wifi card not listed in iwconfig
Forum: Networking
Topic: wifi card not listed in iwconfig
started by: solidsnake
Posted by solidsnake on Oct. 17 2005,02:44
I installed DSL to my HD, and have been steadily adding applications. I have a PCI wifi card, made by D-link, model number dwl-g510 rev. bI ran iwconfig, and i did not see wlan0 (only eth0, which is my current connection). I assume that ndiswrapper will not work if the OS does not recognize that a wireless card is even installed, correct?
This computer is relatively old: it is a Pentium 3 500mhz, 6.3gb harddrive, Dell Optiplex. I know that my wifi card will work with ndiswrapper, only because I had it working on another machine with Fedora Core 3.
Any suggestions?
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Oct. 17 2005,03:26
| Quote |
| I know that my wifi card will work with ndiswrapper |
So use ndiswrapper.
-J.P.
Posted by solidsnake on Oct. 17 2005,03:41
| Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Oct. 16 2005,23:26) | ||
So use ndiswrapper. -J.P. |
indeed i would, however wlan0 has to be present in iwconfig for it to work, which it is not. My question is, how do I get it to show there?
Posted by adssse on Oct. 17 2005,03:42
I may be mistaken, (not able to check right now), but I believe that mine says eth0 in iwconfig and it works fine. You can type 'ifconfig' and check the info it gives you. Also check for/read the file 'netcard' in /etc/sysconfig. If you see your card than go ahead and give ndiswrapper a try.
Posted by tempestuous on Oct. 17 2005,06:22
Install your Windows driver -sudo ndiswrapper -i /<path_to_mydriver>/<mydriver>.inf
Now check that ndiswrapper lists this driver as installed -
sudo ndiswrapper -l
Now load ndiswrapper -
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
Use iwconfig to set up your wireless network.
Use pump to obtain an IP address.
By default ndiswrapper creates network interfaces called ethxx, so if you already have an interface eth0, ndiswrapper should create eth1 ... or vice-versa.
Alternatively, your Atheros chipset is supported by the MADWiFi drivers already in DSL (although it's possible that your adapter requires a newer version of MADWiFi) so you could try "sudo modprobe ath_pci".
In fact, you should possibly run "lsmod" because DSL may have automatically loaded this module (ath_pci) already.
Posted by solidsnake on Oct. 17 2005,13:38
I did try to install the .inf file, and after I did ndiswrapper -l, all i got was:| Code Sample |
| neta3ab invalid driver! |
I don't get the "hardware present, software present" messages like I am used to seeing. I know this for a fact: the only network interfaces that are present are eth0 (which is my onboard 10/100 wired connection), and lo (loopback). Nothing else is showing!
| Quote |
| Alternatively, your Atheros chipset is supported by the MADWiFi drivers already in DSL (although it's possible that your adapter requires a newer version of MADWiFi) so you could try "sudo modprobe ath_pci". In fact, you should possibly run "lsmod" because DSL may have automatically loaded this module (ath_pci) already. |
I have not yet tried this approach, I didn't realize MADwifi drivers were in DSL. How would I update the MADwifi drivers? I assume by downloading them from the website and compiling them from source?
Posted by tempestuous on Oct. 18 2005,05:44
Yes, obtain the driver source by CVS from < http://madwifi.sourceforge.net >I compiled this myself a few months ago, you can email me if you want the package ... but try the DSL module first, it might work.
Posted by solidsnake on Oct. 18 2005,15:34
ath_pci was not listed on lsmod, nor after I modprobed it. I was able to find the madwifi drivers for download, after some furious googling, however I have been running into some problems with compiling. I installed gcc, gnu-utils, and kernelsource from the mydsl control panel, yet after I untar a package (such as the madwifi drivers), then enter "./configure" it says command not found. Am I supposed to symb link in /bin from another location to the ./configure script?
Also, a bigger problem I had was with the drivers I downloaded from Dlink. I saved the .zip file to my home folder, and proceeded to unzip it from the command line. I get an error everytime of:
| Code Sample |
| unsupported compression method 0 |
So, what I did was download and unzip the file on my powerbook, and uploaded the .inf file to my ftp space, then downloaded just the .inf file on my DSL PC. In retrospect, that probably caused my problem with ndiswrapper, but it was the only workaround I could think of, since finding drivers elsewhere on the net for the DWL-G510 rev b is an arduous task.
thanks for all the replies
Posted by solidsnake on Oct. 19 2005,14:22
I found the problem, I had a bad installation on my HD. I reinstalled and things are going smoothly.ndiswrapper now recognizes the driver, and now it is just a matter of getting it properly connected to my network.
Posted by adssse on Oct. 20 2005,14:35
Glad to hear you got if figured out. Now you can properly enjoy dsl.