How to detect Linksys USB wireless network adapter

[minghai]

Hi all,

I'm trying to access the internet using my Linksys Wireless-B WUSB11 Network Adapter v2.8. When I run "iwconfig", I get :-

lo no wireless extension
eth0 no wireless extension

I don't see eth1 or wlan0. Does this mean the adapter is not detected at all? If so, how do I get it detected?

Following Grant Vallance's sticky, I copied the .inf and .sys files from the Linksys CD to a location on the hard disk. I then ran ndiswrapper and selected the copied.inf file. I will get a dialog box saying:"The ndiswrapper module has been loaded but there is no new device. Perhaps Ndiswrapper is not working with your driver file". I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give me or any ideas about what I can run. Thank you.

Ming Hai

[grant_vallance]

Hi all,

I'm trying to access the internet using my Linksys Wireless-B WUSB11 Network Adapter v2.8. When I run "iwconfig", I get :-

lo no wireless extension
eth0 no wireless extension

I don't see eth1 or wlan0. Does this mean the adapter is not detected at all? If so, how do I get it detected?

Following Grant Vallance's sticky, I copied the .inf and .sys files from the Linksys CD to a location on the hard disk. I then ran ndiswrapper and selected the copied.inf file. I will get a dialog box saying:"The ndiswrapper module has been loaded but there is no new device. Perhaps Ndiswrapper is not working with your driver file". I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give me or any ideas about what I can run. Thank you.

Ming Hai

Hello: I'll try and help, although I really do not know the ins-and-outs of USB cards as I presume yours is ... I have a nagging recollection that I have helped out someone with your card before ... so here is hoping. I'll do some digging latter.

The first question that would be useful to know is could you confirm the chipset of your card. Looking at http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz suggests that its an Atmel chipset.

IIRC the command as root: lspci -v[b] or perhaps [b]lsusb could tell us.

Could you also confirm that all commands were performed as root?

And the name of your directory you put the *.inf file in. If there are spaces in the file name, it probably will not work.

These are two things to get started with ...

Hope to help.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance


The good news is that their appears to be native Linux drivers for your card

[minghai]

Hi Grant,

Thanks so much for helping me with this. Below is the output of lsusb and lspci. To answer your questions, I ran iwconfig as root but I ran ndiswrapper from the menu so I guess its as a regular user. Should I have run from a command prompt as root "ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/Linksys/Driver/xxxx.inf"?

It doesn't say anything on the unit itself but from the fact that its v2.8, I believe it is a Atmel chipset.

And there are no spaces in the names of the directories where the .inf files are located.

It'd be really nice if I could get this to work then I'll jump from Mepis to Knoppix (or Kanotix) and get the Knoppix Hacks book and start playing around more. Thanks again!

Ming Hai


root@ttyp1[knoppix]# lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f9:0169 Brother Industries, Ltd
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:7112 SanDisk Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1915:2233
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05ab:0060 In-System Design USB 2.0 ATA Bridge



root@ttyp1[knoppix]# lspci -bv
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12bc
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Capabilities: [e4] #09 [0106]

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82865G Integrated GraphicsDevice (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12bc
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Memory at fc400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
I/O ports at 14e0
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1440

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 1460

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1480

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
Memory at fc480000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] #0a [20a0]

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: fc500000-fc7fffff

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) Ultra ATA 100 Storage Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 14e8
I/O ports at 1808
I/O ports at 14f0
I/O ports at 180c
I/O ports at 14c0
Memory at 80000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB (ICH5) Serial ATA 150 Storage Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 14f8
I/O ports at 1810
I/O ports at 1800
I/O ports at 1814
I/O ports at 14d0

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Analog Devices codec [SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio]
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 1000
I/O ports at 1400
Memory at fc480400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Memory at fc480600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

0000:05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5782 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company HP d530 CMT (DG746A)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at 00000000fc500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [58] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/3 Enable-

[grant_vallance]

Hi Grant,

Thanks so much for helping me with this. Below is the output of lsusb and lspci. To answer your questions, I ran iwconfig as root but I ran ndiswrapper from the menu so I guess its as a regular user. Should I have run from a command prompt as root "ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/Linksys/Driver/xxxx.inf"?

It doesn't say anything on the unit itself but from the fact that its v2.8, I believe it is a Atmel chipset.

