WPC54G not working...

[Laptop765]

Hello, my laptop hard drive recently gave out on me, leaving my laptop unusable. In the meantime, I decided to burn a Knoppix CD so I can still use my laptop. I realized that the network card wouldn't necessarily work. I have the Linksys WPC54G card (On the bottom it says WPC54G-2.) I hopped online to find several guides on how to get it to work, and many success stories. So I copied several versions of the Linksys drivers to a USB drive, along with several versions off the ndiswrapper compatibility site. I used ndiswrapper -i <inf file> and then modprobe ndiswrapper, but the card was not recognized. iwconfig complains that there are "no wireless extensions." So I ndiswrapper -e the driver and try another one, and run through all 4 or 5 drivers, with none of them working. I was hoping someone could help me come up with a solution, because I really don't want to have to trash my laptop, or even worse... Put Windows back on it.

Before you all yell at me that this has been answered several times before, believe me, I spent 2 days searching for answers all over the web in every place I could think of... I even asked on some IRC chats, but nobody can seem to help, so I figured coming to the creators and long-time users who know the OS better could help me out...

Any and all help is greatly appreciated,
-Laptop765

lspci output for card

lspci -v:
0000:02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 10400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

lspci -vn:
0000:02:00.0 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 02)
Subsystem: 1737:4320
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 10400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

[grant_vallance]

Hello, my laptop hard drive recently gave out on me, leaving my laptop unusable. In the meantime, I decided to burn a Knoppix CD so I can still use my laptop. I realized that the network card wouldn't necessarily work. I have the Linksys WPC54G card (On the bottom it says WPC54G-2.) I hopped online to find several guides on how to get it to work, and many success stories. So I copied several versions of the Linksys drivers to a USB drive, along with several versions off the ndiswrapper compatibility site. I used ndiswrapper -i <inf file> and then modprobe ndiswrapper, but the card was not recognized. iwconfig complains that there are "no wireless extensions." So I ndiswrapper -e the driver and try another one, and run through all 4 or 5 drivers, with none of them working. I was hoping someone could help me come up with a solution, because I really don't want to have to trash my laptop, or even worse... Put Windows back on it.

Before you all yell at me that this has been answered several times before, believe me, I spent 2 days searching for answers all over the web in every place I could think of... I even asked on some IRC chats, but nobody can seem to help, so I figured coming to the creators and long-time users who know the OS better could help me out...

Any and all help is greatly appreciated,
-Laptop765

lspci output for card

lspci -v:
0000:02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 10400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

lspci -vn:
0000:02:00.0 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 02)
Subsystem: 1737:4320
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 10400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8k]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

As far as I understand the process; you seem to have done the right things.

I can only make two suggestions:

(1) IF you are widely separated from your wireless router (i.e. upstairs); attempt to get it working close-handy-by ... I found that a Linux wireless connection is a bit more tempermental than a M$ one using the same cards.

I thought I was doing a few things wrong, until I made this discovery.

(2) Use the original drivers contained on the CD (if possible) rather than the drivers you have downloaded.

I have the same chipset in two Belkin cards: one PCI, one cardbus, and found only those drivers rather than others worked.

The other thing that would be useful to know is what message you get when you load the driver into ndiswrapper ... If you cannot, I can send you a copy of the driver that works for me ...

While I am new to this, I'd like to learn how to get you up-and-running.

HTH.

Grant D. Vallance

[Laptop765]

root@ttyp0[ir]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[ir]# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@ttyp0[ir]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

I searched all morning for the CD, but it keeps eluding me. Closeness to the router doesn't seem to be the problem, it seems like it's not detecting wlan0.

-Laptop765

[grant_vallance]

root@ttyp0[ir]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[ir]# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@ttyp0[ir]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

I searched all morning for the CD, but it keeps eluding me. Closeness to the router doesn't seem to be the problem, it seems like it's not detecting wlan0.

-Laptop765

Right ...

While I remember, what version of Knoppix are you running? I am presuming 3.6 ...

Re: ndiswrapper etc. --- I have precisely the same "error" messages in trying to get my cards up-and-running. So its not that which is the problem -- or so I assume. The other messages are very similar to what I get, even though I am running Belkin cards, i.e. IRQs.

I take it that: dmesg tells you that the module has been loaded ...

Can you also tell me, when you run the netcardconfig script whether it detects your card (this is found in the Knoppix menu under the Networking/Internet sub-menu). When you first run the script you should have the option of selecting the wlan0 card.

If not, the only other thing I can think of is to try this:

ifconfig -a
Does this detect the card? If so (or even if not) try;

ifconfig wlan0 up
Then the card should be visible to iwconfig ...

