I think I know what is wrong. I also have a prism54 chipset. However, try this first:
There are a couple of things you may have done wrong: 1) Make sure ndiswrapper is modprobed. 2) "iwconfig wlan0 essid WLAN" is right. "iwconfig wlan0 ssid WLAN" is wrong. iwconfig expects essid. I'm not sure exactly what, if any, the difference between essid and ssid is, but iwconfig only accepts essid.
Try this, from the beginng: (reboot)
Code Sample
sudo su ndiswrapper -i /home/dsl/wlan/wg511v2.inf modprobe ndiswrapper ndiswrapper -l iwconfig
After ndiswrapper, you should see driver and hardware present. After iwconfig, hopefully, wlan0, or ath0, or something like that shows up with some wireless info (IEEE 802.11g, ESSID, Frequency, etc). If so, continue:
Code Sample
iwconfig wlan0 essid "WLAN" pump -i wlan0
If you don't see wlan0 anywhere, something is wrong, and I think I know exactly what it is. Like i said before, I also have a prism54 chipset wireless card. Even with ndiswrapper, it requires a 2.6 kernel. DSL has a 2.4 kernel. The 2.6 kernel requirement theory is further reinforced by the success storeies on ndiswrapper having all occurred with a 2.6 kernel. I solved this problem with my card by using DSL-N, instead of DSL. It worked like magic. All the frustration went away.
DSL-N is beta software. It is twice the size of DSL. It includes the newer, 2.6 kernel, as well as the full core utils, mplayer, and some other common, larger pieces of software. Honestly, I believe it is capable of everyday use. Many people, in fact, use it for everyday use. I think it is your best bet to get your card working.
Sorry I didn't notice this earlier.
Also, the fullmac, softmac thing you were referring to, only applies to the prism54 native driver. Getting that to work is a nightmare (If simplicity was a person, she would have nightmares about the structure of prism54.org), and also requires a 2.6.13+ kernel (not available in either DSL). The windows drivers have the firmware (full/soft mac) in their drivers. No need to worry about firmware when using ndiswrapper.u should call netgear support and have them set up your router. the essid and wep-assuming u use wep encryption- are selected and setup by you with their help. after that, assuming u have installed the firmware-drivers for your card- use the dsl setup with the values u setup for ur card with netgear support. u can check that the drivers are installed with dmesg|less cmd., scroll down until u confirm that they are installed. u can also use the diswrapper for wep using the drivers on the card cd. sourceforge has a neat wiki on that, google it under ndiswrapper. at any rate u should setup your router first with ur selected essid and wep and then go from there. i know the procedure but its too long to list here. good luck.Well guys ... i solved my driver problems and got this card to work! Thanks ...
Now've to manage the wpa thing, 'cause all my windows computer use wpa encryption ...
I've seen, that working with wpa_supplicant will be much more diffcult ... maybe i should shoot myself How did you get it to work? Does it work with DSL?Well, i used the following commands (as you said) ...
sudo su ndiswrapper -i /home/dsl/wlan/wg511v2.inf modprobe ndiswrapper ndiswrapper -l iwconfig
iwconfig wlan0 essid "WLAN"
I think, that i first used wrong drivers, 'cause i got the "invalid driver" ... but now all (beside of the wpa thing) works fine. I temporarily changed the encryption of my router to WEP to see, if my wg511v2 will works ... everything was fine ...
Then i went back und changed the settings to WPA and tried to configure my WG511v2 using the wpa_supplicant tool ... but there's no chance. I searched the net & found much infos, but i think, configuring WPA will kick the **** out of my brain ... it's too difficult (i think).
