HOWTO: Ndiswrapper Wireless Setup

[theoakwise]

I've got everything installed and configured correctly, but something's wrong with my /etc/modules.d/ndiswrapper file, I think. At boot, the ndiswrapper module is loaded correctly, and then it goes to execute the line:

loadndisdriver /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmw15/

and fails. If I type it manually, it loads ok and the card works (i'm using it to write this). However, doing a "modprobe ndiswrapper" gives me the message "cannot access config directory /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmw15/"

any thoughts? The directory exists, and running the same command by hand, rather than part of the ndiswrapper module script, works. I'm stuck.

--
theoakwise

[koubiak]

Hi all,

I am trying to reinstall my laptop and it doesn't work on an intel2100

The dmesg looks corrects


iwconfig says that wlan0 is no wireless interface or something like that ...

any idea

I know that it was working before with the old Howto So if you have a back up I will enjoy it

Kouby with a 2.6.6-rc3-mm1

[koubiak]

I have install the 0.7 version and it works fine ....

Anyway I'm happy

Koubiak

[layyze]

Hey I have an emachines m6809 laptop, which has a broadcom 94306 wireless NIC. I am using the 2.6.6-love5 kernel and the latest ndiswrapper CVS w/ the emachines broadcom driver as given on the ndiswrapper site.

I have been trying for weeks to get the BCM94306 to work right, and although I have gotten pretty far - I am now stuck. Ndiswrapper compiles correctly and loads up the driver. When I do a modprobe ndiswrapper I get:

ndiswrapper version 0.7+CVS loaded
ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:4b:78:24:07 using driver bcmwl5.sys

That all looks good. I then use iwconfig to point the card to the right AP ESSID. An iwconfig output gives:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"wireless"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462GHz Cell: 8A:1E:12:44:ED:F6
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power:24 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-57 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

The problem is that I cannot pull an IP address with dhcp or get on the network using a static address. Please help - it is driving me crazy.

[handsomepete]

I am using the 2.6.6-love5 kernel and the latest ndiswrapper CVS w/ the emachines broadcom driver as given on the ndiswrapper site.
...
The problem is that I cannot pull an IP address with dhcp or get on the network using a static address. Please help - it is driving me crazy.

I have the same problem with the 0.8-rc1 listed on their site. Try the 0.7 release and see if it does the same thing. If not, might want to drop a bug report on the ndiswrapper mailing list about current CVS.

[chizu]

Hey I have an emachines m6809 laptop, which has a broadcom 94306 wireless NIC. I am using the 2.6.6-love5 kernel and the latest ndiswrapper CVS w/ the emachines broadcom driver as given on the ndiswrapper site.

I have the exact same laptop and a similar problem but I can't even set the essid. I'm using 2.6.6-mm5, ndiswrapper 0.7. The ndiswrapper sourceforge page has a bug report for the driver not working with 2.6.6, perhaps that is our problem?

[teedog]

I've uploaded a working ebuild for the latest NdisWrapper v0.8-rc1 to bugzilla.
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49479

[layyze]

The ndiswrapper sourceforge page has a bug report for the driver not working with 2.6.6, perhaps that is our problem?

Possibly. I had similar problems in earlier 2.6 kernels (2.6.4 and 2.6.5). I hear that ndiswrapper works right on the m6809 with the 2.6.3, but I don't want to downgrade because everything else but the wireless works great in 2.6.6.

I did another iwlist scan and even though my wireless NIC says that it is in managed mode, the scan says that the nic and the wap are in ad-hoc (and I have verified with other laptops that the wap is in ad-hoc). So really I can only set the essid and scan in ad-hoc mode, which doesn't help me at all.

I'm going to try the 0.7 release again and see if I can get anywhere with that one.

[morffius]

Hi guys. I am new to this and I have the SMC2802w v2. Using ndiswrapper I can make&& make install. I can modprobe ndiswrapper. But when i dmesg I see :

ndiswrapper version 0.8-rc2 loaded

and not

wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Do I have to do anything to set up a wlan0 ?? If so... what is it I need to do?

Thanks for the help guys.

