Quote:
Also does it have support for WPA AES keys?
You're going to need to install wpa_supplicant. There is almost certainly a Debian package for it, so you can probably get it with apt. I've got compiling instructions on my help site as well as an example configuration so you might have a read through that.
OK, so bcm43xx is not loaded. Good. Do you still get the error about bcm43xx_microcode5.fw? Also, with bcm43xx out of the picture, can you set the ssid with iwconfig?
If you've got wpa_supplicant already installed, the next step would be to edit the config file (usually /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf) to include the networks you want, and then start wpa_supplicant. Take a look at the examples I've got on my help site for configuring and starting wpa_supplicant, and I'd suggest starting with the wext driver.
If you run wpa-supplicant, there is no need to then run iwconfig to set the ssid. Wpa-supplicant should be doing that for you. Also, instead of using -Dndiswrapper, I would give -Dwext a try. I think that wext is probably going to become the default in wpa-supplicant, so it may work better. By the way, you are root when you start wpa-supplicant, aren't you?
If there is still no joy, I think you're going to have to do some digging in your log files (/var/log/syslog, /var/log/messages and the output of dmesg) and see if there are any clues as to what is going wrong.
Unfortunately, wpa_supplicant is not leaving any clues in dmesg. Have you checked the other log files? Also, is your access point broadcasting its SSID? For some reason, that makes a critical difference for some cards/drivers.
I would also try turning off encryption and seeing if you can set the SSID and get an IP address. That might help determine if the problem is in the driver or in wpa_supplicant. Obviously this isn't a long-term solution, but it might give us some clues as to where to look.
To be honest I have no idea what that sed command is going to do, but I'm betting it isn't anything good. Can I ask what you were trying to do? To try and eliminate it as a problem, I would completely uninstall your Windows drivers, and even go so far as to remove the /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5 directory and then re-install the drivers.
Quote:
I also tried to look at those logs and even as root said I didn't have permission.
That is really, really strange. What are the permissions on those files? If root doesn't have read permission, you should be able to give it with the chmod command.
That sed command was something that worked for someone in another post, figured I'd give it a shot. I was thinking starting from scratch might be a good thing to try.
Hey sorry it's been so long since I posted anything in this thread but I had sort of given up on the ndiswapper thing due to moving and other stuff keeping me busy.
Well today I decided to give it another go and got it working. This time I didn't change anything though. I found the command:
Code:
debian-etchtop:/home/replica# dhclient eth0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:a5:c1:ce:38
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:a5:c1:ce:38
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
bound to 192.168.1.114 -- renewal in 33722 seconds.
debian-etchtop:/home/replica#
and everything works great. Actually seems to have a faster connection than when using it in Windows XP.
Just wanted to thank everyone for all the time and help they gave me. Hopefully I remember all the steps I took to get it working again if I need to.
Now I guess I could use a script or something to run the commands "modprobe ndiswrapper" and "dhclient eth0" during boot.
Last edited by replica9000; 05-06-2007 at 04:59 PM.
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