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NetGear A6200 - how to use it?
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subox
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Location: Bytów/Szczecin

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:13 am    Post subject: NetGear A6200 - how to use it? Reply with quote

Hi,

today I got a wifi adapter netgear A6200.
My iwconfing shows me this:
Code:
suboxDell subox # iwconfig
enp3s0    no wireless extensions.
wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Winter is comming" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 9C:34:26:8A:A5:F4   
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=16 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=56/70  Signal level=-54 dBm 
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:387   Missed beacon:0
sit0      no wireless extensions.
lo        no wireless extensions.em with showing it in iwconfig:


lsusb:
Code:
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0846:9050 NetGear, Inc. A6200 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wireless Adapter [Broadcom BCM43526]


I have installed:
Code:
net-wireless/broadcom-sta
net-wireless/ndiswrapper


Code:
suboxDell subox # ndiswrapper -l
bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed
   device (0846:9050) present


Any idea what I did wrong?
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox,

You should not need net-wireless/ndiswrapper. That's an interface layer between linux and windows drivers using the ndis standard.
It allows you to use Windows drivers on linux ... sometimes.

net-wireless/broadcom-sta is a kernel driver for some broadcom devices. I think its also provided in kernel now. If so, use the in kernel version as it will be maintained with the kernel.

Your device device 0846:9050, has a Netgear Device ID but it appears to be a BCM43526.
On the Broadcom page for kernel drivers, the chip is listed as unsupported.
That only leaves a Broadcom binary blob of some sort, either for Linux or Windows, with ndiswrapper.

From your
iwconfig:
wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Winter is comming"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 9C:34:26:8A:A5:F4
the wireless part is actually working.
What does
Code:
ifconfig -a
show?

If wlp2s0 does not have an IP address. Try
Code:
dhcpcd wlp2s0
then look again.
Any errors will be useful, as will the dmesg output. dmesg is too big for a post. Put it onto a pastebin and post a link.
_________________
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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subox
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Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 33
Location: Bytów/Szczecin

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reply.
Quote:
On the Broadcom page for kernel drivers, the chip is listed as unsupported.
That only leaves a Broadcom binary blob of some sort, either for Linux or Windows, with ndiswrapper.

That's why I tried ndiswrapper.

wlp2s0 is a different card(Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 BGN), which is builtin with my laptop wifi adapter (I don't want to use this one). The broadcom one is NetGear A6200 in 802.11ac.

Code:
suboxDell ~ # ifconfig -a
enp3s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.3.1  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.3.255
        ether 5c:f9:dd:5b:3b:22  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 20  bytes 1536 (1.5 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 20  bytes 1536 (1.5 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

sit0: flags=128<NOARP>  mtu 1480
        sit  txqueuelen 1  (IPv6-in-IPv4)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp2s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.0.0.5  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 10.0.0.255
        inet6 2601:647:4800:56e5:519a:e521:1775:37b3  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fe80::86a6:c8ff:fee2:fec8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 84:a6:c8:e2:fe:c8  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 138096  bytes 94872949 (90.4 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 103439  bytes 20310235 (19.3 MiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0


dmesg of plugin wifi adapter:
Code:
[36255.789856] usb 3-3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[36255.956532] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9050
[36255.956538] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[36255.956542] usb 3-3: Product: NETGEAR A6200 WiFi Adapter
[36255.956558] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: NETGEAR
[36255.956559] usb 3-3: SerialNumber: 000000000001


full dmesg:
http://pastebin.com/tK3NqVV4
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox,

Your dmesg shows that [ 148.334651] ndiswrapper version 1.59 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no) ndiswrapper loaded.

How did you install the Windows drivers for the NetGear A6200 so that ndiswrapper could wrap them?
ndiswrapper itself is not a driver. Its a translation layer between the Linux kernel and Windows drivers.

I would have expected dmesg to mention the driver in use when you connected the A6200 but theres nothing.
Google says ndiswrapper and Windows drivers is the way to go though.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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subox
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Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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Location: Bytów/Szczecin

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I tired to used ndiswrapper -i and paste the *.inf file. I got the file from:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/460277/how-to-get-netgear-a6200-to-work-on-14-04
Code:
With Ubuntu 14.04 I did the following steps:

sudo apt-get install ndisgtk
wget www.mediafire.com/?od9wpw6ccrnyhaa
unzip A6200_Linux_drivers.zip
sudo ndisgtk
Then when ndisgtk is running, choose the file ending in "ing" that was unzipped. It should be bcmwlhigh5.inf. Once that is installed you can select a wifi network from the Network menu-bar item.


