HOWTO: Ndiswrapper Wireless Setup

[allan]

Thanks for this guide. It got me up and running, though I did have one stumbling block.

My machine is an eMachines 5313 with the Broadcom BMC4306 (needing ndiswrapper).

After following the steps outlined here, I was able to see the chipset in less than 20 minutes, but all attempts to get on the air failed.

So I killed a day trying different drivers and even broke the seal on the restore CDs that came with the laptop. (I really didn't want to do that. *sigh*)

Then after doing some google'ing, I came across someone who has a related model of laptop and a tarball with instructions and drivers they used to get it running.

In the instruction file was a small note on how by default many eMachine laptops (including those without network indicator lights, like my model) have the wireless transmitter turned off and you need to turn it on. (That's the "(((e)))" key. [Fn+F2].)

That was it. I could have been online via wireless last night if I knew to check that.

Perhaps as a trouble shooting suggestion that could be added to the guide? You know, to prompt us idiots who should have realized to check that.

Oh, well, at any rate I'm now online via wireless and don't need to stay within 12 feet of my hub.

[epohs]

..It looks like I don't even have the wlan module loaded on my system, much less into my kernel.

Any help I could get loading this would be greatly appreciated.. I'm very much a noob.


if this is of any help, here are the contents of lspci:

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0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4320 (rev 03)
0000:00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 05)
0000:00:0d.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 05)
0000:00:13.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT366/368/370/370A/372 (rev 03)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400 AGP (rev 04)

..so, it looks like my network card is being recognized.

[Molerat]

Hey just a quick note to say thanks for this HOWTO. Got my wireless up just like that. Thanks a lot!

[Cappo]

I had problems getting WEP enabled with the WPC54G, and I just posted a new message telling how I got it to work. Check out:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=1479042

[tcma]

Is your gentoo linux 32 or 64 bit?
What is the CPU?

To all those having problems with setting the SSID on the "Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g", here is how I was able to do it:

Originally I was using the e-machines drivers, but I downloaded the dell drivers (kinda makes sense, since my machine is a dell ;) ) and used the bcmwl5a.inf file (and the bcmwl5.sys file) with ndiswrapper. After doing this my wireless card automatically associated itself with my AP! I haven't tried the bcmwl5.inf file, so I'm not sure whether that works, but give this a try if you've been having problems and let me know if it fixed them.

[Benjamin]

Hi!

As the original Netgear driver didn't work very well and the Chip inside is an Realtek 8180L i tried the driver from www.realtek.com.tw!
And it works perfectly!

[19:59:05] [benjamin@benjamin] $ su
Password:
[19:59:10] [root@benjamin] $ ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
net8180 hardware present
[19:59:20] [root@benjamin] $ modprobe ndiswrapper
[20:01:16] [root@benjamin] $ iwconfig wlan0 essid "wlan" key XXXXXXXXXX
[20:01:41] [root@benjamin] $ iwconfig
eth0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

dummy0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"wlan"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412GHz Access Point: 00:60:B3:80:20:8F
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr:2432 B Fragment thr:2432 B
Encryption key:XXXX-XXXX-XX Security mode:restricted
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-50 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

[20:01:44] [root@benjamin] $ ifconfig wlan0 up
[20:01:57] [root@benjamin] $ dhcpcd wlan0

But now this ^^ should be done while the bootup ( so that I have I-net directly after login ) ... how do I manage this?

thanks in advance!
benjamin

[epohs]

Has anyone had any success with the WMP54GS?

I thought it used the Broadcom 94306 Chipset, but i've had a hell of a time finding a driver that works.

I've tried several different drivers (including the one that came on the linksys CD) with varying degrees of success.


Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[rsingh]

this works like a charm on my linksys wpc54g

lspci states it's a broadcom bcm4306 802.11b/g
it's code is 14e4:3202 rev02

i used the "*Broadcom 94306" driver 3 (SP23107A.tar.gz). although there was another driver with the same code above, i figured a tar file would be easier than the exe the other one had.

thanks very much for the guide. please key at it and make an autoloader for wep and essid.

[elias4444]

Has anyone had any success with the WMP54GS?

Yep. Just use the NDISWrapper with the latest downloadable drivers from Linksys. Works great.

