ndiswrapper problem
 

Okay, so I had an Airlink 101 5025 (I think) cardbus adapter, but it didn't work worth crap. I couldn't get it to be even visible in Ubuntu. lspci wouldn't show it, and other cardbus cards just wouldn't show up either.

Fast-forward through a couple other attempts at getting the card to work...

I bought a D-Link DWL-G122 USB dongle (I got it on sale for 20 bucks). I'm having a little trouble getting it to work, though. (But I'm further along than I was with the cardbus option).

When I do a lsusb, the dongle shows up.
When I use ndiswrapper to load the drivers, then an
ndiswrapper -l
the drivers and the hardware are present.

Here's where the trouble starts...when I do a
modprobe ndiswrapper
the command never "finishes". The kernel didn't crash (because I can still type in the terminal window) but it doesn't DO anything. I mean, the window basically functions similar to a text editing window from there on. I've let it sit for an hour (just out of curiosity) to see if it would work.

How do you suggest I go about figuring this out?

There are a couple really quick and easy things to try.
As root:
ldconfig
depmod -a

The ldconfig will update your library paths.
The depmod command may have been interrupted during the installation of ndiswrapper itself.
You could also restart the hotplug service before doing the "modprobe ndiswrapper" phase. Perhaps one of the usb modules wasn't loaded in for some reason.

I admit the the first two are long shots, but maybe a combination of two problems caused the stall.

Also, being it is a usb device, maybe hotplugging took care of the "modprobe ndiswrapper" command for you and you tried to re-modprobe it, or both where happening simultaneously. This is another longshot because modprobing a module again shouldn't hurt. It shouldn't do anything.

If for example you want to try unloading and reloading the .sys driver into ndiswrapper, make sure you first disable the interface (as in "ifdown <interface name>" before removing the ndiswrapper.ko kernel module "rmmod ndiswrapper". Not doing so, if the interface is up will lock up the kernel.

Power down the computer, boot it back up, follow your log in a terminal: "sudo tail -f /var/log/messages", and plug it in. See how far along the installation of the device progresses automatically.

Check if the device is present with the "ifconfig" command and the "iwconfig" commands.
If the device is present but you don't have an IP address, enter the command "sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist <interfacename> scan"

If you see an Access Point listed, the device is working and you need to configure it for your network and authentication. The "iwconfig" and "iflist" commands are supplied by "wireless-tools". You will also need to make sure that you have "wpa_supplicant" installed. Not having Ubuntu, I don't know whether you can use its network interface configuration to configure wireless and enter the key(s), or if you need to do this manually. In any case, if you are using DHCP, the authentication needs to be working before you will get an IP address. That's using iwlist to scan for an AP is a handy way to find out if your wireless device is working. If the scan works, the device setup was successful and you can procede with the networking setup.

Nope...no dice. I tried the first two, and got no results.

I tried the rmmod ndiswrapper but got the error, "Module ndiswrapper does not exist in /proc/modules"

Thanks for the attempt, though

Any other ideas?

Oh yeah, the device isn't present in the ifconfig or iwconfig...


UPDATE!!!

Okay, so I was fooling around and tried to modprobe the ndiswrapper, it hung up, as it always does.

So I restart the hotplug system while it's doing this (hoping to get control of my stuff back so I don't have to shut the computer down each time) and that works. I can check the lsusb again. So I tried a modprobe now...and IT WORKS! now I just have to get this stuff all set up and I'll be golden!

When I restart the system, I have to modprobe the ndiswrapper, then go into my network configuration and activate the wlan0 connection. This isn't too bad, but I have to make sure the dongle isn't plugged in, or else startup stalls until I take it out...

I went through this exactly the same with a Belkin USB adapter. When I did "modprobe ndiswrapper", the command never completed.

I finally downloaded a recent version of ndiswrapper and built it from source.

See http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=390690

I finally got back to it and successfully built ndiswrapper, but that was a while ago and the memories of how exactly I did it have faded.

But it can be made to work...

It works just fine right now, except for every once in a while, it stalls when I try to do ANYTHING related to the usb when the dongle is plugged in (lsusb, modprobe, even restarting hotplug) but usually after a reboot (two is the most I've ever had to do) it works just fine...no modprobe or anything required...this is good enough for me, at the moment