Even the ndiswrapper doesn't work.
Did I use incorrect driver or I need to do some more steps?
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox,

This old page tells how to install
the windows driver into ndiswrapper. It must be a 32 bit Windows driver and your kernel must be capable of running 32 bit code.

You can skip the the ndiswrapper installation, as you have done that.
Start at "If all went well, you should now have NDISWrapper installed."

The command
Code:
 sudo ndiswrapper -i <name>.inf
tells ndiswrapper to read the *.inf file and install the files listed there so that it can find them later.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
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khayyam
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox ...

return the card while you still can.

best ... khay
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subox
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NeddySeagoon:

I removed previous driver of A6200_linux (which I found on the old ubuntu forum). Downloaded a few versions from offical web page. All of them install correctly using ndiswrapper and when I load ndiswrapper module, nothing is displayed in dmesg:
Code:
[    8.452164] cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)
[   44.824557] usb 3-3: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[   44.991241] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9050
[   44.991247] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[   44.991251] usb 3-3: Product: NETGEAR A6200 WiFi Adapter
[   44.991254] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: NETGEAR
[   44.991257] usb 3-3: SerialNumber: 000000000001
[   69.847378] ndiswrapper version 1.59 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)


full link to dmesg:
http://pastebin.com/fjKa1iSS

Code:
suboxDell ~ # ndiswrapper -l
bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed
   device (0846:9050) present

This driver is 32bit.

I have also recompiled the kernel and turn on:
Code:
suboxDell ~ # grep -rin 32 /usr/src/linux/.config
47:CONFIG_ZONE_DMA32=y
64:CONFIG_INIT_ENV_ARG_LIMIT=32
739:CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION=y
740:# CONFIG_IA32_AOUT is not set
[b]741:CONFIG_X86_X32=y[/b]

I guess it should support 32bit driver.

Do you have any other ideas?
On google i found that after loading ndiswrapper module the device should show up in dmesg.

khayyam: according to ubuntu's users this card works on linux so it should work on gentoo
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox,

Code:
739:CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION=y
is the option that allows the execution of 32 bit code.

Are you actually using the new kernel?
Look at the date/time in
Code:
$ uname -v
That is the build date/time of the running kernel.
If your kernel is older that you expected, you are unlikely to be running your new kernel.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
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khayyam
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox wrote:
khayyam: according to ubuntu's users this card works on linux so it should work on gentoo

subox ... it may very well work in some limited capacity using ndis, but experience teaches me that it will work nothing like what you might call stable, or with the features of the card spec. If you want to take the word of some ubuntu user then fine, but I would advise you to return it ... and I say that as someone with fairly extensive experience with linux wireless (see my post history).

Note also: your intel card (probably mini-pcie) will have a fairly decent antenna (by laptop standards), a USB adaptor will have a PCB strip/butterfly ... the latter will be just about enough to have the thing act as a radio, but is no substitute for the former. So if you're expecting 802.11ac to outperform 802.11n then it probably won't given other hw factors (that is, if you can establish a stable connection given the way ndis works).

best ... khay
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subox
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

@NeddySeagoon:
as I wrote this is my actual kernel config: CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION is compiled.
Code:
suboxDell ~ # uname -v
#10 SMP Tue Jun 14 23:50:26 PDT 2016

In the dmesg from my previous post the date of kernel is the same:
Code:
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.4.5-tuxonice (root@suboxDell) (gcc version 4.9.3 (Gentoo 4.9.3 p1.5, pie-0.6.4) ) #10 SMP Tue Jun 14 23:50:26 PDT 2016

Do you have any other ideas what else can be wrong?

@khayyam:
My intel card works on n very poorly. I checked this card on other computer under windows and it works perfectly fine on ac. I will keep that card cause it was a good price for it (used one) but I would try to test it under linux to see what are the limitations, if there are any :).
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

subox,

I missed that date, sorry.

I'm with khayyam about ndiswrapper. It may work some of the time with some windows drivers and some kernels.
Not all windows drivers are ndis complant, in which case, it won't work at all.

It does have a long history of being useful though. A long time ago, I used it with a Windows software modem.
Then 56kFLEX came along and I got a real serial port modem.

Intel support is usually pretty good in Linux, so I'm surprised you are having problems.
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