View source for Network FAQ/Network Wireless for Knoppix 5.1.1 FAQ

==== Q:  How to setup the wireless connection using ndiswrapper under Knoppix 4.0.2 & 5.1.1 ====

A: I am not an expert in networking. And I cannot find a centralized area which allows users to record down all the successful cases on using wireless under Knoppix among various hardwares. As a newbie, I spent quite sometime getting a little piece information from one thread and another pieces from other threads. I hope this Q & A can be helpful to other newbies from the pain I had experienced by including a very detail step by step approach. (in other word, it is really long-winded, so be patient)

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The information here may not be 100% correct, but it works for me. However, if you find something is wrong. Please let me know. Thank you.

chip_ling@yahoo.ca

Chip Ling July 2007

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I have success on Dell D600, D610 under knoppix 5.1.1. It has Dell Wireless 1450 Dual-Band WLAN miniPCI card with Broadcom BCM43xx chipset.

I also have success on a Compaq n600c with Linksys wpc11 v.4 wireless card.

I don't know how to compile the Linux kernel so I use the ndiswrapper method.

Here are the steps I make my D600 and D610 work:

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'''Assumption:''' You have wireless running on your windows XP. If not, install the wireless driver and make it works on windows environment first, and then proceed.

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'''More info:''' I followed the same steps here and tried it on DSL (Damned Small Linux), and it works too.

I did the same test on my Dell D610 with knoppix 4.0.2 based on a request, it works.

I tried the same test with knoppix 5.0.1 and it '''did not work.'''

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'''Your windows xp user ID must have the administrator access right'''

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'''We are going to look for files inside the windows xp system folders, and by default, windows xp set those folders as hidden folders. So you need to open them for view if required.'''

In order to see the hidden folder, from the windows explorer, 

click Tools ==> Folder Options ==> click View tab 

==> select Show hidden files and folders 

==> unselect Hide extensions for known file types 

==> unselect Hide protected operating system files 

==> Apply ==> OK

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'''1. Get the windows xp driver files for the wireless card.'''

1.1 Find out the wireless driver file and it's location.

1.1.1 Open windows explorer => right click on my computer => select properties

1.1.2 Click Hardware tab => click Device Manager button => expand the network adapters

1.1.3 Right click on the wireless network adapter => select properties

1.1.4 Click Driver tab => click Driver Details button

1.1.5 It will display your wireless driver file with the full path. My machine is using c:\windows\system32\drivers\BCMWL5.SYS

1.2 Find out the corresponding inf file.

1.2.1 With Windows explorer open, on the left panel, click on c:\windows\inf folder

1.2.2 Click the "search" button on the tool bar.

1.2.3 Click the "All files and folders" on the left panel.

1.2.4 On the "A word of phase in the file" field, enter "bcmwl5.sys" => click "search" button

1.2.5 On the right panel, it shows c:\windows\inf\oem0.inf

1.3 Now I know the driver files are
 c:\windows\inf\oem0.inf 
and the
 c:\windows\system32\drivers\BCMWL5.sys

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'''2. Copy the 2 driver files to c:\wireless folder'''

2.1 Create a new folder right under c: drive called wireless

2.2 Copy c:\windows\inf\oem0.inf and c:\windows\system32\drivers\BCMWL5.SYS to it.

I have some old steps here before trying to rename the BCMWL5.SYS to lower case. But after a testing, I found I was wrong and case does not matter when working with ndiswrapper.

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'''3. Find out the ESSID and the channel on the wireless router.'''

3.1 Log on to your wireless router via internet explorer.

3.2 Find out your network ESSID name, for example: my wireless network ESSID name is "TESTSSID"

3.3 Find out the wireless channel your network is using, for example: my wireless network is using channel 11.

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'''4. With the knoppix 4.0.2 or 5.1.1 on the cd drive, boot up the OS with no cheat code.'''

4.1 Keep your eyes on the info shown on the screen when the autoconfigurating devices. From both of my machines, knoppix 5.1.1 found two network cards in my machine, i.e. eth0 and eth1. However, my Compaq n600c only have eth0 detected.

For knoppix 4.0.2, only the wired network card (eth0) is found.

4.2 Wait until the knoppix x-window starts and finally you have the knoppix up and running.

4.3 Start the Konsole, i.e. click on the black TV like icon on the task bar. The system console will be up and running (looks like a DOS box)

4.4 Switch to supper user: (i.e. $ is the prompt symbol)

 $ su
 #

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'''5. Mount your c: drive to mount point /media/???1 or /mnt/???1'''

(For knoppix 4.0.2, use mount point /mnt/???1, for knoppix 5.1.1, use mount point /media/???1)

Be careful here, my D600 has the mount point called /media/hda1 but my D610 has the mount point called /media/sda1.