And there are no spaces in the names of the directories where the .inf files are located.

It'd be really nice if I could get this to work then I'll jump from Mepis to Knoppix (or Kanotix) and get the Knoppix Hacks book and start playing around more. Thanks again!

Ming Hai



Ah, what version of Mepis are you using; and what method? If you are using ndiswrapper in Mepis, the same proceedure should work in Knoppix. I used what I learnt from Knoppix to get Mepis going :) And now I basically use Mepis because the HD install was/is easy. 8)

I do not know whether you need to run ndiswrapper as root or not; but I would. GNU/Linux logic suggests that this type of thing would be for admins ... Anyway it cannot hurt to give it a try and see what happens.

Let me know what happens, and we'll take it from there. I am confident that we can get it working. Eventually ... :)

Cheers,

Grant D. Vallance

[minghai]

Hi Grant,

I was using Mepis 2004.6 but I never got Mepis to detect the adapter either :( I will try running ndiswrapper as root. Is it just "ndiswrapper -i NETUSB.inf"? What should I run after that? Thanks!

Ming Hai

[grant_vallance]

Hi Grant,

I was using Mepis 2004.6 but I never got Mepis to detect the adapter either :( I will try running ndiswrapper as root. Is it just "ndiswrapper -i NETUSB.inf"? What should I run after that? Thanks!

Ming Hai

Er... no!

You need to tell ndiswrapper where the .inf file is. Assuming you are only running ONE hard drive; and M$ is the hard disk on the primary IDE channel, then the command you need to enter as root is this:

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/<location-of-folder-with-inf-file-going-from-/->/<your-driver>.inf

So if you have installed the .inf files & all associated files into C:\Linksys (in M$ speak) then the command you type is:

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/Linksys/netusb.inf

The alternative is to use the ndiswrapper configuration script in the Knoppix. You will need to navigate to where you put the driver. If you use M$ to put the driver in say C:\Linksys then remember the equivalent location in GNU/Linux (roughly) is /mnt/hda1/Linksys. If you have trouble let me know and I can walk you through it slowly.

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

[minghai]

Hi Grant,

I ran ndsiwrapper as root. It seems to install fine. What should I do next?

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/Linksys/Drivers_from_CD/NETUSB.inf
Installing netusb
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netusb

Thanks so much, sorry it takes me so long to try your suggestions, I don't always have access to the computer.

Ming Hai

[grant_vallance]

Hi Grant,

I ran ndsiwrapper as root. It seems to install fine. What should I do next?

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ndiswrapper -i /mnt/hda1/Linksys/Drivers_from_CD/NETUSB.inf
Installing netusb
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
netusb

Thanks so much, sorry it takes me so long to try your suggestions, I don't always have access to the computer.

Ming Hai

The next step is to type in the command modprobe ndiswrapper, but what I would suggest is that you look at the *new* revised sticky post. It gives the instructions a little differently, and hopefully more clearly. But if you get stuck let me know and I'll help.

Regards,

Grant D. Vallance

[minghai]

Hi Grant,

I did "ndsiwrapper -i <inf_location>" and "modprobe ndiswrapper" without incident. How ever when I do iwconfig, all I see is :-

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

so I don't have wlan0 or ath0. Therefore I can't run your steps 3 or 4. How do I get a wlan0 entry? Btw, there's a type in your sticky, channel is misspelled as channell. If I run step 3 anyway, I get :-

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig wlan0 essid serene_net
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

Thank you.

Ming Hai

[grant_vallance]

Hi Grant,

I did "ndsiwrapper -i <inf_location>" and "modprobe ndiswrapper" without incident. How ever when I do iwconfig, all I see is :-

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

so I don't have wlan0 or ath0. Therefore I can't run your steps 3 or 4. How do I get a wlan0 entry? Btw, there's a type in your sticky, channel is misspelled as channell. If I run step 3 anyway, I get :-

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# iwconfig wlan0 essid serene_net
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

Thank you.

Ming Hai

Hmmmm...

You get a wlan0 or ath0 entry after the modprobe step. And I am stumped why you would not.