[^DoCtOr^]

Hi guys. I am new to this and I have the SMC2802w v2. Using ndiswrapper I can make&& make install. I can modprobe ndiswrapper. But when i dmesg I see :

ndiswrapper version 0.8-rc2 loaded

and not

wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Do I have to do anything to set up a wlan0 ?? If so... what is it I need to do?

Thanks for the help guys.

Hi, I am setting it up for the first time too, got it up successfully (luckily). I didn't grab the latest ndiswrapper, for which I installed 0.7 and I did not see any "wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" in dmesg too.

However, if ndiswrapper -l shows v2802w present, and modprobe ndiswrapper doesnt show any errors, you should see wlan0 automatically assigned to your wireless card. For iwconfig to work you will need to emerge wireless-tools as described in the first post. Hope you got it!

[scootersmk]

you need to:

cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.wlan0

then with wireless tools and nidiswrapper modules loaded with correct driver you should be able to bring up the interface.

[bin-doph]

Hi,

I used this howto a couple of times ... it really looks good, but I cant get my essid to be set. I use ndiswrapper-0.6

my card is a

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Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 02)

The driver is loaded "ok", I guess

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# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5  present
# modinfo ndiswrapper
parm:           if_name:Network interface name or template (default: wlan%d)
parm:           proc_uid:The uid of the files created in /proc (default: 0).
parm:           proc_gid:The gid of the files created in /proc (default: 0).
license:        GPL
vermagic:       2.6.5-gentoo-r1 K7 gcc-3.3
depends:
# lsmod |grep ndis
ndiswrapper            65356  0
# dmesg |tail -n 5
ndiswrapper version 0.6 loaded
ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 0000:00:0d.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:00:02.7
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:30:bd:93:4e:b9 using driver bcmwl5.sys

The device is available but the essid stays unchanged if I try to set it.

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# ifconfig wlan0 down
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "test"
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 | grep -i essid
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""
# ifconfig wlan0 down
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "test2"
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 | grep -i essid
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""

No additional infos/errors are reported in syslog/dmesg it just stays unchanged but this behaviour is only for ESSID (I tried chaning nick, mode, key... which does work). The card itself works properly (if I iwconfig-wlan0-scan my wlan I get my WAP and can read its config)

I also tried different flavours of ndiswrapper (from source and with ebuilds) with the same result . It just keeps bugging me *gnaaa*

thx for any advice

-fe

[theNeonGod]

Same issue. essid won't set. Funny thing is i think i did manage to set it once... but alas, no more.

[theNeonGod]

System: Dell Inspiron 8500, P4, 2.4, other good stuff
Wireless: (from lspci) Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Okay. I tried the ebuild of .6, no dice. Tried the source of .8, golden, but there's still some things i need to ask about. My dmesg says this:

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ndiswrapper version 0.8 loaded
ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:4b:b2:91:f6 using driver bcmwl5.sys

How does this look? I'm not sure if it's supposed to say ndiswrapper version x loaded or not or whatever... i'd just like to know if this looks good so far.

It seems to be recognized, only when i try to set the essid using

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#iwconfig wlan0 essid wireless

it doesn't seem to actually set the essid. Annoying.

Probably related to that but still an issue in and of itself is that dhcpcd doesn't grab an ip for it, so it's more or less unusable. Is this related to the essid issue?

Please reply or comment on whatever part of this you can, i know that i mentioned a lot.

Thanks!

[handsomepete]

Try putting quotes around the essid name (i.e. "wireless" instead of wireless). Everything looks good if that's what it's outputting. You won't be able to get a dhcp address until you attach to an ap, so I wouldn't worry about that at all.

[yipmister]

Hi all,

I did much reading of this thread as well as google on my own, but i still am not be able to get my Linksys WMP54G PCI card on Dell box.

Would someone who has got similar configuration working shine some light on what i should do?

Here are information about the computer architecture and kernel:
Dell Dimension 4100
output of uname -a

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root@spear linux # uname -a
Linux spear 2.4.20-gentoo-r7 #1 Sun Sep 14 13:55:59 EDT 2003 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

As you can see i use the 2.4 kernel and i got wireless support enabled in my kernel...