[giftnudel]

Hi,

I am using a Sony PCG-Z1XMP with an integrated Centrino a/b/g card (2200bg)
It works using ndiswrapper with the following restrictions:

1. before you scan for an accespoint you need to switch the card off and on again (there is a physical switch)
2. if you set the encryption (iwconfig wlan0 enc XXX open/restricted) and the essid (iwconfig wlan0 essid default) you need to switch the card off and on again to commit the changes.

After this procedure, which has to be done every time the computer boots, it works without any problems

giftnudel

[giftnudel]

Hi,

just read another post in this thread:

To bring up my wlan with a system where I don't have to switch the card off, I wrote a little startup script

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depend() {
        use hotplug pcmcia
        before net
}

start() {
        ebegin "Configuring wireless device"
        iwconfig wlan0 key s:XXXXXXX open ap xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        iwconfig wlan0 essid MyEssid

}

stop() {
        ebegin "Nothing to do"
        eend 0
}

just put it in /etc/init.d/iwconfig and run a

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rc-update add iwconfig default

that should do the trick, configure the wlan0 in /etc/conf.d/net like you would do with a normal nic

giftnudel

[dyqik]

I had similar problems with the power switch and ndiswrapper on my ipw2200 b/g in my Sony V505DP. The solution is to use the native linux drivers in portage as ipw2200, or from ipw2200.sf.net. I posted a howto of how to get the drivers to work at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

A more complete wireless config solution has been written by Uberlord

[Obsidian_MH]

wlan0 shows up now for iwconfig, as well as ifconfig when I set it as being up, but... it won't connect to my essid... I only filter by MAC, so I don't see what the problem would be.

It's a belkin F5D6020 Rev3, BTW.

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iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Auto  Frequency:2.462GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          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:-95 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

Under ad-hoc...

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iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"ImperialNET"
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.462GHz  Cell: 02:E0:31:6B:7C:4C
          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:-95 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

So it sees my AP in Ad-hoc... but not on auto? The hell? And in either case, dhcpcd hangs and won't get an IP...

[5xl]

I have Broadcom 802.11g card and have been unable to get it working. I get FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF for my access point and am unable to set my essid. I happen to come across this in dmesg when troubleshooting:

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handlers:
[<c036015f>] (usb_hcd_irq+0x0/0x67)
Disabling IRQ #5

But then I see this in ifconfig wlan0:

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ifconfig wlan0
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:90:4B:5B:99:A4
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:5 Memory:e8204000-e8205fff

Are the two interupts related? Can't really figure out why I can't set any parameters on my card...

[Lucifeer]

I have a Belkin F5D6020 802.11b Pcmcia and tried the drivers recomended on ndiswrappers homepage. Didnt work at all, then I tried the windows-drivers that I got with the card on a cdrom. Seams to work, card is found and I can use ifconfig wlan0 up to get it listed. Havent tried anything else as I havent got an accesspoint at home.

One problem tho, ndiswrapper makes my system really unstable after I modprobe it. Keyboard hangs once a minute if Im writing, producing a long line of letters from the last letter I pressed (if I pressed one when it hangs). Then after it printed that letter 20-30 times I gain back control until it hangs again. Anyone experienced the same thing?

Running a 2.6.8.1-kernel and ndiswrapper-0.9 downloaded and installed thru emerge. Cardbus-bridge seams to be Toshibas own according to lspci and it runs on the module yenta_socket

[HogRider]

I believe this was posted earlier, but I'll repeat it due to the length of the thread.

I've found that you must set the connection speed and channel via the .inf file prior to loading ndiswrapper with the broadcom driver.

It will not autoselect the connection speed, and you can't change it once ndis is loaded.

You will not 'discover' any access points until the connection speed and channel are configured correctly.

Word to the wise, set the connection speed to twice the standard (802.11b = 22M) to enable full duplex.

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Rate|22
Channel|06

[eddieparker]

Hello!

This is just the guide I'm looking for, but I'm kinda dissapointed as I'm seemingly having trouble with this.

I'm running a Linksys WPC54G card, on a HP Pavilion ZE4400.

The error I get, is when I do the modprobe followed by the dmesg. dmesg yields (at the bottom):

-----------------------[ s t a r t ]
__alloc_pages: 0-order allocation failed (gfp=0x21/0)
ndiswrapper (NdisMAllocateSharedMemory:997): Failed to allocate DMA memory. Windows driver requested 4096 bytes of cached memory

ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:196): log: C0001389, length: 1 (0000000d)

ndiswrapper (ndis_init_one_pci:1458): Windows driver couldn't initialize the device.
-----------------------[ e n d ]

Now, the few things I notice are this:

lspci reports my Network controller as "Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4320 (rev 03)".