Anyway, let me know how you get on, and if this fails, I'll put my thinking cap on again or ask Harry nicely for some help :-)

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

PS. Do you want me to send you the .inf file that works for me? If so, let me know in the next post, and I'll email them to you if you give me your address. GV

[Laptop765]

root@ttyp0[ir]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[ir]# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@ttyp0[ir]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

I searched all morning for the CD, but it keeps eluding me. Closeness to the router doesn't seem to be the problem, it seems like it's not detecting wlan0.

-Laptop765

Right ...

While I remember, what version of Knoppix are you running? I am presuming 3.6 ...

Re: ndiswrapper etc. --- I have precisely the same "error" messages in trying to get my cards up-and-running. So its not that which is the problem -- or so I assume. The other messages are very similar to what I get, even though I am running Belkin cards, i.e. IRQs.

I take it that: dmesg tells you that the module has been loaded ...

Can you also tell me, when you run the netcardconfig script whether it detects your card (this is found in the Knoppix menu under the Networking/Internet sub-menu). When you first run the script you should have the option of selecting the wlan0 card.

If not, the only other thing I can think of is to try this:

ifconfig -a
Does this detect the card? If so (or even if not) try;

ifconfig wlan0 up
Then the card should be visible to iwconfig ...

Anyway, let me know how you get on, and if this fails, I'll put my thinking cap on again or ask Harry nicely for some help :-)

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

PS. Do you want me to send you the .inf file that works for me? If so, let me know in the next post, and I'll email them to you if you give me your address. GV

Knoppix 3.6
dmesg: "ndiswrapper version 0.8 loaded"
netcardconfig: "No supported network cards found."
ifconfig -a "lo" (Local Loopback only)
ifconfig wlan0 up: "Error while getting interface flags: No such device"

My E-mail is Laptop765@aol.com if you want to send the .inf and/or .sys which would be great...

-Laptop765

[grant_vallance]

root@ttyp0[ir]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[ir]# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@ttyp0[ir]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

I searched all morning for the CD, but it keeps eluding me. Closeness to the router doesn't seem to be the problem, it seems like it's not detecting wlan0.

-Laptop765

Right ...

While I remember, what version of Knoppix are you running? I am presuming 3.6 ...

Re: ndiswrapper etc. --- I have precisely the same "error" messages in trying to get my cards up-and-running. So its not that which is the problem -- or so I assume. The other messages are very similar to what I get, even though I am running Belkin cards, i.e. IRQs.

I take it that: dmesg tells you that the module has been loaded ...

Can you also tell me, when you run the netcardconfig script whether it detects your card (this is found in the Knoppix menu under the Networking/Internet sub-menu). When you first run the script you should have the option of selecting the wlan0 card.

If not, the only other thing I can think of is to try this:

ifconfig -a
Does this detect the card? If so (or even if not) try;

ifconfig wlan0 up
Then the card should be visible to iwconfig ...

Anyway, let me know how you get on, and if this fails, I'll put my thinking cap on again or ask Harry nicely for some help :-)

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

PS. Do you want me to send you the .inf file that works for me? If so, let me know in the next post, and I'll email them to you if you give me your address. GV

Knoppix 3.6
dmesg: "ndiswrapper version 0.8 loaded"
netcardconfig: "No supported network cards found."
ifconfig -a "lo" (Local Loopback only)
ifconfig wlan0 up: "Error while getting interface flags: No such device"

My E-mail is Laptop765@aol.com if you want to send the .inf and/or .sys which would be great...

-Laptop765

Hello,

From the above, it seems that you have a similar setup to my own; excepting the make of card & laptop. So it should wotk, all things being equal.

I have sent you the drivers as requested, so if you do not have them now there is a problem somewhere we will need to sort out ...

In my experience, the version of the driver does make a differece, so here is hoping.

If not ... we will get there in the end ...

The alternative is to try another Debian-based Live-CD such as MEPIS, which is similarly excellent as Knoppix ... It is my first HD install as of a couple of days ago because I had heard that a Knoppix HD install can be tricky. MEPIS is a doddle! Anyway I digress...

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

[Laptop765]

root@ttyp0[ir]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[ir]# modprobe ndiswrapper
root@ttyp0[ir]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

I searched all morning for the CD, but it keeps eluding me. Closeness to the router doesn't seem to be the problem, it seems like it's not detecting wlan0.

-Laptop765

Right ...

While I remember, what version of Knoppix are you running? I am presuming 3.6 ...

Re: ndiswrapper etc. --- I have precisely the same "error" messages in trying to get my cards up-and-running. So its not that which is the problem -- or so I assume. The other messages are very similar to what I get, even though I am running Belkin cards, i.e. IRQs.

I take it that: dmesg tells you that the module has been loaded ...

