How to detect Linksys USB wireless network adapter

**minghai** · 01-18-2005, 01:20 AM

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** · 01-19-2005, 04:34 PM

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** · 01-20-2005, 12:00 AM

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** · 01-20-2005, 06:57 AM

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** · 01-20-2005, 08:44 AM

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** · 01-20-2005, 10:09 PM

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** · 01-20-2005, 11:02 PM

if you loaded them correctly you should get

Code:

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** · 02-08-2005, 05:17 AM

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.