ndiswrapper was working okay until reboot...
 

Hello,

I have a BCM94306 chipset card (Belkin F5D7000), running Makdrake CE 10 but with a 2.6.6 self-compiled kernel. I've installed ndiswrapper using make (not the RPM), and had everything working swimmingly. It is configued on wlan0, I downed eth0 and still had network connectivity. Perfect, thought I. Let's see if the config holds through a reboot.

Oops. Guess not. Got the following in boot.log:

May 16 11:52:00 localhost ifup: Determining IP information for wlan0...
May 16 11:52:00 localhost ifup: failed; no link present. Check cable?
May 16 11:52:00 localhost network: Bringing up interface wlan0: failed

Okay, so I thought to myself "can I get this to work again, using the basic commands?" No joy, so that's why I'm here.

# lspci
02:04.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 03)

# iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"HOME"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:09:5B:95:E6:8E
Bit Rate:54Mb/s Tx-Power:14 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-20 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:33 Missed beacon:0

# ifconfig -a
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:BD:F5:BC:F2
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:120 (120.0 b) TX bytes:238 (238.0 b)
Interrupt:18 Memory:feafe000-feafffff

# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 present

So, the above all looks like it did before I rebooted, apart from the fact that wlan0 isn't running and doesn't have an inet addr (and so is worthless as far as NICs go! :) ).

ifup gives me (not suprisingly) errors similar to boot.log. "ifconfig wlan0 up" has a similar problem.

I suspect that the following is the root of my problem:

# lsmod | grep ndis
ndiswrapper 72036 0

Which is to say, I have no devices associated with my adapter. (modprobe.conf is configured correctly, as I ran "ndiswrapper -m"). No amount of messing with modprobe.conf, "modprobe -r ndiswrapper" or "modprobe ndiswrapper" has been able to get this working.

If I look over on my access point, I can see that my card is attached to the network, but does not have an IP address. The link light is solid on. I have my AP with WEP disabled (and haven't tried to configure it on the Linux side of things), though I do have MAC filtering enabled (correctly).

This appears very much to be something on the Linux side of things, but I can't figure out what it might be. Any ideas?

Thanks,
:-Phil

After digging about, I came across a posting that mentioned putting essid=any in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 . I did not have this, so I thought it worth a try.

This did not work, but when I specified essid=HOME (to match my wireless network ESSID), it worked like a charm. I wonder if the fact that I need to specify my network name is a peculiar thing to my wireless router (NetGear), or if this is something else...

lsmod now shows that my interface is using the driver; that was a red herring...problem wasn't to do with module configuration but was to do with NIC configuration.

This ndiswrapper is pretty clever stuff, I must say. I guess we can all thank God that 1986-era IBM PC clones weren't particularly compatible with standards!

Actually, specifying the correct SSID is required to connect to any wireless network, not just NetGear. Some networks help out by broadcasting thier SSID and your card can pick it up from that, but if the network doesn't broadcast, then you have to supply it. If you enable WEP, you can supply the key the same way you supply the ESSID

iwconfig wlan0 key=yourWEPkeyHere

I have been experiencing similar problems. I am using Fedora core 2, with a DLink DWL-650 rev. M1.... After spending most of my holiday weekend trying to get this to work, I came upon the ndisdrivers project, and it seems to work wonderfully! EXCEPT....i get this message when trying to activate my connection:

Determining IP information for wlan0... failed; no link present. Check cable?

Now, I'm pretty sure that it's not a ESSID thing.,.. I have laboriously tried settiing all of these config files... i'm posting similar output to above, for information purposes.....

# lsmod | grep ndis
ndiswrapper 66560 0

# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"horses" Nickname:"localhost"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.437GHz Cell: 02:E0:7B:24:B3:6E
Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr=2432 B Fragment thr=2432 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-90 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

# cat ifcfg-wlan0
# D-Link DWL-650 rev. M1 Wireless LAN (jcribb wrote this)
DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:0d:88:c7:96:a4
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
IPV6INIT=no
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
GATEWAY=
ESSID=horses
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Auto
RATE=Auto


I hope somebody knows what in the hell is going on here. I'm not new, but I'm not seasoned either. Questions welcome, and answers are even better :D


Thanx,
jacalope

adding lspci output
 

Sorry, i thought i would include lspci as well...........................................