Can you also tell me, when you run the netcardconfig script whether it detects your card (this is found in the Knoppix menu under the Networking/Internet sub-menu). When you first run the script you should have the option of selecting the wlan0 card.

If not, the only other thing I can think of is to try this:

ifconfig -a
Does this detect the card? If so (or even if not) try;

ifconfig wlan0 up
Then the card should be visible to iwconfig ...

Anyway, let me know how you get on, and if this fails, I'll put my thinking cap on again or ask Harry nicely for some help :-)

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

PS. Do you want me to send you the .inf file that works for me? If so, let me know in the next post, and I'll email them to you if you give me your address. GV

Knoppix 3.6
dmesg: "ndiswrapper version 0.8 loaded"
netcardconfig: "No supported network cards found."
ifconfig -a "lo" (Local Loopback only)
ifconfig wlan0 up: "Error while getting interface flags: No such device"

My E-mail is Laptop765@aol.com if you want to send the .inf and/or .sys which would be great...

-Laptop765

Hello,

From the above, it seems that you have a similar setup to my own; excepting the make of card & laptop. So it should wotk, all things being equal.

I have sent you the drivers as requested, so if you do not have them now there is a problem somewhere we will need to sort out ...

In my experience, the version of the driver does make a differece, so here is hoping.

If not ... we will get there in the end ...

The alternative is to try another Debian-based Live-CD such as MEPIS, which is similarly excellent as Knoppix ... It is my first HD install as of a couple of days ago because I had heard that a Knoppix HD install can be tricky. MEPIS is a doddle! Anyway I digress...

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

I didn't see the e-mail in my inbox... You can try sending it again if you want, but if AOL is stopping it for some reason, you can also try Laptop765@yahoo.com and Laptop765@gmail.com

Thanks again,
-Laptop765

[grant_vallance]

I didn't see the e-mail in my inbox... You can try sending it again if you want, but if AOL is stopping it for some reason, you can also try Laptop765@yahoo.com and Laptop765@gmail.com

Thanks again,
-Laptop765

I have tried the yahoo address, and if that fails happy to try the gmail address too.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[Laptop765]

I didn't see the e-mail in my inbox... You can try sending it again if you want, but if AOL is stopping it for some reason, you can also try Laptop765@yahoo.com and Laptop765@gmail.com

Thanks again,
-Laptop765

I have tried the yahoo address, and if that fails happy to try the gmail address too.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

root@ttyp0[sda1]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing bcmwl5
root@ttyp0[sda1]# modprobe ndistwrapper
root@ttyp0[sda1]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions

Doesn't look like it worked :cry: Thanks for sending it though...

-Laptop765

[grant_vallance]

Err, I have run out of things to say that might be useful. It should work, but obviously it doesn't.

The only other thing I can think of is, can you test whether the card works in another machine, either under Knoppix or M$?

However, if you know it works, I am stuck.

I am a novice too :-(

I'll keep thinking about it, and if I have time, I'll do some further digging to see if I can find a solution.

Is there any Linux guru watching this thread who could assist?

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance.

[Laptop765]

Err, I have run out of things to say that might be useful. It should work, but obviously it doesn't.

The only other thing I can think of is, can you test whether the card works in another machine, either under Knoppix or M$?

However, if you know it works, I am stuck.

I am a novice too :-(

I'll keep thinking about it, and if I have time, I'll do some further digging to see if I can find a solution.

Is there any Linux guru watching this thread who could assist?

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance.

I know the card works, it just doesn't work under Knoppix (so far...) Thanks for all your help in trying to get it to work, I'm very appreciative.

-Paul

[gnarvaja]

I just posted my WiFi findings in the Network forum. Given your type of card, you should be using Knoppix 3.6, not 3.4 with the native drivers. Just in case your problems are similar to mine, try the following steps:

1. Use iwconfig instead of ifconfig. If you run this command without parameters, it should tell you whether your card is recognized or not. If it doesn't show up, then you have a driver problem and I can't help you anymore. I would recommend you to go to http://www.linux-wlan.org/ for information. You may need to get your hands dirty.
2. If it does, use the same utility to set up the wireless parameters, particularly the network SSID and the WEP key if needed.
3. If successful check if pump is running. Use ps -ef | grep pump
4. If it is, go into a root shell and kill it using pump -k.
5. See if cardmgr is running: ps -ef | grep cardmgr. If it is kill it using killall cardmgr
6. Retry the command cardmgr
7. If you don't have any error messages, use ifconfig with no parameters. If your card is successfully running, it should show you the details of your network connection.

I strongly recommend you to read the man and info pages for iwconfig, ifconfig and pump to understand the details.

I hope this helps. Please post the results.

G