Netgear WG511vg2 card ...
Forum: Networking
Topic: Netgear WG511vg2 card ...
started by: Tri-City-Maniac
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Dec. 10 2006,18:52
Hi,i'm not really new to the linux thing (i used slax and knoppix before), but new to the ndiswrapper tool.
First ... here are my features of me old lappy and my wlan-card:
Medion 9888 with 233mhz PII, 96mb ram & a 3,2gb harddisk
The wlan-card is a Netgear WG511 v2 ...
Ok, i installed dsl syslinux edition on my hd (with lilo bootloader, not grub). Everything works fine and now i wanna run my wlan-card.
I downloaded the wg511v2.inf & the wg511v2.sys file and copied them to my hd (/home/dsl/wlan/). I also downloaded the firmware file, renamed it to isl3890 and also copied that file to hd (/usr/local/lib/firmware/).
But ... what now ... i need an exact to-do list from the beginning to the end, 'cause i always read something about essid and so on, but i don't know, where to get my special essid ...
Thanks in advance for your help & sorry for my bad english ...
cu
Tom
Posted by Winter Knight on Dec. 10 2006,21:51
| Code Sample |
| sudo su ndiswrapper -i /home/dsl/wlan/wg511v2.inf modprobe ndiswrapper iwconfig wlan0 essid "GOGOPOWERRANGERS" pump -i wlan0 |
This assumes that your network device is named wlan0. That's probably it. If the last command fails, see what it is with
| Code Sample |
| iwconfig |
You can also use the GUI. On the desktop, click on DSLPanel. Then click on Ndiswrapper. Fill in those blanks.
If you continue having problems, check out the instructions at < http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net > .
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Dec. 14 2006,08:41
| Quote (Winter Knight @ Dec. 10 2006,16:51) | ||||
This assumes that your network device is named wlan0. That's probably it. If the last command fails, see what it is with
You can also use the GUI. On the desktop, click on DSLPanel. Then click on Ndiswrapper. Fill in those blanks. If you continue having problems, check out the instructions at < http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net > . |
Well ... i typed ...
ndiswrapper -l
wg511v2 driver present, hardware present
But when i type ...
iwconfig
lo no wireless extension
How can i figure out, was my "essid" is?
Cu
Tri-City-Maniac
Posted by Winter Knight on Dec. 14 2006,09:54
What is the brand of your router? If it is netgear, your essid is probably "NETGEAR". If it is linksys, it is "linksys". Caps matter.You may be able to get a listing of the essids in your area with:
| Code Sample |
| iwlist wlan0 scan |
iwlist does not work with some cards/drivers. I think it works with most. If it works, your ESSID is the one with the "smallest" Signal level. Signal level is measured in negative values. Closer to 0 is stronger signal. Unless your situation is unusual, or your router is faulty, your router should be the one with the best signal.
You can also determine your essid by checking your router's configuration options. ESSID, or SSID, is usually on the front page via the web interface. Your router docs may be able to help further. Your router docs may be able to help you change your ESSID to something more meaningful to you. It will be less likely to conflict with your neighbors too.
"wg511v2 driver present, hardware present"
This is a good sign. It means you are more than halfway done.
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Dec. 14 2006,11:05
Many thanks for trying to help me ... 
It's a Sinus 1054 ...
I typed:
#iwlist wlan0 scan
Interface doesn't support scanning
After that i checked my web interface (as you said) ...
SSID: WLAN ... great ... finally found the ssid ...
#iwconfig wlan0 ssid wlan
Set failed on device wlan0 - No such device
EDIT: Maybe the Marvell cip on the card is my problem. The WG511V2 made in Taiwan works with the prism54. I've got the WG511v2 made in China, which only supports softmac. I heared that the Linux Kernel packed in DSL only suports fullmac ... is this the problem?
Cu
Tri-City-Maniac
Posted by Winter Knight on Dec. 16 2006,01:23
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.
Posted by ivansv on Dec. 22 2006,21:50
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.
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Dec. 26 2006,15:39
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
Posted by Winter Knight on Jan. 02 2007,04:10
How did you get it to work? Does it work with DSL?
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Jan. 02 2007,13:55
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).
But thanks anyway for ypur great help ...
Cu
Tri-City-Maniac
Posted by roberts on Jan. 02 2007,14:29
wpa with ndiswrapper and with my Linksys was fairly easy and is why I added wpa in dsl-v3.2RC2ndiswrapper -i NET8180.INF
ndiswrapper -l
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwlist wlan0 scan
iwconfig wlan0 essid my_essid_here
wpa_supplicant -Bdd -Dndiswrapper -i wlan0 -c /home/dsl/wpa_supplicant.conf
pump -i wlan0
My wpa_supplicant.conf:
network={
ssid="my_ssid_here"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
psk="my_passphrase"
}
Of course YMMV and it is really dependent on finding a wpa_supplicant.conf that will work with your card & access point.
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Jan. 02 2007,14:51
Ok, thanks ... maybe i should try again ...
Posted by robh on Jan. 05 2007,03:38
sorry to bump this thread but i too have joined the throngs of people who are having difficulties with this card...i am running dsl 3 on a hd install and i am trying to follow winter knight's instructions earlier in this thread.
however when i try to install the module with ndiswrapper -i i get this error...
couldn't copy /mnt/hda2/home/dsl/wlan/WG511v2.INF at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 139.
i am using the driver supplied on the cd that came with the adapter and have copied it into a folder on my home directory.
any ideas what i am doing wrong?