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root@spear linux # cat .config | grep NET_
# CONFIG_NET_IPIP is not set
# CONFIG_NET_IPGRE is not set
# CONFIG_INET_ECN is not set
# CONFIG_NET_DIVERT is not set
# CONFIG_NET_FASTROUTE is not set
# CONFIG_NET_HW_FLOWCONTROL is not set
# CONFIG_NET_SCHED is not set
# CONFIG_NET_PKTGEN is not set
CONFIG_NET_FC=y
CONFIG_NET_SB1000=m
CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_3COM=y
CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_SMC=y
CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_RACAL=y
CONFIG_NET_ISA=y
CONFIG_NET_PCI=y
CONFIG_NET_BCM4400=m
CONFIG_NET_POCKET=y
CONFIG_NET_BROADCOM=m
CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y
CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y
CONFIG_NET_FC=y

I emerged net-wireless/wireless-tools-26, and i also emerge ndiswrapper (ebuild version, did not install manually) net-wireless/ndiswrapper-0.6-r1

This is what shows up from lspci

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02:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 03)

So I downloaded Driver 2 of Broadcom 94306 from http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/supp ... psets.html

after i installed the downloaded window drivers, here is what shows up from ndiswrapper -l

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root@spear linux # ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5  present

And here is my /etc/modules.d/ndiswrapper

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alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
options ndiswrapper if_name=wlan0
post-install ndiswrapper loadndisdriver /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5

I tried different suggestions on this thread... and still ended up with the following...

output of ifconfig wlan0

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#ifconfig wlan0
Warning: cannot open /proc/net/dev (Permission denied). Limited output.
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr *correct card address* 
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          Interrupt:11 Memory:feafc000-feafdfff 

output of iwconfig

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root@spear linux # iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

tap0      no wireless extensions.

eql       no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF  
          Bit Rate:54Mb/s   Tx-Power:16 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:0   Missed beacon:0

I did made sure the frequency is correct.. 2.437GHz... and i did not turn on WEP.. everytime when i use iwconfig on wlan0 i bring it down first using ifconfig.. as suggested from some other posts...

When i do a iwlist wlan0 scan, it returns no scan results.. (even though its right next to the router).. Here are the last bits of dmesg....

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..........
ndiswrapper version 0.6 loaded
ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device *card address* using driver bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
ndiswrapper version 0.6 loaded
ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device *card address* using driver bcmwl5.sys
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
Cannot add duplicate driver
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

whenever i do iwconfig wlan0 essid home, it does not set the ESSID, and the hwdr of the access point was always all Fs since i did mobprobe..

The only thing i have not tried is upgrade the kernel to 2.6 (but i am afraid it will produce some other problems with my other software on the box).. install the newest package manually.. or use the driver that came with the Linksys CD... or if there is anything to do with the router is not IPv6???

I seen quite a few success and some failure as well on this post that has to do with this chipset... can those who got it working give me some ideas....??

Any ideas/pointers/suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated!

[sahoover]

I had/have the exact same problem, upgrading to 2.6 kernel probably wont fix things because I have tried it... You can always try the cvs version off of source forge and compile it yourself. They're up to 0.8 over there I think. Aside from that all I can say is good luck, and if you want to try a 2.6 kernel just compile it and add it to your bootloader, and then you can always switch back.

[yipmister]

Thanks for the reply sahoover!!!

I did compiled the 2.6 kernel... though now i have other problems to deal with on that end... i probably just havent research carefully before i compile...(its related to nvidia module failing to load.. among other things..)

BUT! I got my wireless to work with Linksys WMP54G !!!! yay!!

Here is what I have done... simple, i did one of the steps i havent try.. that is.. I removed the driver i downloaded from ndiswrapper supported chipset website and i installed the one that came with the Linksys CD instead!!!!

for anyone who has not tried that and have not gotten it to work.. you should TRY it! you might be surprised!!!

Thanks again!! and good luck for everyone

[HogRider]

System: Dell Inspiron 8500, P4, 2.4, other good stuff
Wireless: (from lspci) Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
<snip>

I have the same chipset in my HP zd7000. Make sure your using the bcmwl5a.inf (notice the 'a').

Check here.

And to automate setting the essid on boot, check here

[Genis]

whenever I try to run

/usr/sbin/loadndisdriver 14e4 4320 /lib/windrivers/bcmwl5.sys /lib/windrivers/bcmwl5.inf

it always says loadndisdriver <-a> <driver>

why would this happen?