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20)
Subsystem: D-Link System Inc: Unknown device 3302
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (8000ns min, 16000ns max), Cache Line Size 40
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 9
Region 0: I/O ports at 4400
Region 1: Memory at 40800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-


One interesting observation: since getting this configuration to work THUS FAR, i seem to have inherited some sort of error with the kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeyboard. it's not a stuck key because the number of letters repeated is constant, regardless of which key it happens withhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... it must be some weird interrupt, or event-trapping condition.....

Anyway, thanks!
jacalopennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnc
sheesh

PS: it seems that removing the board from the laptop DOES remove the problems with the repeated characters

From your iwconfig entry:

I bet this is the source of your troubles. I've seen other posts that suggest a problem with Fedora in that no matter what mode they set in their ifcfg-wlan file, the card actually gets set to AdHoc. Since very, very few people use an ad hoc network, this causes problems. Try using iwconfig to set the mode to Managed and see if that takes care of the problem.

Ndiswrapper Scripted Startup
 

Using Mandrake 9.2 with stock kernel, I found that you have to manually start the process with each re-boot.

Linux does not have the ability to process the wrapper and driver during a normal start sequence.

To simplify this , I suggest creating a script for the series of commands that start ndiswrapper on your platform.

Read about it at :



http://luth2.obspm.fr/~luthier/gourgoulhon/ThinkPad/

You can then add the wireless commands and network commands necessary to operate to the script.

iwconfig wlan0 essid Yourssid

ifconfig wlan0 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0

or dhclient wlan0

Then a single command will re-establish your wireless connection.

Modify /etc/rc.sysinit or /etc/rc.local depending on your distribution to run the wifiup at every startup.

Um, that isn't entirely correct unless I misunderstand you. I just wrote the necessary commands into a script and call it from my /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 script. My machine loads the wrapper and sets up the card on boot every time, just like any other piece of hardware. Heck, you could just add the commands to your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file.

Yes, you are correct- Linux can be modified to start up ndiswrapper. The normal sequence that starts the network does not like to use ndiswrapper in my experience.

Re: Ndiswrapper Scripted Startup
 

I have my wireless lan start at boot with ndiswrapper.. Im using Mandrake 10CE. I just added the appropriate information to /etc/syscong/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0

works like a champ.

I tried the ndiswrapper that was built into Mandrake 10.0 with my AdmTek 8211. I could not get is to work.

I removed that version and reverted to the ndiswrapper 0.4 that worked for Mandrake 9.2. I am now testing the new open source version that Michael Wu is working on for the adm8211.

I revert to ndiswrapper to to reset WEP when I test the new driver and it is unable to use WEP. A stable ndiswrapper would enable me to create a alternate configuration wlan0 to go with eth0 using adm8211.


Would you post the changes that you made to /etc/syscong/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 so that I can try doing it that way?

did you make changes to /etc/modules.conf- alias wlan0 ndiswrapper?

What directory did you place the windrivers?

Thanks in advance

Just wanted to say thanks!

I had the Fedora 2 configuration setup above. Your adhoc hunch was right, hangdog. I'm sending this post on my newly working wireless setup :)

SIMILAR PROBLEM
 

I had a similar problem where on my dual boot xp/fedora core Dell Latitude D600 where I got the wireless working and then after I reboot a couple of times, the wireless did not work. I would try to activate the wlan0 device but it would give me errors. I had used a ifcfg-wlan0 I downloaded from somewhere and it had the DEVICE=eth0 and so I changed this to wlan0 the activate button worked!

DWL-650 Rev M under Fedora
 

I know this was a pain for me to sift through all the different ideas on how to get this card working, but what I did that worked instantly was to go to realtek's page and download their linux drivers. the DWL-650 Rev M uses a different chipset than the rest of the DWL-650 family, so the orinoco_cs and the prismII drivers do not work. the realtek drivers immediately took and i had a connection instantly. i had a couple dropped connections at the beginning, but after setting it to come up on boot, i havent had problems since (i put my startup in the rc.local file in /etc/rc.d) that way when issuing "wlanup ap", it brought it up without problems. I did not attempt to see if ndiswrapping the NETR33X.INF would work, which was my next step if the realtek driver didnt work. I am using Fedora Core 3 on a NEC Versa SX laptop. for searchability from google, i am going to toss in some other keywords that i was searching for when trying to figure out this card: DWL-650 revM DWL-650 revM1 DWL-650 rev M1 fedora core wireless driver realtek 8180. I found this site helpful in finding the realtek driver: http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about46816.html