Posted by AncientRelic on Jan. 05 2007,20:53
Stupid question, I recently was given a P1/266 Compaq laptop and a WG511v2 adapter, the directions here are excellent except for one small thing. I went to Netgear's website to get the driver, and all Netgear has now is a download for a Windows setup tool, no discrete drivers.Can someone either email me the drivers, or at least tell me where I can get them myself?
Posted by Antognetti on Jan. 07 2007,03:00
Here is what I did (among many, many other things...) to get the netgear card working...run/install the current release candidate
when the machine comes up, check that dhcp client is up in dsl panel
run through wlanconfig in dsl panel
at cmnd prompt do...
sudo su
iwconfig ath0 essid "essidAsListedInRouterConfigScreen"
pump -i ath0
I also have the sys and inf file that get created when you run the setup program on an xp/2k box on my file system and did try pointing ndiswrapper at those files but I didn't get anywhere 'till I put in the latest release candidate
best of luck
Posted by roberts on Jan. 07 2007,04:29
So these cards have an Atheros chipset. Thanks great to hear, as I did just update the atheros modules in the latest DSL. Glad to hear this.Thanks for sharing.
Posted by AncientRelic on Jan. 07 2007,05:01
Are you sure Atheros? I thought these beasts had Marvell chips inside? Unless Atheros bought Marvell and I missed it 
Posted by schiz on Jan. 09 2007,11:10
Hmm sorry to be all annoying about this, but I got the netgear card and dsl rc2 and the inf and sysfile and did what was said to work here. Tho I get a message doing "iwconfig" saying "lo no wireless extensions" what did I do wrong? Gonna read this whole thread once more, but I didn't quite understand what I didn't catch up last time :=)the computer I'm doing it on is a AST ascentia P serier Pentium MMX 166mhz with 32mb ram If there is any more info you need just tell me
Posted by twix on Jan. 10 2007,06:40
hi there,i`m just posting in this thread cause I think I have exactly the same problem as schiz.
Searching for solutions for days now...
I'm using DSL-N 0.1 RC4 installed on HD
WLAN Card is Netgear WG511v2 (PCMCIA card)
What does work:
ndiswrapper -i <driver>
ndiswrapper -m (is this neccessary? read is somewhere)
ndiswrapper -a (also: is this neccessary? read is somewhere)
File "ndiswrapper" with alias information is created in /etc/modprobe.d/
ndiswrapper -l :
shows me "wp511v2 driver installed, hardware present"
modprobe ndiswrapper
lsmod :
shows ndiswrapper in the list
PCMCIA Card Control shows me all Information on my Card now, "Marvell" chipset an so on...
What doesn`t work (yet):
ifconfig -a :
shows only loopback device, no wlan0
iwconfig:
"lo no wireless extensoins"
iwlist wlan0 scan :
"wlan0 Interface doesn`t support scanning"
iwconfig wlan0 essid <myssid> :
of course, "no such device"
So what else could I try to get this card working?
I know this question has been asked in this forum a few times already, but I'm quite at a loss at this point...
Ah and btw, how do I make ndiswrapper start automatically at every boot?
Would be great if someone can help...
Posted by twix on Jan. 10 2007,11:55
hello again,I also tried
"dmesg | grep ndiswrapper"and checked the output.
There is an error, but I don't know what it means:
ndiswrapper version 1.14 loaded (preemt=yes,smp=yes)
ndiswrapper: driver wg511v2 '(NETGEAR,09/17/2004,3.1.0.19) loaded
ndiswrapper: request for irq 0 failed
ndiswrapper (miniport_init:273): couldn't initialize device: C0000001
ndiswrapper (pnp_start_device:497): Windows driver couldn't initialize the device (C0000001)
ndiswrapper: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22
well...obviosly something is wrong, but when typing "ndiswrapper -l" you see wether the device is plugged in or not, so some connection has to be made...
Posted by twix on Jan. 14 2007,10:11
ok figured it out...was a BIOS value, had to change it from "auto" to "Cardbus 16bit"now the LED on the Card is lit, and I can go on with wpasupplicant *g*
Posted by Tri-City-Maniac on Jan. 22 2007,13:37
| Quote (roberts @ Jan. 02 2007,09:29) |
| wpa with ndiswrapper and with my Linksys was fairly easy and is why I added wpa in dsl-v3.2RC2 ndiswrapper -i NET8180.INF ndiswrapper -l modprobe ndiswrapper iwlist wlan0 scan iwconfig wlan0 essid my_essid_here wpa_supplicant -Bdd -Dndiswrapper -i wlan0 -c /home/dsl/wpa_supplicant.conf pump -i wlan0 My wpa_supplicant.conf: network={ ssid="my_ssid_here" key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=TKIP psk="my_passphrase" } Of course YMMV and it is really dependent on finding a wpa_supplicant.conf that will work with your card & access point. |
Sad ... i can't manage to implement the wpa_supplicant tool to my dsl installation ... how can i do this?
But wait ... is wpa-supplicant implemented in Version 3.2?