How To run wpc54g on Knoppix live CD??

[thomast77]

First I must say that I am a linux newbie. Can anyone explained to me step by step or lead me to a webpage that can explain step by step what I need to do to be able to run my wireless card Linksys wpc54g v1 while using Knoppix live cd? Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
Thomas

[UnderScore]

What I am about to describe may very well be outside of your experience level. If it is then I apologize. This method can be very technical but it works.

I checked http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=185&sort=8&cat=144&page=1 and discovered that the wpc54g uses a chipset from Broadcom. And Broadcom does not support Linux at all so they give out no documentation on any of their chipsets/products and this results in no Linux drivers for Broadcom wireless devices. This means that we must use a driver wrapper called ndiswrapper (http://ndiswrapper.sf.net). It is a translator driver that makes a network card driver for MS Windows work on Linux.

Normally the progression of how drivers work looks like:
Linux kernel -> Linux network driver -> network card

With Ndiswrapper, it looks like:
Linux kernel -> ndiswrapper -> Windows network driver -> network card

So now you see that it requires not 1 but 2 pieces, the ndiswrapper & the windows driver. Many recent Linux distros ship with ndiswrapper. I know that Suse 9.x and Whax include ndiswrapper while Knoppix 3.8.x and up should include ndiswrapper. You can follow the generic ndsiwrapper installation instructions at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation and you can find Network card info listed alphabetically by manufacturer at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List

If you want to see what it looks like from start to finish to get it working, then use a Netgear WG311 v2 & I documented it all the steps here http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=90075#90075

[thomast77]

Thank You for the quick reply :) You gave very good instructions but I ran into a problem and I am not sure what it is. First let me tell you what I did. I copied the files from the linksys directory on my harddrive to a usb thumb drive. and booted to knoppix v3.9. I opened the root shell and went to the directory (cd /mnt/uba1) I had copied the files to and typed the following:

ndiswrapper -i lsbcmnds.inf
the reply was:
installing lsbcmnds
cp: cannot start 'lsbcmnds.inf':no such file or directory

and just for kicks I typed:
ndiswrapper -l
the reply was:
lsbcmnds invalid driver!

but I know the files were there? I used the wpc54g v1.3.1 driver as the ndiswrapper link you sent me to recommended. Any ideas what is happening here?
Thanks and Best Regards:)
Thomas

[thomast77]

ok I ended up copying the old inf and sys files from the cd that came with the linksys card. and I got alot further. I got all the way to the last command (iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed) The router I was connecting to did not use wep so I skipped the rest. I dont know if there are any other commands. I found the kwifimanager and it said I was connected but it did not assign an ip address. And I brought up the browser to check and nothing. I am almost there just confused about where I go from here? I will mess with it more in the afternoon. So what do I do next. Also can these commands be put into a batch file so I can just click a file and have all this done with one click? Thanks again for all the help :)
Thomas

oh almost forgot I also saved everything I did so you can look over it. There were alot of errors at one point. In the info I read it said dont mind the kernel errors not sure if thats what they were but here it is:

root@1[~]# cd /mnt/uba1/wpc54gold

root@1[wpc54gold]# ndiswrapper -i lsbcmnds.inf

Installing lsbcmnds

root@1[wpc54gold]# ndiswrapper -l

Installed ndis drivers:

lsbcmnds driver present, hardware present

root@1[wpc54gold]# ndiswrapper -m

Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

root@1[wpc54gold]# modprobe ndiswrapper

root@1[wpc54gold]# dmesg | tail -20

ISOFS: unable to read i-node block

hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }

hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown

end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 376872

Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 94218

cloop: Read error at pos 189964976 in file /cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX, 17969 bytes lost.

cloop: error -3 uncompressing block 8449 65536/0/17969/0 189964976-189982945

Buffer I/O error on device cloop0, logical block 270378

cloop: Read error at pos 189964976 in file /cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX, 17969 bytes lost.

cloop: error -3 uncompressing block 8449 65536/0/17969/0 189964976-189982945

Buffer I/O error on device cloop0, logical block 270378

ndiswrapper version 1.1rc3 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=yes)

ndiswrapper: driver lsbcmnds (The Linksys Group, Inc.,07/17/2003, 3.30.15.0) loaded

PCI: Enabling device 0000:09:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:09:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:09:00.0 to 64

ndiswrapper: using irq 10

wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:0c:41:cf:a1:ca using driver lsbcmnds, configuration file 14E4:4320:1737:4320.5.conf

wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP, WPA with TKIP, WPA with AES/CCMP

root@1[wpc54gold]# iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.


eth0 no wireless extensions.


wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"linksys"

Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:36:83:CE

Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm

RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B

Encryption key:off

Power Management:off

Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-76 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0

Tx excessive retries:2 Invalid misc:195 Missed beacon:0


root@1[wpc54gold]# iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0 Scan completed :

Cell 01 - Address: 00:13:10:36:83:CE

ESSID:"linksys"

Protocol:IEEE 802.11b

Mode:Managed

Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)

Quality:0/100 Signal level:-73 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

Encryption key:off

Bit Rate:1 Mb/s

Bit Rate:2 Mb/s

Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s

Bit Rate:11 Mb/s

Bit Rate:18 Mb/s

Bit Rate:24 Mb/s

Bit Rate:36 Mb/s

Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

Bit Rate:6 Mb/s

Bit Rate:9 Mb/s

Bit Rate:12 Mb/s

Bit Rate:48 Mb/s

Extra:bcn_int=100

Extra:atim=0

Cell 02 - Address: 00:0C:41:E3:50:3C

ESSID:"Me"

Protocol:IEEE 802.11b

Mode:Managed

Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)

Quality:0/100 Signal level:-54 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

Encryption key:on

Bit Rate:1 Mb/s

Bit Rate:2 Mb/s

Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s

Bit Rate:11 Mb/s

Bit Rate:18 Mb/s

Bit Rate:24 Mb/s

Bit Rate:36 Mb/s

Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

Bit Rate:6 Mb/s

Bit Rate:9 Mb/s

Bit Rate:12 Mb/s

Bit Rate:48 Mb/s

Extra:bcn_int=100

Extra:atim=0

Extra:wpa_ie=dd160050f20101000050f20201000050f2020 1000050f202


root@1[wpc54gold]# iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

root@1[wpc54gold]#

[thomast77]

and here is a screen capture of kwifimanager that I just took. I don't know where to go from here anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks and Best Regards
Thomas

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/billm7/kwifiman.jpg

[thomast77]

Is there some kind of command I need to run to obtain an IP address? The router uses DHCP I think. I appears as if I am connecting but not getting assigned an IP address. Any replies would be greatly appreciated :)

[thomast77]

I have been fighting this thing trying to find a fix for almost 2 weeks and I still haven't found it. I really want this to work and I am determined to make it work. Anyways if anyone sees this and thinks they can help I would greatly appreciate their input.
Thank You and Best Regards
Thomas

[volkdir]

Have you configured the wlan0 interface? What will you see if you enter the command ifconfig ?

Knoppix provides a tool to configure it: netcardconfig