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Old 02-27-2007, 08:26 PM   #1
bourne
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Ndiswrapper and drivers installed..where to now?


hello there. I should start off by saying that I am still learning linux so please bare with me.

I finally managed to get ndiswrapper installed on my laptop. I am using Fedora Core 6 distro. I downloaded the drivers for my wireless card: Wireless NIC Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG. I extracted: w29n51.inf and w29n51.sys from the downloaded file I got from intels website.
I used the following command to install the .inf file:

ndiswrapper -i w29n51.inf

The install went fine with no error messages.
Now at this point I am kind of stuck as what I am supposed to do now to see if I can actually get the wireless to work.

Just to let you know I am currently connected to the internet via utp cable. So I do have access to the internet through linux, but I still want to get the wireless going on this laptop.

Thanks in advance!!
todd
 
Old 02-27-2007, 10:37 PM   #2
bourne
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Ok well actually I think I have done something wrong. When I typed in ndiswrapper -l the message I get back is: w29n51 driver installed (alternate driver: ipw2200)

I am pretty sure it is supposed to say "hardware present" somewhere in there so I definitely had to of gone wrong somewhere along the line.

thanks
todd
 
Old 02-27-2007, 11:03 PM   #3
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The alternate driver: ipw2200 means there already is a native driver loaded for your device and will conflict with ndiswrapper.. Needs firmware to make it work. Either remove that driver and proceed with ndiswrapper or look here http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml and follow from "Download ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz from..." part. Normally you would use the native driver but on reading the link above performance seems to be iffy so maybe try both (not at the same time tho ).
 
Old 02-28-2007, 04:01 PM   #4
bourne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beagle2
The alternate driver: ipw2200 means there already is a native driver loaded for your device and will conflict with ndiswrapper.. Needs firmware to make it work. Either remove that driver and proceed with ndiswrapper or look here http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml and follow from "Download ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz from..." part. Normally you would use the native driver but on reading the link above performance seems to be iffy so maybe try both (not at the same time tho ).
Thanks for the speedy response man. This wireless has been killing me. I will give that tutorial a try tonight and let you know if I manage to get it working or not! Thanks again for the quick response!

thanks
todd
 
Old 02-28-2007, 05:29 PM   #5
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Hope it works - looks pretty comprehensive guide.
 
Old 02-28-2007, 11:33 PM   #6
2Gnu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beagle2
The alternate driver: ipw2200 means there already is a native driver loaded for your device and will conflict with ndiswrapper.
Almost. The message means that there is another driver choice available. It doesn't necessarily mean that there are conflicting drivers installed or loaded.

Even if two potentially competing drivers are installed, you can blacklist the one you don't want to keep things smiling & happy.

I agree that the ipw2200 driver would be the better choice.
 
Old 03-03-2007, 03:12 PM   #7
bourne
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Wow thanks for the speedy responses guys I really appreciate it. My plan is to attempt to get the ipw2200-1.2.1 driver working. Performance at this point really isn't that big of an issue, as long as the speed isn't running super slow. So I will attempt to try that tutorial provided. If I decided later that I wanted to attempt to try and us ndiswrapper, would I simply have to blacklist ipw2200-1.2.1 driver and then use ndiswrapper?

thanks again for the help
todd
 
Old 03-03-2007, 05:53 PM   #8
bourne
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Ok well I went ahead with the tutorial and everything seemed to go alright. I got to the part where it asks me to restart and them check for errors using this command: dmesg | grep ipw2200, and then issue this command: dmesg | grep ieee80211. Upon issuing both commands the output result is nothing for both of them. According to the tutorial I am supposed to get some output. So I am wonder where I might have gone wrong? Also I noticed that on one of the links provided in the tutorial they have a page for my specific wireless adapter: http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/ . I am wondering if instead of using the 2200 files and drivers if I should instead get all 3945 drivers and files and try the tutorial using them?

there are installation instructions provided here for the 3945 wireless adapter: http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/INSTALL

thanks in advance
todd

Last edited by bourne; 03-03-2007 at 06:03 PM.
 
Old 03-03-2007, 08:12 PM   #9
bourne
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I went through the entire tutorial twice. And I am still getting nothing. I am not even sure where I am going wrong. If you guys have any ideas based upon my other posting i would greatly appreciate it.

There is one more thing I wanted to ask about. After I installed the ipw2200 drivers there was a message at the end of the install that said. "don't forget to copy your firmware to the hotplugs directory" or something to that effect. I am not 100% sure what the install meant by this. Could this have something to do with why my install didn't go as planed?

thanks
todd

Last edited by bourne; 03-03-2007 at 08:14 PM.
 
Old 03-03-2007, 08:23 PM   #10
PTrenholme
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After you get the driver issue resolved, use yum to install the network manager and, if you're using KDE, the knetworkmanager, vis:
Code:
yum install NetworkManager knetworkmanager
I'm not sure if you need to install the gnetworkmanager: it may have been done automatically.

Since I mostly use KDE, what I do is start knetworkmannager which puts an applet in the lool-bar. Right clicking on the applet shows you a list of available access points, and clicking on the one you want to access should prompt you for the pass phrase (if it's protected) and start the network connection for you.

