plz help!, cant get mi wireless card working

kiker · 12-30-2004, 09:09 AM

hey folks, first of all, im using Gentoo on a toshiba satellite, i have an Xterasys wireless card, with realtek chipset. Any way i have tried to configure ndiswrapper thousends of times an everithing goes ok...

Code:

 ndiswrapper -l 
Installed ndis drivers: 
net8180 driver present, hardware present

i modprobe, and everything goes ok, then next step:

Code:

 /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed 
-bash: /sbin/iwconfig: No such file or directory

Any ideas?, i'll really apreciate any help, cos i have alredy like a month tring mi card to work, and if i can't make it work in short time, i'll have to return to windows

Any help will be apreciated

2Gnu · 12-30-2004, 09:43 AM

Looks like the wireless tools package is not installed.

Install that and try again.

kiker · 12-30-2004, 11:01 AM

ok i reintall wireless tools, and realize that is not
"sbin/iwconfig", it is "/usr/sbin/iwconfig" so now i have the directory
but the problem is other now, i dont have wlan0

Code:

 iwconfig
 lo        no wireless extensions.
 sit0      no wireless extensions.
 eth0      no wireless extensions.

so when i :

Code:

/usr/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed 
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :    
 SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

if i use the eth0:

Code:

/usr/sbin/iwconfig eth0 mode Managed 
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :    
 SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.

if i use sit0 :

Code:

/usr/sbin/iwconfig sit0 mode Managed 
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :  
  SET failed on device sit0 ; Invalid argument.

Any idea?, any help will be apreciated

2Gnu · 12-30-2004, 11:05 AM

The driver is not loaded.

modprobe ndiswrapper again and list the loaded modules:
lsmod

kiker · 12-30-2004, 11:19 AM

i modprobe ndiswrapper, then typed lsmod:

Code:

lsmod 
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P 
ndiswrapper            90220   1
agpgart                35768   3  (autoclean) 
sg                     31356   0  (autoclean) (unused)
st                     27256   0  (autoclean) (unused) 
sr_mod                 14616   0  (autoclean) (unused)
sd_mod                 11788   0  (autoclean) (unused) 
scsi_mod               88164   4  (autoclean) [sg st sr_mod sd_mod]
snd-intel8x0           18636   1  (initializing)
snd-ac97-codec         48592   0  [snd-intel8x0] 
gameport                1388   0  [snd-intel8x0] 
snd-mpu401-uart         3264   0  [snd-intel8x0] 
snd-rawmidi            13380   0  [snd-mpu401-uart] 
rtl8180_24x           235116   1  (initializing) 
ds                      6580   2 
yenta_socket           10240   2 
pcmcia_core            42564   0  [ds yenta_socket] 
snd-pcm-oss            36520   0  (unused) 
snd-pcm                55880   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss] 
snd-mixer-oss          12184   0  [snd-pcm-oss] 
snd-seq-oss            26080   0  (unused) 
snd-seq-midi-event      3456   0  [snd-seq-oss] 
snd-seq                34864   2  [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event] 
snd-timer              14596   0  [snd-pcm snd-seq] 
snd-seq-device          3744   0  [snd-rawmidi snd-seq-oss snd-seq] 
snd                    32196   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-timer snd-seq-device]
snd-page-alloc          4716   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-rawmidi snd-pcm snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-oss snd-seq snd-timer snd-seq-device snd] 
soundcore               3588   2  [snd] 
8139too                14824   1 
mii                     2240   0  [8139too] 
nvidia               1966176   6 
ohci1394               28720   0  (unused) 
ieee1394              181316   0  [ohci1394] 
input                   3264   0  (unused) 
uhci                   25276   0  (unused) 
ehci-hcd               17836   0  (unused) 
usbcore                58156   1  [ndiswrapper uhci ehci-hcd]
druida root #

At the top is ndiswrapper, so i think the module is corrent isn't it?, but im still not having wlan0, any idea?

2Gnu · 12-30-2004, 11:28 AM

This line seems to indicate that it's trying to do something:
rtl8180_24x 235116 1 (initializing)

I assume you have the proper Windows driver and the ndiswrapper is finding it, or you'd be seeing errors.

Check /var/log/messages to see what's happening with the RTL driver, maybe.

