There is a "fullsome" thread at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=123071
on this topic, but although the fellow there was trying (a lot) to help; we ended up stymied and he recommended I come to this forum, so here I am.
I have an old Toshiba Portege PP350C-002GJP 32-bit laptop with 1GB RAM
It came with Windows XP and had stayed that way until recently when I decided to move to a more efficient OS - Linux
After looking around, Linux Mint won the contest so, using the Ethernet wired connection, I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya - Nate edition and I love it
However, I cannot get the wireless connection to work.
The wireless hardware is an old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (internal PCMCIA) which out-of-the-box registers with a Linux-native orinoco_cs driver and can be seen with the command-line entry of:
lshw -C network to be present as
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
Unfortunately, no matter what configuration options I set at either the laptop or the router, including eliminating all security and encryption at the wireless access point, with the native orinoco_cs driver, I can see the wireless access point but not connect to it.
the CLI command
mintwifi shows the RC_DraytekWAP (my access point) as visible but with a pretty high signal to noise ratio, if I am reading this correctly (note the laptop is 6 feet from the WAP and was doing fine in Windows mode over wireless)
eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"RC_DraytekWAP"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:50:7F:AB:C4:00
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Sensitivity:1/0
Retry limit:8 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=74/70 Signal level=-28 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:24
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
So I decided to try ndiswrapper, but with ndiswrapper, the system, does not even recognize that there is a wireless card present, so I do not know if I did something wrong using ndiswrapper or if ndiswrapper does not handle this old card.
Here is what I did; if anyone can see something I did wrong, please correct me and I'll try again.
Using 7zip on my PC, I extracted, from the driver package on the Toshiba web site, the Toshiba Wireless Network Card driver for the laptop from the .exe file and transferred the following files to a new directory /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 Jan 18 14:26 WAAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 18 14:26 WDAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.INF
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.SYS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172032 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS48B.CPL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.CNT
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319216 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.HLP
* Question: do the driver files need to have executable permissions? *****
Using the CLI at root level, I then:
Blacklisted the native orinoco_cs driver by adding, to the end of
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist orinoco_cs
* Question: do I need to blacklist more than just that file? *****
installed the Windows driver with ndiswrapper by changing to the /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere directory and running
ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
confirmed the driver was installed by running
ndiswrapper -l and I got
wlags48b : driver installed
wrote the configuration for modprobe by running
ndiswrapper -m
added ndiswrapper to the startup list by adding, as the last line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf - I had two files which were identical so I added to both)
ndiswrapper
reboot the laptop
with this configuration, the wireless card does not show up on any query, including
lspcmcia
iwconfig
lshw -C netowrk
mintwifi
Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
R
Last edit: Ramblin 2013-01-21
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I don't know how I came up on this, but I'll bite, as I have some experience with ndiswrapper.
I will start by saying I know nothing of Linux Mint. I know a lot about the Linux kernel; however, so at least I can get you headed in a better direction.
Firstly, if you are going to use ndiswrapper, disable the ornico drivers in the kernel. You cannot have the ornico drivers trying to come up as ndiswrapper does. At the very least, it will cause the wireless adapter to not function. At most, it could cause a system lock as the two drivers compete for one device.
Secondly, you have to make sure you're set properly for wireless operation in your kernel. If you are not properly setup, no matter which driver you attempt to use, you will fail.
[*] Networking support -->
--- Wireless
<> cfg80211 - wireless configuration API [ ] nl80211 testmode command [ ] enable developer warnings [ ] cfg80211 regulatory debugging [ ] enable powersave by default [ ] cfg80211 DebugFS entries [*] cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility
{} Common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers [ ] lib80211 debugging messages
<*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
Default rate control algorithm (Minstrel) ---> [ ] Enable mac80211 mesh networking (pre-802.11s) support [ ] Export mac80211 internals in DebugFS [ ] Trace all mac80211 debug messages [ ] Select mac80211 debugging features --->
Once you have those settings setup properly, you then need to go down and select a dummy wireless module to allow other wireless settings that are hidden to be enabled so ndiswrapper can use those hidden settings. I use the following:
Device Drivers ---> Network device support ---> Wireless LAN --->
<M> Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection [ ] Enable promiscuous mode [ ] Enable full debugging output in IPW2100 module.
This is acceptable as you don't have that device in your machine, so it won't be found. ndiswrapper will be able to find the hidden kernel symbols, and that's the idea in the first place.