Note: If the access point to which you want to connect is WPA protected, you'll need to have installed the wpa_supplicant package to complete the connection.
 
Old 03-03-2007, 09:09 PM   #11
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I need to learn to read. I replied to your question about using ipw2200 vs. ndiswrapper. You clearly stated in your original post that you have a 3945 adapter. So, why are you messing with the 2200?

Remove the ipw2200 driver. Re-read the 3945 instructions. You need to install four components:
ieee80211 subsystem
ipw3945 driver
firmware
regulatory daemon

Until all of those things are properly installed, your card will not work.
 
Old 03-03-2007, 10:54 PM   #12
bourne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Gnu
I need to learn to read. I replied to your question about using ipw2200 vs. ndiswrapper. You clearly stated in your original post that you have a 3945 adapter. So, why are you messing with the 2200?

Remove the ipw2200 driver. Re-read the 3945 instructions. You need to install four components:
ieee80211 subsystem
ipw3945 driver
firmware
regulatory daemon

Until all of those things are properly installed, your card will not work.
I am messing with the ipw2200 because when I used ndiswrapper to attempt to install the drivers for my wireless adapter in the first place I received a message saying that the drivers had been installed but there was no hardward detected. Instead it stated there was an alternate drivers ipw2200. I read another post on this website where a guy has a intel wireless adapter, it was the Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection and he was using the ipw2200 drivers. So i am a little confused as to what exactly I am supposed to be using.

http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/ipw3945 here a tutorial to install drivers for my particular wireless adapter on FC6, however when I attempted the tutorial I was stopped when I tried to 'make' the drivers from the ipw3945-1.2.0.tgz tar ball. ieee80211 was stopping it from making. I received an error message saying that ieee80211 was from a different tree or something like that. I don't have the exact error on hand at the moment, but it wouldn't allow me to actually make the drivers so I couldn't install them so I couldn't finish the tutorial. It gave me an option to over ride the warning but it warned that doing this could cause troubles down the line so I didn't go ahead with it.

So thats why i was messing with the ipw2200 drivers. Why would FC6 tell me to use ipw2200 drivers when my wireless adapter is a Wireless NIC Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

thanks for all your help thus far
todd
 
Old 03-03-2007, 11:04 PM   #13
2Gnu
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FC6 didn't tell you anything. That message was from the well-intentioned developers of ndiswrapper. It identified your Intel NIC, but didn't get the model quite right.

In order to help work through installing all of the pieces for ipw3945, we'll need the exact error.

My preference is to install from source, but you should consider installing pre-compiled RPMs. One link: http://www.mabula.net/dell_inspiron_6400.html
 
Old 03-04-2007, 01:39 PM   #14
bourne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Gnu
FC6 didn't tell you anything. That message was from the well-intentioned developers of ndiswrapper. It identified your Intel NIC, but didn't get the model quite right.

In order to help work through installing all of the pieces for ipw3945, we'll need the exact error.

My preference is to install from source, but you should consider installing pre-compiled RPMs. One link: http://www.mabula.net/dell_inspiron_6400.html
Good link i follow what he is doing. The only problem once again is the the drivers he is providing are not for my card. His is a 3945B mine is a 3945BG. If you can find some place that will allow me to use yum to install the drivers for my exact card that would be amazing!

Following the tutorial on this page http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/ipw3945 this is the error I received when I tried to use the 'make' command on the drivers for 3945BG wireless card:

Code:
WARNING: Your kernel contains ieee80211 symbol definitions and you
are not using the kernel's default ieee80211 subsystem.  (Perhaps you
used the out-of-tree ieee80211 subsystem's 'make install' or have
provided a path to the ieee80211 subsystem via IEEE80211_INC.)

If you wish to use the out-of-tree ieee80211 subsystem then it is
recommended to use that projects' "make patch_kernel" facility
and rebuild your kernel to update the Module symbol version information.

Failure to do this may result in build warnings and unexpected
behavior when running modules which rely on the ieee80211 subsystem.

 
 Aborting the build.  You can force the build to continue by adding:

        IEEE80211_IGNORE_DUPLICATE=y

to your make command line.


make: *** [check_inc] Error 1

Last edited by bourne; 03-04-2007 at 01:46 PM.
 
Old 03-04-2007, 02:58 PM   #15
2Gnu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bourne
Good link i follow what he is doing. The only problem once again is the the drivers he is providing are not for my card. His is a 3945B mine is a 3945BG. If you can find some place that will allow me to use yum to install the drivers for my exact card that would be amazing!
I don't mind helping, but come on, you need to do a little reading/thinking/searching too.

There's only one 3945 chipset, and it's B/G. The person in that link abbreviated. I typed ipw3945 Fedora Core 6 in Google and got a bunch of hits, including FreshRPMs where they have the daemon, the driver, the ieee80211 subsytem and the firmware. Put FreshRPMs into your Yum repository list and grab everything you need.

The out of tree error seems to indicate that the 80211 stuff was added later or it's unique to FC. Using the freshrpms may resolve that.
 
  


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