The only thing I can suggest is that you run the two configuration scripts: (1) the ndiswrapper config script; (2) the Network card configuration script. Maybe [i]that will sort you out. However, if it does not, I am currently at the end of my current knowledge :-(

Oh, and thank-you for pointing out my typo; and speaking of them -- I trust the command you actually typed in above was ndiswrapper -i <inf_location> rather than ndsiwrapper -i <inf_location>. :-)

Maybe there is someone who knows more than me watching this ...

Cheers,

Grant D. Vallance

[minghai]

Hi Grant,

I tried the 2 config scripts and still no luck. Thanks for pointing out my typo. I did type ndiswrapper :-)

You mentioned in an earlier post that there are native linux drivers for my adapter? Where did you find them? Thank you!

Ming Hai

[justwannahelp]

I was having the same problem, lspci saw my card, but nothing I could do with modprobe would refresh the h/w. I managed to get my Linksys pci card up in Knoppix 3.7 (12-08-04) using the ndiswrapper method.
I had to remove ndiswrapper from modprobe:
#modprobe -r ndiswrapper
I then loaded inf files that came with my card (lsbcmnds.inf, LSIPNDS.inf, WMP11NDS.inf)..
#ndiswrapper -i /mnt/path/xxx.inf
Now check to see that the drivers are loaded..
#ndiswrapper -l
Then reload the ndiswrapper module into the system..
#insmod ndiswrapper
At this point iwconfig should show you your wlan0. To renew its ip use
#pump -i wlan0
Now you should have wireless access..
#ndiswrapper -m
Enters the loaded drivers into a config file to simplify the process.. Saving my knoppix settings to my hdd after this will allow knoppix to boot to the point where all that needs to be done are the insmod and pump commands..

[minghai]

Hi justwannahelp,

Thanks for the tips. I followed your steps exactly but iwconfig never showed wlan0. When I did "pump -i wlan0", it says "Operation failed". Do I have to run "modprobe ndiswrapper" (I'm not sure what this does) at some point? Does it matter which Linux Kernel you're using? When I run the LiveCD, it seems to be using 2.4 kernel by default. Thank you!

Ming Hai

[justwannahelp]

IIRC, modprobe didn't work for me so I went to insmod, which told me that ndiswrapper was already loaded, so I unloaded it with modprobe -r ndiswrapper, and reloaded the changed ndiswrapper with insmod.. Try using modprobe to reload the altered ndiswrapper after you remove it from memory, who knows.. The ndiswrapper config .sh file doesn't use insmod at all.. It follows the basic principle you have been trying.. The .sh script only worked for me once, and I still can't tell you why.. I was dinking at the command line, and running the script when it worked.. After that, it took me 2 hours to figure this out (for my system) after the script failed on the next boot. I'm gonna try running the .sh script after I manually #modprobe -r ndiswrapper to see if I can get a better understanding of whats happening.. For me I think the key was the fact that ndiswrapper was already loaded and can't be overloaded.. I don't think modprobe's output makes this as clear as insmod.. Just out of curiousity, what inf file(s) are you dealing with, my card had 3 inf's and I'm not sure which out of the 3 actually needs to be loaded.. BTW, if iwconfig shows no wlan0 forget pump till it does..

[minghai]

So "modprobe ndiswrapper" does probably the same thing as "insmod ndiswrapper"? The file that came on the CD with the adpater is NETUSB.inf. When I downloaded the drivers from Linksys website though, it came with 3 .inf files. Maybe I should try loading all 3 ... Thanks for your help. If you learn anything more, please post :)

Ming Hai

[justwannahelp]

If I'm not mistaken, the first time when I got it running using the .sh script, only lsbcmnds.inf was Loaded.. I'm using a Linksys WMP11 pci card, and I'm pretty sure I had it working without WMP11NDS.inf loaded.. I did some checking, modprobe actually utilizes insmod to insert modules.. It also takes care of all the prerequisite modules, so they suggest using modprobe.. In any case, make sure you unload ndiswrapper before modprobing it..

[pureone]

if you loaded them correctly you should get


ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
lsbcmnds driver present
lsipnds driver present, hardware present
wmp11nds driver present


i am able to get this far and im able to see my ap in iwconfig but i cant connect to the ap.

[yitbos1]

Has there been a resolution to this problem? I am having the exact same problem as minghai was having and I cannot resolve it using the suggestions listed. I have a Netgear WG311 that is supposedly compatible with Linux and it shows up in the pci listing. I just can't get it to show up as ath0 or wlan0.