Wireless Network Connection
Forum: Networking
Topic: Wireless Network Connection
started by: ric_neal
Posted by ric_neal on Dec. 07 2004,07:17
HiI'm having a problem setting up a wireless connection from DSL. On boot the PCMIA or USB (depending on which machine I'm using) device appears to be found (cardmgr started and hotplug device found), but then when I try to use the WLAN configuration utility it reports that there is no wireless adaptor present.
I'm new to Linux so I've probably missed something obvious.
Any Ideas?
Ric
Posted by schwizz on Dec. 07 2004,09:23
This is actually a rather involved process, but the instructions are all in /home/dsl/ndiswrapper.readme - just navigate to that using Emelfm and read the instructions - follow them line by line.I will add a couple of my own notes, though, from my experience a couple of days ago (I'm also new to DSL and Linux in general)
Before you even start the .readme checklist, click the XTerm icon and type in "sudo su" (without quotes) - this makes you root in the terminal.
Step one in the .readme sounds simple enough - but it proved to be quite a problem for me. Essentially, I had to do a bunch of google searches for my wireless card (Belkin G pcmcia) and find the WINDOWS XP driver (you have to have the XP Driver, I guess). You may be able to find the .INF file for your card on your CD that came with it, but I didn't have that much luck. I first had to find out what the chipset on the card was, and armed with that name, I searched for .INF files for it. Finally, I found the proper .INF file on< ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net >
Once you have the file, of course you need to make it available to use, so depending on where you save it, you may have to mount the appropriate drive. That cool little window in the bottom right of the desktop will allow you to do it. For example, click the arrows until it says "floppy" and then click the box to the left of the arrows - it turns green and then you can get to it through /mnt/floppy
From there, the .readme is pretty good - like I said, just follow it. One interesting thing I found was when I used the "ndiswrapper -l" command, I got this message:
Installed ndis drivers:
rt2500 hardware present, fuzzy
... Not sure what "fuzzy" means, but it worked.
Anyway, follow all the way down until you get to "ifconfig wlan0 up" once you hit enter you should see the card light up and you should be good to go -- however, I have had a problem with it still not working, so when I can't pull up the 'net (with the card's lights on), I go to DSL Panel, click NetcardConfig, and hit YES for DHCP Broadcast. That seems to do some sort of "reboot" for the card and that has worked for me.
Finally, I have (sadly) discovered that these settings only last until the computer gets shut down - then it forgets everything except the ndiswrapper you installed. Honestly, I don't yet know how to get it to remember (I think it's somewhere in Backup/Restore) the settings - so I'm off to the rest of the forum for that answer...
Good luck!
Posted by Aiku on Dec. 07 2004,17:11
Much easier to use ndiswrapper from control panel.If works, then look in /opt there is a myndis.sh with all the
settings.
Add myndis.sh to /opt/bootlocal.sh
then backup and reboot. Working ndis.
Posted by ric_neal on Dec. 08 2004,07:31
Thanks for the advise.After quite a bit of fiddling I'm now writing this from my DSL Laptop over the WLAN.
Thanks Again!
Posted by iNov on Dec. 27 2004,07:00
ric_neal,just wondering,
did you have to do anything in order to make cardmanager recognize your pcmcia card?
I have been trying to get several cards to work with my old laptop but no luck.
when I do "cardctl info" from the terminal, it always return
"no pcmcia driver in /proc/devices"
can anybody help me with this?
I don't know how to fix this. I read somewhere about installing pcmcia-cs, but I can't build the source in dsl
Posted by ric_neal on Dec. 27 2004,07:51
Sorry the carmanager seemed to work fine. Unless I set it without realising it!The commands I use are:
sudo ndiswrapper -i [driver.INF]
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
sudo iwconfig wlan0 key restricted **********
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid [network name]
sudo ifconfig up
netcardconfig (followed by OK)
Strangely though they work successfully from the command line, but not from within a BASH shell script. Anyone know why?
Ric
Posted by trialnet on Jan. 23 2005,16:21
Hi,I have a belkin wireless usb card with rt2500 chipset.
I tried ndiswrapper to install the driver, it works but says to me that there's no present hardware.
I'm wondering if I missed something that I should have done to get DSL recognizing my usb card.
Is there something to do first or after ndiswrapper to recognize the hardware ?
Thank you in advance.
John
Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 25 2005,04:58
Try using a different driver file.The driver file below has been reported to work with ndiswrapper and a Belkin RT2500 wireless device:
< ftp://ftp.a-link.com/wl54h/WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip >
Posted by Max on Feb. 13 2005,19:27
I have a DWL-G650+Where canI find a driver and how do I apply it?
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 14 2005,01:26
Try searching with Google.com and use keywords DWL-G650+ and ndiswrapperIf that gets too muddled, add KNOPPIX to the search box.