Also, when I run iwconfig, my adapter shows up, but I cant set its essid and the ap mac is always FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

Any Ideas?
I am running ndiswrapper 0.8
and a BCM4306 <rev 03>
(it is a emachines m3512)
(kernel-2.6.7-rc3-mm2)
Thanks

[RayDude]

ndiswrapper 0.8 bcmwl5

I just got my Laptop working with Wireless using this faq, the INSTALL text file, and a couple of other google searches.

The most important thing is to realize that iwlist wlan0 scan shows you what environment your wireless card is in, and iwconfig configures your card.

With working transmition, iwlist always shows this for me:
iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:70:C8:7E
ESSID:"NETGEAR"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462GHz
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-40 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

So Quality listed here is unimportant.

And the quality display from iwconfig is always 100 even with the SSID not set (the laptop is six inches from the base station).

With my netgear router I have to configure WEP before setting the ESSID.
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX

Then I set the ESSID this way
iwconfig wlan0 essid "NETGEAR"

Please note that for me ndiswrapper -l always returns:
Can't use string ("") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 339, <LS2> line 1.

But it is working. I just have to remember the name of the drivers I installed if I want to remove them.

I had a hellofa time getting the windows drivers from the ASUS executables. I had to install it under XP to get it and even then the inf didn't work, so I ended up using the inf with my Dell Drivers, but the sys file from c:\windows\system32\drivers\bcmwl5.sys which is the asus driver (which works under XP btw).

I have to admit, Gentoo Rocks. Its the first Linux I've played with in years that doesn't kill me when I try to do something. It resists sometimes, but I can always get it to work.

Thanks much for this FAQ and thanks much for Gentoo.

--Raydude

[dieterv]

thanks alot for the howto

I got it working on my Sony PCG-Z1XSP

[layyze]

I *finally* got my Broadcom wireless to work on my m6809 using ndiswrapper. Here is a link to the thread where I posted how I did it:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php? ... ight=m6809

[mlybarger]

i dont' think i have all the terminology on this quite yet, and haven't read completely through the 5 pages of posts on this thread but thought i'd post where i am.

i have a wifi card in my notbook. it works ok using ndiswrapper when encryption is turned off at the router. i cannot connect to the router when encrytpion is turned on. i can't even get it to set the essid using "iwconfig wlan0 essid MYESSID". nothing gets set. no error. nothing. i'm off to go reading through this now. and will probably add more later.

[edit]
i've been able to connect to my router (belkin) successfully using encryption only under the following circumstances: router set to unencrypted, boot gentoo, connect wlan0 to router unencrypted, bring wlan0 down. goto another machine on network, and turn on encryption security using autogen for the key. using new key bring up wlan0 ok.

if i reboot my gentoo, it won't bring up the interface. in my /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 script (copied from /etc/init.d/net.eth0 script) i've added in the section that brings up the device:

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iwconfig wlan0 essid "MYESSID"
iwconfig wlan0 key 0101-0202-03
iwconfig

the last line is just to see the settings took. the essid isn't getting set when encryption is turned on. it only keeps the essid from before when encryption is turned off. this is really strange. any ideas why this is happening like this? i really don't like leaving my router w/o encryption turned on. my neighbor also has a wifi router, but has encryption turned on. i can see his router ok from where i am, so i assume he can see mine. any ideas/suggestions?

[TheMox]

Thanks for the very clear howto. Everything went fine as I followed along step by step for my MA521 card.

However, even though iwlist can see my wireless lan, I cannot connect.

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bash-2.05b# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:04:E2:8E:8B:9A
                    ESSID:"SMC"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.437GHz
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-62 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s

I then try to configure... but it doesn't seem to work right.

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bash-2.05b# iwconfig wlan0 essid any
bash-2.05b# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Auto  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF  
          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
                    Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s

Bringing up wlan0 up does not seem right, either.

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bash-2.05b# ifconfig wlan0 up
bash-2.05b# ifconfig
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 b)  TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:09:5B:64:10:04  
          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:11 Memory:10400000-104000ff

And then I can try to get an IP, but no dice.

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bash-2.05b# dhcpcd -d wlan0
dhcpcd: MAC address = 00:09:5b:64:10:04
................(never connects)...................

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

J