To check the name of the mount point, use the following command: (again, # is the prompt symbol means now you are the super-user or so call "root")

For knoppix 4.0.2, use

 # ls /mnt

For knoppix 5.1.1 or above, use

  # ls /media

It will give back all the name related to your harddisk/partition. (i.e. I have hda1, hda4 and hdc on my D600, hdc is my cd rom, hda1 is drive c: and hda4 is drive d: )

To mount the c: drive to the linux file system, type the following command:

For knoppix 5.1.1

 # mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /media/hda1 -o ro,umask=000

For knoppix 4.0.2

 # mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 -o ro,umask=000

If your c: drive is not in NTFS format, say in FAT32, you need to use the switch "-t vfat" to replace the "-t ntfs" in the above command. The same idea applies to "/dev/???a" in the command.

The portion "-o ro,umask=000" in the command is optional and you can skip it if you like. The default of the mount command is read-only anyway.

Option: I also tried to copy the two driver files to an USB drive first under windows xp and mount the USB drive to linux at this point. It works.

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'''6. Go to the directory where the windows driver files are located.'''

For knoppix 5.1.1

 # cd /media/hda1/wireless
 # ls

For knoppix 4.0.2

 # cd /mnt/hda1/wireless
 # ls

the files oem0.inf and BCMWL5.SYS will be shown.

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'''7. Copy the two driver files to the root's home directory'''

 # cp *.* ~

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'''8. Go to root's home directory to see if the files are there.'''

 # cd ~
 # ls

You should see the two files are there.

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'''9. Unmount the c: drive mount point. (optional).'''

I usually don't want the Live CD OS hook up to my harddisk. I only mount them whenever I need them. But it is just the personal taste only. You can skip this part if you want.

For knoppix 5.1.1

 # umount /media/hda1

For knoppix 4.0.2

 # umount /mnt/hda1

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'''10. Remove wireless driver installed by Knoppix on boot time (optional)'''

On boot time, knoppix tries it's best to install the right wireless driver on your system. So if you are lucky enough, your wireless should work after the knoppix is up and running.

However, most of the time, it is not the case. As most of the wireless manufacturers does not provide the wireless driver for Linux, knoppix cannot find the right driver to install on boot time. The worst part is (in my case), it recongizes the wireless hardware, and installed a not working driver while on boot time.

If on step 4.1, you see there are two network cards detected (eth0 and eth1) but you have only one wired network card, most likely knoppix already loaded the wireless driver module (in my case, it is the bcm43xx driver). However, this driver module will have conflict with the ndiswrapper network driver we are going to use, so if this is the case, we need to remove the bcm43xx driver module.

Note: it does not happen on my Compaq n600c with Linksys wpc11 v.4 card so this step is required when needed.

The removal of bcm43xx driver here is just for the Dell D600 & D610, or any computer Knoppix recognised it's wireless network card and installed the bcm43xx driver at boot time. 

So far only the knoppix 5.1.1 requires this step. If you are using 4.0.2, skip this step and go to step 11.

If your computer using another wireless chipset but Knoppix recognized it on boot time, you have to do the same step here but you need to find out what the wireless driver is. Try to use "lsmod" command and see if you can find the driver installed.

10.1 Check to see if the bcm43xx is there

 # lsmod | grep bcm43xx

10.2 If the lsmod command returns some information back, it means the bcm43xx module is installed. Then remove it with the follow command. Else go to step 11.

 # modprobe -r bcm43xx

10.3 Check the successful of the command

 # lsmod | grep bcm43xx

It should return no entry.

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'''11. Wrap the windows driver to the ndiswrapper module.'''

11.1 Enter the command

 # ndiswrapper -i ~/oem0.inf

11.2 The command will return a couple of lines feedback as

 installing oem0 ...
 forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
 :
 :

11.3 Check to see the driver is inserted into ndiswrapper

 # ndiswrapper -l

11.4 It should say "oem0 driver installed"

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'''12. Install the ndiswrapper module (now wrap with bcmwl5 driver)'''

12.1 Enter the command

 # modprobe ndiswrapper

12.2 Check if the ndiswrapper is installed.

 # lsmod | grep ndiswrapper

You should see entries return with ndiswrapper in there.

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'''13. Find out what is your wireless card symbolic name:'''

13.1 Enter the command

 # iwconfig

13.2 My system returns three information back:

 lo : no wireless extensions

 eth0: no wireless extensions

 eth1: IEEE 802.11g ESSID: off/any blah blah blah ...

Here eth0 is my wired network card, eth1 is the wireless card. Be careful your system may return difference name like wlan0 etc. If that is the case, replace eth1 with wlan0 in all the following steps.

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'''14. Set up the wireless network with ESSID and channel'''

(for example: my wireless network essid=TESTSSID using channel 11)

 # iwconfig eth1 essid TESTSSID channel 11

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'''15. Check the result'''

 # iwconfig

You should see the ESSID is set to TESTSSID and also the access point on the second line now has a valid ID.

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'''16. Start the wireless network card'''

 # ifconfig eth1 up

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'''17. Check the result'''

 # ifconfig

eth1 should appear in the result list.

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'''18. Force the DHCP server to generate an IP address to your wireless network connection.'''

 # pump -i eth1

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'''19. Check the result'''

 # ifconfig

The eth1 should have the IP address on the second line.

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'''20. Exit the super user'''

 # exit
 $

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'''21. Finish line'''

You are ready to go, start the Web browser and now you can surf the internet. Welcome to the wireless world in Knoppix.

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