I have the right device driver, I'm positive.

I'm just not sure what I could be doing wrong. Does anyone know what'sup?

ANy help would be *most* appreciative!

[htpc101]

Hi All, I am experiencing a problem with a Belkin FSD7010 card (broadcom) ndiswrapped in a Gateway 400SD4 notebook. If I leave the card in the slot and boot the machine, upon ndiswrapper module load I get a machine lock-up and

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Kernel panic:  Aieee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing

This is with various permutations of APIC on/off in the kernel, and ACPI on/off in the kernel, and two kernels (2.6.5-gentoo-r1, 2,6,8-gentoo-r3).
As a further data point, I have had BSD on this system, where I learned that the Gateway's bios ACPI tends to be a bit Windows specific.
That's the bad news. Curiously, if I leave the wireless card out of the slot until after the machine boots completely, insert the card, then start wlan0 with /etc/init.d/wireless start, (I have the baselayout 1.11 installed) all is well and I can google around on my wireless interface.
So why do I care? So I can get all of my startup scripts and rc-update adds in order so the machine can start normally. Thanks in advance for any help!!

Mike

[Wart]

Just can't quite seem to get this to work.. I think it has something to do with the setting auth mod failed line in my dmesg output.. any takers?

Here's my dmesg output

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ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
ndiswrapper: using irq 10
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:30:bd:94:23:48 using driver bcmwl5.sys
ndiswrapper (set_auth_mode:482): setting auth mode failed (C0010015)
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5.sys (Broadcom,12/29/2002, 3.10.36.0) added
bash-2.05b#

and from iwconfig wlan0

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wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/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:-10 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:5282   Missed beacon:0

Oh.. And here's this:

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iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:02:2D:0F:6F:2D
                    ESSID:"ANY"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-30 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100

but if I repeat the scan command I don't constistantly find anything.. i.e. sometimes I see that, othertimes I see nothing

[meriksson]

This works for me.

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4303 802.11b Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

With 'Broadcom 4309' drivers from http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/supp ... psets.html

I just followed the guide.

Thx,
Mathias

[forsen]

Thanks for this great guide!

I used the ndiswrapper 0.9 ebuild

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# emerge ndiswrapper

and then followed your guide.

My dell i8500 works great with my motorola wn825g card

[throck]

My wireless card is a Broadcom 4309 802.11a/b/g card. My AP is a Linksys 802.11b wireless router, with 128 bit encryption turned on. It does broadcast the essid. I have the ndiswrapper loaded. That part seems to work okay.

The problem I am having is that when I run iwconfig to connect to my AP with the essid and encryption key, it won't set the essid (the encryption key sets like it should).

I setup the card by running the following command:

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iwconfig wlan0 essid <myessid> enc <myencryptionkey>

After that, if I run iwconfig wlan0, I get this:

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wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          Bit Rate:54Mb/s   Tx-Power:-2147483648 dBm
          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B
          Encryption key:<myencryptionkey>  Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:100/100  Signal level:-80 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:2  Invalid misc:1506   Missed beacon:0

It doesn't list the Access Point MAC, and doesn't set my essid. If I run an iwlist wlan0 scanning I get:

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wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:41:45:1E:2C
                    ESSID:"myessid"   <--  This line has the right essid in it
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.437GHz
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-26 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

Any ideas of why my card won't connect to my essid?

throck

[meriksson]

Does it work without Encryption?

This is the way i do it!

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid Accesspoint
dhcpcd wlan0


// Mathias

[throck]

I'm not sure if it will work without encryption or not. I have another laptop thta uses the same driver and connects to the same AP, and that one works with no problem. In fact, it didn't give me any issues during installation.

[UPDATE]

Well, silly me. It helps to use the right WEP key when connecting. Duh.

throck

[cluster one]

I've been having some problems with the Linksys WPC54G, version 1.2. I used the driver from the CD, and the card maintains a connection with the router, but it's connecting at an absurdly low spped, approx 4kbps, so slow that downloads while emerging time out before they can complete. Data transmission is also often to some extent scrambled. Would this be due to a config setting? Cheers, Scott