NiravKapadia · 12-30-2004, 11:33 AM

try ifup wlan0
and then you have to set all wireless parameters like SSID, channel and key, i guess its iwconfig and you can set all parameters and test you card

Hangdog42 · 12-30-2004, 11:45 AM

You don't have a wlan0 until you run the ndiswrapper -m command. This modifies your /etc/modprobe.conf file to conatin the line alias wlan0 ndiswrapper. However, sometimes the ndiswrapper -m command fails and you'll need to edit modprobe.conf by hand.

kiker · 12-30-2004, 11:56 AM

first off all, thanks to all for helping.
Now, for 2gnu:

Code:

/var/log/messages 
-bash: /var/log/messages: No such file or directory

Im using gentoo, is it possible that for gento is other the directory?, im just taking a wild guest.
for NiravKapadia:

Code:

ifup wlan0
 -bash: ifup: command not found

well i dont have the comand, i should have it for default? or i have to install something?
For hangdog42:

Code:

ndiswrapper -m
 Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modules.conf depmod: 
*** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.26-gentoo-r9/kernel/drivers/media/radio/miropcm20.o depmod: 
*** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.26-gentoo-r9/kernel/drivers/scsi/sata_sil.o depmod:
*** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.26-gentoo-r9/kernel/drivers/scsi/sata_svw.o depmod: 
*** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.26-gentoo-r9/kernel/drivers/scsi/sata_via.o

What does this mean?, well evidently an error, bur what shoul i do, fix the "unresolverd symbols" or wirte the modprobe.conf by hand?. In any of the cases can u tell me how to do it?, im sorry but im really new to linux and im not so smart.
Any help will be apreciated

Hangdog42 · 12-30-2004, 12:06 PM

Well, since you appear to be using a 2.4 series kernel, modules.conf is the file that needs to be modified and it looks as if ndiswrapper -m did that. The modprobe.conf file is used in place of modules.conf when a 2.6 series kernel is used.

I'm assuming you're using a stock kernel, so I'm a little confused by the unresolved symbols. That usually happens when you haven't configured a kernel quite right. However, none of those errors look like they have anything to do with a wireless card. The sata errors could be a problem if you have a SATA hard disk drive and I have no idea what to make of the radio entry.

At any rate, first check your /etc/modules.conf file and make sure the ndiswrapper line is there. Then try removing then reloading the ndiswrapper module and see if that doesn't show you wlan0 in iwconfig.

kiker · 12-30-2004, 12:24 PM

well i check the "/etc/modules.conf" and i search as many times as i could even use the "where is" and i couldn't find wlan0 or ndiswrapper, so aparently thats why i dont have my wlan0. You said something about edit it by hand. Sure, but how?, i mean where do i have to put alias wlan0 ndiswrapper?
if u can plz give an detailed explanation

Hangdog42 · 12-30-2004, 01:37 PM

Well, you can edit it with pretty much any text editor. Gedit, Kedit, Kate, pico, vi......anything that can read and save text. As for where, I usually add things to the end of the file, and all you need to add is alias wlan0 ndiswrapper and that 0 is a zero, not a capital O. Then save the file and load the ndiswrapper module. By the way, you'll need to su to root in order to edit modules.conf and if you are working in a graphical environement, you may need to issue xhost localhost in order for root to be able to run a program.

kiker · 12-30-2004, 02:56 PM

ok ok, I open :

Code:

nano /etc/modules.conf

and at the end i added:
"alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" ,zero no capital O
Save the file, and wrote:

Code:

 ndiswrapper -m 
modprobe config already contains alias directive

i think everythig goes ok until now right?, then i do this:

Code:

 modprobe ndiswrapper 
Note: /etc/modules.conf is more recent than /lib/modules/2.4.26-gentoo-r9/modules.dep

i think that is not a good thing right?, any way i tried again, and is still "wlan0, no such device"
Any idea?

2Gnu · 12-30-2004, 04:00 PM

/var/log/messages is a text file with the full path. Simply entering /var/log/messages implies that you're trying to execute it. List the contents like so:
less /var/log/messages

Page up or down, home, end or arrow keys to look through the file (the good stuff will be at the end - look through it for clues as to what's happening). Type the letter q to exit less.

Changing /etc/modules.conf or similar files simply accomplishes on boot what we're trying to do manually.

ifup is a script, commonly found in distros like Red Hat/Fedora/Mandrake. Try ifconfig wlan0 up, although that will not work unless & until the driver is loaded properly and I'm not convinced from what I've seen that it is.

As for finding things, as root, run the command updatedb. A database of every file on your system will be created and you can do a quick lookup with the command locate.

locate ndiswrapper should return all of the occurrences of files containing that string of characters. Pipe it to less if you get too many things to sort easily: locate ndiswrapper | less

kiker · 12-30-2004, 04:28 PM

first, i dont know why, but i don't have the directory "/var/log/messages", so i can't check there what is goin on.
then:

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up 
wlan0: unknown interface: No such device

Im going to try that thing of searching the "ndiswrapper", but until now, do u have any other idea?