ndiswrapper not finding WLAN USB StickForum: Networking Topic: ndiswrapper not finding WLAN USB Stick started by: McKenna Posted by McKenna on Jan. 26 2008,14:49
Hello together, I'm not really new to Linux. Usually I'm working with Kanotix a german Knoppix/Debian derivative. But breathing life back into a peace of museum hardware (AMD K-6 400Mhz with 64 MB of RAM ) I discovered DSL. I'm really impressed with DSL but I have one problem. I need to get WLAN working with an AVM Fritz! USB Stick (very common here in Germany and usually working with ndiswrapper out of my own experience with Kanotix and also according to the ndiswrapper homepage). Up to now this does not work with DSL. I tried all versions from 4.2.1 to 4.2.4. The behaviour is different but nothing works completely. The versions up to 4.2.3 locked up at modprobe ndiswrapper completely. 4.2.4 only locks up sometimes but with the problem that the stick is not detected by the driver ndiswrapper. The stick is correctly detected by lsusb and ndiswrapper says driver present, hardware present (which is actually good). Any ideas how to convince the ndiswrapper driver to use the stick? McKenna Posted by Juanito on Jan. 26 2008,14:59
I posted the output from starting ndiswrapper on my laptop running dsl-4.2.4 step by step on page 4 of < this thread >. You could try doing the same thing for your device and posting any errors here?
Posted by McKenna on Jan. 26 2008,17:04
Hello Juanito, the problem is that I do not get any errors. ndiswrapper -l gives fwlan driver installed, hardware present which is correct and the same on my kanotix system In the versions prior to 4.2.4 I got a total freeze doing modprobe ndiswrapper if the stick is connected. Without the stick connected modprobe ndiswrapper works and ndiswrapper is seen doing lsmod. With 4.2.4 most of the time modprobe ndiswrapper does not lock up the system. Doing dmesg I get for my WLAN stick "not used by any driver" or similar. With lsusb I can "see" the stick with type and vendor code. I think what I need is something to force ndiswrapper to use this device. By the cay ndiswrapper -d ..... did not work. Posted by Juanito on Jan. 27 2008,04:09
Hmmm - are all of the usb modules loaded?
Posted by McKenna on Jan. 27 2008,13:12
Hello Juanito, yes I think everything is loaded. May to give you some more details here some screenshots: After starting the system with the stick present: dmesg .... <4>usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x57c/0x5601) is not claimed by any active driver. .... root@box:/home/dsl# lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted apm 9736 1 (autoclean) mousedev 3832 0 (unused) hid 22788 0 (unused) input 3168 0 [mousedev hid] cloop 39364 0 (unused) ad1816 9348 0 sound 55244 0 [ad1816] soundcore 3428 4 [sound] nls_iso8859-1 2844 1 (autoclean) nls_cp437 4348 1 (autoclean) serial 52196 0 (autoclean) usb-storage 62208 0 ieee1394 183300 0 usb-uhci 21708 0 (unused) usbcore 58240 1 [hid usb-storage usb-uhci] pcmcia_core 39840 0 ide-cd 28768 0 ide-scsi 9264 0 rtc 7004 0 (autoclean) After installing ndiswrapper before modprobe ndiswrapper: root@box:/home/dsl# ndiswrapper -l Installed drivers: fwlan driver installed, hardware present root@box:/home/dsl# lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 090c:1000 Feiya Technology Corp. Bus 001 Device 003: ID 057c:5601 AVM GmbH Looks both pretty good to me root@box:/home/dsl# ndiswrapper -d 057c:5601 fwlan Driver 'fwlan' is used for '057C:5601' modprobe freeze the computer (today) completely if the stick is present After a modprobe without the stick: root@box:/home/dsl# lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted ndiswrapper 171708 0 apm 9736 1 (autoclean) mousedev 3832 0 (unused) hid 22788 0 (unused) input 3168 0 [mousedev hid] cloop 39364 0 (unused) ad1816 9348 0 sound 55244 0 [ad1816] soundcore 3428 4 [sound] nls_iso8859-1 2844 0 (autoclean) nls_cp437 4348 0 (autoclean) serial 52196 0 (autoclean) usb-storage 62208 0 ieee1394 183300 0 usb-uhci 21708 0 (unused) usbcore 58240 1 [ndiswrapper hid usb-storage usb-uhci] pcmcia_core 39840 0 ide-cd 28768 0 ide-scsi 9264 0 rtc 7004 0 (autoclean) Before adding the stick: root@box:/home/dsl# lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 090c:1000 Feiya Technology Corp. After adding the stick: root@box:/home/dsl# lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 090c:1000 Feiya Technology Corp. Bus 001 Device 003: ID 057c:5601 AVM GmbH dmesg .... <6>hub.c: new USB device 00:01.2-2, assigned address 3 <4>ndiswrapper (wrap_pnp_start_usb_device:731): reset failed: -2 <4>usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x57c/0x5601) is not claimed by any active driver. This is the only failure I can see in the whole procedure root@box:/home/dsl# lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted ndiswrapper 171708 0 apm 9736 1 (autoclean) mousedev 3832 0 (unused) hid 22788 0 (unused) input 3168 0 [mousedev hid] cloop 39364 0 (unused) ad1816 9348 0 sound 55244 0 [ad1816] soundcore 3428 4 [sound] nls_iso8859-1 2844 1 (autoclean) nls_cp437 4348 1 (autoclean) serial 52196 0 (autoclean) usb-storage 62208 0 ieee1394 183300 0 usb-uhci 21708 0 (unused) usbcore 58240 1 [ndiswrapper hid usb-storage usb-uhci] pcmcia_core 39840 0 ide-cd 28768 0 ide-scsi 9264 0 rtc 7004 0 (autoclean) Hopefully this brings a little more light into the darkness. Regards McKenna Posted by roberts on Jan. 28 2008,04:16
If I recall 64MB is mighty slim to use ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper tries to grab much real memory for its use. Might check dmesg or even start syslog just for the purpose of checking. Also would check for possible irq conflict. Does the ndiswrapper site specify which Windows driver to use and which version(s) of ndiswrapper are needed?
Posted by McKenna on Jan. 28 2008,18:41
Hello Robert, thanks for your advice. The version of the windows driver is recommended on the ndiswrapper site and it used to work on my Kanotix system. I have tested all 3 different recommended ones. But I will check about the low ram. I might add some ram and test and I will also test on a different PC (the one with Kanotix) which does have more ram and a different mainboard. Regards McKenna PS: During testing I also tried DSL on a more modern machine (AMD Athlon XP2500). During this running in toram mode I discovered the fantastic performance of DSL. Amazing what you have created. Posted by McKenna on Jan. 30 2008,20:21
Okay the problem seems to be my hardware. I've tried 4.2.5 and had the same problems again. Then tried 4.2.5 on my other machine and ndiswrapper worked just fine with the same windows driver. I will check with more RAM on the old hardware. Might take some days. I keep you posted. Thanks for the advice. McKenna Posted by andrewb on Jan. 30 2008,23:08
I had a similar problem with a generic USB WLAN stick. It had one of the Zydas chips in it. The source code for the required module was provided & compiling that was the only way I could get the thing to run. It too froze the system trying to use ndiswrapper with the Windows driver provided.The same system (Toshiba Libretto 100CT, 166 MHz pentium, 64Mb RAM) runs a tp-link pcmcia WLAN card very happily using ndiswrapper. |