Wireless card troubles (DWL-510 with ndiswrapper)
 

Hi there, looking for a little help getting my 'net connection working in Linux - I've been trying by myself for a bit and feel I've got neeeearly there, but it seems something isn't quite right with something.

I'm not really familiar with this router, a Linksys BEF something-or-other, so it could be something set wrong there (it works with my WindowsXP kit).

I'm using Mandrake Community 10.1, and it seems pretty sweet, probably the best linux I've tried so far and if I can just get over this hurdle I can put it as my main OS!

OK, so I've used ndiswrapper to install NETDLWL.INF, and it appears to check out good, with the output saying "hardware present". The activity light on the back flashes too.

At this point, I'm getting a little confused. The GUI for the network settings shows wlan0 as being "nVidia MCP ethernet" which is of course my NForce2's onboard LAN. Not sure why this is, if it's just cosmetic I can live with it - but it might be a problem?

I thought I'd make sure things went right (yeah, right ) by using Konsole to make sure things went as they should. However, things don't seem to change as I think they should. For instance, I tried typing "iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed", yet "iwconfig wlan0" returns "Ad-Hoc".

I've also had it change from listing my essid from the correct one to "off/any" - it then informs me that "network is up on interface wlan0" - yet I can ping no address but localhost...not even the router/ap!

I feel that something is b0rked that shouldn't be, if someone knowledgable could help me out with this I don't mind learning stuff (that's the reason I'm installing) and I'm just about good enough to know what you're talking about if you need more info (hopefully)!

Cheers for any help you can give me on this

Sheepeh


<edit> Just realised after a little googling that the netdlwl driver is the source of the constant pauses in Linux, so followed advice to use the RealTek ones. I already had those working in WindowsXP (the official D-Link ones blue screen every few minutes, so have the RealTek ones "hacked" already). They install fine, but don't give a "hardware present" message and wlan0 has disapeared from the interface list. Is that normal for the RealTek drivers? The Control Panel GUI shows the card as what it really is (D-Link DWL-510) so could this have a bearing on it? I'm getting a nasty feeling I'm changing things so much it's gonna be hell getting it working again :( This is the first thing I've tried to set up, so if it looks like it is broken beyond repair it's not too much to just kill it and clean install. Here's hoping! </edit>

Just leave the GUI cause it shows things wrong often. It doesn't sound good that ndiswrapper doesn't say hardware present but could you try setting your essid with Konsole to see if it might come up still. Use this:

OK, here is the current reply to the commands.

[root@localhost ndiswrapper-0.11]# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
net8180 driver present
netdlwl driver present, hardware present



ndiswrapper version 0.11 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: using irq 11
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device <MAC address> using driver netdlwl
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP
ndiswrapper: driver netdlwl (D-Link,05/23/2003,5.140.0523.2003) added
ndiswrapper: driver net8180 (Realtek,03/12/2004,5.168.0312.2004) added

[root@localhost ndiswrapper-0.11]# iwconfig wlan0 essid sheepnet
[root@localhost ndiswrapper-0.11]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:off/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412Ghz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power 20 dBm Sensitivty=0/3
Encryption key : off
Power Management : off

(was copied out by hand, so ignore any spelling mistakes ;) )

It looks like your essid doesn't get set. That way you won't be able to connect to an AP which is your problem now. You're not the only one who has trouble setting the essid lately but I don't know a fix for it.

Damn! I have had it where it said it was "up" and the monitor was showing outward traffic - but not receiving any inwards. That could just be background traffic and just scanning though I suppose. I'll keep playing with it. This is the only Linux system that gave me sound, and detects my printer and scanner - so close but so far!!

bwahaha! Just thought I'd post to say I've got it all working with the DWL, using ndiswrapper, and I'm posting this using it right now...!

Now all I have to do to make it great is to get 3d accel working (which as you probably know isn't easy with ATi, and after a little searching it seems that the official drivers don't support Xorg yet...I think I might leave that for a while - if I nuke X I'll be truly screwed ;) )

How?
 

Any chance you or anyone else can explain how you got this working? I am having the exact same problem and have been playing with it for months now (most of the time has been spent in Windows, going back every once in a while to play with it).

Hi

Here some information:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=373241

Dio