[ale] Re: Ale mailing list 2/24/04: wireless card

[Keith Hopkins]

Charles Hoffman wrote:

> > I have a Linksys WPC54G running with ndiswrapper under 2.4.24.  Works
> > fine.  I'm not using WEP/WPA, but it should support both.  The real pain
> > was getting the "installed" copies of the MS-WinXP drivers unpackaged to
> > use with ndiswrapper (I don't have a XP box).
> >
> > Found in Sydney,
> >   Keith
>
>Crap dude, could you tell me how you did it?  I'm trying to use the same
>model card with ndiswrapper under 2.4.25 and having very little luck.  It
>seems to be running, but I can't get it to connect to any AP anywhere.
>
>---
>Charles Hoffman
>Computer Science student
>University Of Northern Iowa
>
>
>  
>
Crap Charles, it was easy ;)

  Let's see if I can remember....I really should write down all the 
stuff I do.  I forget so much of it.  An old roommate once told me 
"dude, you forget more stuff about computers than I'll ever know."  OK, 
back to wireless....

  I have RH9 with a vanilla 2.4.24 kernel.  Be sure to enable wireless 
(CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y in .config)

  I have the ndiswrapper 0.4.  Follow the directions in the INSTALL file.

  Here are my changes to /etc/modules.conf.  Don't forget to run depmod 
-a after adding this.

# WLAN mod
#
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
# post-install ndiswrapper /usr/sbin/loadndisdriver <vendor> <device>  
/lib/windrivers/<sysfile> /lib/windrivers/<inffile>
# 06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4320 
(rev 02)
#         Subsystem: Linksys: Unknown device 4320
# 14e4:4320
# bcmwl5.sys
# lsbcmnds.inf
post-install ndiswrapper /usr/sbin/loadndisdriver 14e4 4320 
/lib/windrivers/bcmwl5.sys /lib/windrivers/lsbcmnds.inf

  Download and unpack the WinXP drivers from the LinkSys site.  Unpack 
it somehow.  Create a place for them on your Linux system.  I made the 
directory /lib/windrivers.  Copy bcmwl5.sys and lsbcmnds.inf into that 
directory.  The mod to /etc/modules.conf must match.

  Let's see, after all that is done, you should be able to `modprobe 
ndiswrapper`.  I see the following...

[root at ejp0874l root]# modprobe ndiswrapper
Calling putdriver ioctl
Parsing the inf file.
Driver version: 07/17/2003, 3.30.15.0
Adding setting: RadioState      = 0
Adding setting: PowerSaveMode   = 0
Adding setting: PLCPHeader      = 0
Adding setting: frag    = 2346
Adding setting: rts     = 2347
Adding setting: PwrOut  = 100
Adding setting: FrameBursting   = 0
Adding setting: BTCoexist       = 1
Adding setting: antdiv  = -1
Adding setting: Rate    = 0
Adding setting: IBSSGMode       = 2
Adding setting: Rate    = 0
Adding setting: Channel = 6
Calling startdriver ioctl
[root at ejp0874l root]#
[root at ejp0874l root]# iwconfig wlan0
Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 16
of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 15.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF 
          Bit Rate=54Mb/s   Tx-Power:17 dBm  
          RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B  
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:100/0  Signal level:-10 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:24   Missed beacon:0

[root at ejp0874l root]#

  If you get this far, then try doing `iwlist scan`.  You should see 
something like....

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:60:B3:6F:11:B7
                    ESSID:"14FC"
                    (Unknown Wireless Token 0x8B01)
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.412GHz
                    Quality:0/0  Signal level:-81 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s

  I'm sitting in a hotel room on the 12th floor right now, so there is 
no telling who's AP this is.  "Managed" mode is the norm for accessing 
an AP.

  Set your card to use the same ESSID and the correct Freq, like so....

[root at ejp0874l root]# iwconfig wlan0 essid 14FC freq 2.412G

[root at ejp0874l root]# iwconfig wlan0
Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 16
of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 15.
Some things may be broken...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"14FC" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412GHz  Access Point: 
00:60:B3:6F:11:B7 
          Bit Rate=2Mb/s   Tx-Power:17 dBm  
          RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B  
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:100/0  Signal level:-82 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:239   Missed beacon:0

  The AP address should now show up in iwconfig.  You can then try 
`dhclient wlan0` to have the AP automatically set the IP address on your 
wireless card.  You could also `ifconfig wlan0 x.x.x.x` and set it manually.
  Note: dhclient goes into the background EVEN IF IT FAILS to find a 
dhcp server.  Be sure to either use -d to keep it in the foreground, -1 
to make it exit if it fails (instead of backgrounding), or to kill the 
background process before you try to run it again.

  I have my own AP at home, and I'm running it as an Open AP, so I'm not 
using WEP or WPA, so I don't normally set Encryption on.  ssh is your 
friend here.  freeswan/CIPE should also be useful.

  If the AP is running WEP, I think you must enter the KEY before the 
address will show up in the iwconfig output.  Use something like 
`iwconfig wlan0 key abcdefgh` to enter a WEP key.
  Find and use the "wpa_supplicant" to enable WPA.  I have not tried 
this, so I can't confirm that it actually works with this card.

  Some things to note:  RH9 tries to load and configure your network 
drivers before loading the PCMCIA drivers. dame desu. You need to modify 
the init scripts to load your PCMCIA drivers first.
  Also, ndiswrapper does not seem to find the card is it is not inserted 
when the driver is loaded.  So, if you insert the card after boot, or 
after you load ndiswrapper, you'll have to `rmmod ndiswrapper && 
modprobe ndiswrapper`, that is, remove and reload the ndiswrapper.

  Let me know what is/isn't working for you.

--
Found in Sydney,
  Keith

And on a bright note: The EU finds Microsoft guilty of monopolistic 
behavior, and is fining them $613,000,000 and insisting they remove the 
media player as an integrated piece, and release some of their 
code/data-formats or "standards".  Yeah!  (thanks CNN)