wireless nightmare: wg111t usb and linux
 

hi all. i am a beginner on linux. i appreciate the patience of all the helpful posters here. this is my dilemma:

i managed to install ubuntu (breezy badger 5.10)
i have been trying for 2 days to get my netgear wg111t usb adapter to work. i installed ndiswrapper and used it with windows drivers from netgear website.

here is what i can get out of linux:
-inputing "lsusb -v" shows my adapter @ bus004 Device 2 and gives usbid as 1385:4251 and identifies an atheros chip in the adapter

-inputing "ndiswrapper -l" shows athfmwdl.sys as "driver present hardware present" and netwg11t.inf as "driver present". now here's the weird bit: there are several driver files included with the netgear propietary software. only these two will read as valid drivers by ndiswrapper, even though one is different from what i use in windows.
further, for some reason inputing "ndiswrapper -e" to disable one of these shows that it is not present although the -l switch shows it as present !!!???

-inputing "iwconfig" shows lo eth0 and sit0 as having no wireless extensions

-inputing ifconfig only shows lo

now get this, i managed to get the drivers loaded by the boot script and using dmesg shows 2 lines that say high speed usb detected in two spots, yet the adapter never blinks the active light. also if i do ifconfig the number of tx/rx bits keeps going higher each time i do it ???!!!

some of this may be inconsequential nonsense but i am just grasping at straws here. after searching all over the net i have come up with several conflicting verdicts on this device. many sites list it with different chip # but all agree it has an atheros chip as does linux.

i feel like either a: i am doing something very basic wrong
or b: this adapter is just not yet supported by linux

please help with any info you have
thanks so much

You should only need to install 1 windows driver for the card, not 2. It sounds like maybe you have the wrong driver installed.

use the ndiswrapper -e <driver name WITHOUT the ".inf"> to remove them, and then reinstall 1 of them and see if it works. If not, remove it and try the other one.

Also, when you do the ndiswrapper -i <path-to-driver> make sure you use the full path to the driver. It does make a difference. I normally just copy the driver files to my a directory on my Linux partition (/root/drivers/driver-name) and use them from there.

helpful, but still stuck
 

thanks masonm for your post.
some of your info was helpful. i doublechecked my windows drivers with device manager, and it listed 2 files: ar5523.bin and wg11tnd5.sys. neither of these are accepted by ndiswrapper. what it does accept are these 2 files from netgear pack: netwg11t.inf and athfmwdl.sys.
i have heard elsewhere that you need both so i originally used both, but after reading your comment i tried each seperately and no dice there either.

you were right about the syntax for ndiswrapper; it asks for the directory name of the driver under /etc/ndiswrapper not the filename in my driver directory, so that was helpful for switching all the drivers back and forth, but still no progress.

any other ideas anyone? thanks for your attention

The *.inf file is the one you need to install in ndiswrapper. Try downloading a fresh one from the manufacturer's website. SOmetimes that helps.

The *.sys file needs to be available in the same directory as the *.inf file, but it's the *.inf file you install. ndiswrapper -i /path-to-/*.inf

Just like to say that you're not alone, I have a Netgear wg111t also, I have got to the exact same point that you're at with both drivers (under Hoary though, not Breezy).

I tried the same thing, removing one driver, removing the other, and I got the same thing, "Hardware present, Driver present" on athfmwdl.sys and "driver present" on netwg11t.inf.

I actually got to the point of frustration and gave up, but don't let that stop you, as I'll be interested in knowing the results of this!

Btw, I tried the drivers both off the CD and from Netgear's website, no dice with either.

I know this thread's a couple of months old, but I wondered if either of you had any joy with this?

I'm at exactly the same stage. Same response from 'ndiswrapper -l'.

I also got the same advice about installing both drivers (athfmwdl & netgg11t) from the ndiswrapper installation wiki.

From here:

$ depmod -a
produces no error messages

$ modprobe ndiswrapper
reports a fatal error, saying module ndiswrapper not found

The drivers seem to have been installed ok (both appear under /etc/ndiswrapper)

Any advice greatly appreciated!

the solution
 

someone tried to tell me this answer early on and i was too stubborn to heed it at first, but here it is:

spend 20-40 bucks on a new wireless pci card. simple as that. i got a belkin for less than 40 and i have never had one problem since.

just tellin it like it is.

Heh heh, yeah I suspected that solution might eventually get suggested.

The Netgear card I'm using is just a borrowed one anyways.

Which specific model Belkin did you pick up? (out of interest, since it sounds like it was straightforward to install)

belkin 54g i think is the one i got. . .whatever the low-level one is called. . .a pci card. . .works great

Hi, You don't say what your Router is (assuming thats how you run your network) but I have found that a Belkin Router does not work well with a Netgear card and vice versa.
Would be interested to know the other component. Could it be that the Belkin PCI card works so well because its talking to a Belkin Router?

Replying via a wg111 USB dongle
 

I used masonm's suggestions (but the driver is off the CD and not from the website). Main issue I had was ensuring that the configuration was set up correctly. In my case this is done through the MIPIS OS Center. Not sure if this helps at all - I'm a noob with Linux as well so I count this as a major victory for me...

Every release of Ubuntu includes an updated kernel with more device support than the one before. Being a change addict I always update when new releases come out. IMHO, If you have hardware that's not directly supported by an older Ubuntu release, upgrade to the latest. WiFi support in particular continues to expand with each release.

i've gotten the netgear USB WG111T working under Fedora Core 6. I used the windows .inf file from the disk that came with the adaptor.

USB wireless cards have been consistently buggy for me (i've tried linksys wrt54g and this netgear). Both lead to system crashes when unplugged or plugged in while the system is running. They are picky as to what usb ports they are plugged into. they are also buggy when other USB hardware is plugged in.

nevertheless, i've got the thing up and working. I have another thread in here relating to my system crashes directly linked to the USB wireless cards.

it is possible to get this thing working....good luck!