Please note this example is using kernel version 3.6.11 vanilla. The placement of your settings will vary depending on the version. While I am speaking of kernel issues, DO NOT DO THIS WITH 3.7.x KERNEL SOURCE! There is a current bug that won't allow ndiswrapper to compile against the 3.7.x kernel versions. Don't even try. You will fail. 3.6.11 works fine, in case you were in need of source known to work properly with ndiswrapper.
Once you have those kernel issues set and that kernel compiled, you will then have to compile ndiswrapper against that particular kernel. I would advise installing wpa_supplicant with its associated GUI feature so you can see better what your adapter sees. I would also advise getting rid of all extraneous networking setups or applications until you get the wireless going. Once you get the basics, then you can build upon them. Until you get the basics going, adding other packages and such will just make the troubleshooting that much more difficult.
You will most likely have to invoke ndiswrapper from whatever it is your version of Linux uses to call modules at boot. On its own, ndiswrapper is not called at boot, at least not for Gentoo. I have to invoke it at boot time to use it.
While it is unsaid above, you need to do this all as root, or use su or sudo. I always log in as root, so I don't worry about such trivialities.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
There is a "fullsome" thread at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=123071
on this topic, but although the fellow there was trying (a lot) to help; we ended up atymied and he recommended I come to this forum, so here I am.
I have an old Toshiba Portege PP350C-002GJP 32-bit laptop with 1GB RAM
It came with Windows XP and had stayed that way until recently when I decided to move to a more efficient OS - Linux
After looking around, Linux Mint won the contest so, using the Ethernet wired connection, I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya - Nate edition and I love it
However, I cannot get the wireless connection to work.
The wireless hardware is an old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (internal PCMCIA) which out-of-the-box registers with a Linux-native orinoco_cs driver and can be seen with the command-line entry of:
lshw -C network to be present as -network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
Unfortunately, no matter what configuration options I set at either the laptop or the router, including eliminating all security and encryption at the wireless access point, with the native orinoco_cs driver, I can see the wireless access point but not connect to it.
the CLI command
mintwifi shows the RC_DraytekWAP (my access point) as visible but with a pretty high signal to noise ratio, if I am reading this correctly (note the laptop is 6 feet from the WAP and was doing fine in Windows mode over wireless)
eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"RC_DraytekWAP"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:50:7F:AB:C4:00
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Sensitivity:1/0
Retry limit:8 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=74/70 Signal level=-28 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:24
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
So I decided to try ndiswrapper, but with ndiswrapper, the system, does not even recognize that there is a wireless card present, so I do not know if I did something wrong using ndiswrapper or if ndiswrapper does not handle this old card.
Here is what I did; if anyone can see something I did wrong, please correct me and I'll try again.
Using 7zip on my PC, I extracted, from the driver package on the Toshiba web site, the Toshiba Wireless Network Card driver for the laptop from the .exe file and transferred the following files to a new directory /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 Jan 18 14:26 WAAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 18 14:26 WDAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.INF
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.SYS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172032 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS48B.CPL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.CNT
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319216 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.HLPQuestion: do the driver files need to have executable permissions? *
Using the CLI at root level, I then:
Blacklisted the native orinoco_cs driver by adding, to the end of
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist orinoco_csQuestion: do I need to blacklist more than just that file? **
installed the Windows driver with ndiswrapper by changing to the /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere directory and running
ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
confirmed the driver was installed by running
ndiswrapper -l and I got
wlags48b : driver installed
wrote the configuration for modprobe by running
ndiswrapper -m
added ndiswrapper to the startup list by adding, as the last line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf - I had two files which were identical so I added to both)
ndiswrapper
reboot the laptop
with this configuration, the wireless card does not show up on any query, including
lspcmcia
iwconfig
lshw -C netowrk
mintwifi
Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
R
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
I am on kernel 3.2.0-23 (Linux Mint 13 - Mate Edition - is based on Ubuntu 12.04)
I am doing all my command-line-interface work as root
I am including ndiswrapper as a new (last) line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf since there are two files) and this, combined with running
ndiswarpper -m
is supposed to make ndiswrapper auto-load on boot
As for blacklisting the orinoco drivers, I know I am supposed to. I just don't know if I am supposed to blacklist more than the one I have already included:
orinoco_cs
in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
when I run
lsmod | grep orinoco
I get
orinoco_cs 12864 1
orinoco 69818 1 orinoco_cs
cfg80211 188714 1 orinoco
pcmcia 39791 1 orinoco_cs
pcmcia_core 21511 4 orinoco_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
compat 20367 6 orinoco_cs,orinoco,cfg80211,rfcomm,bnep,bluetooth
Am I supposed to blacklist all of these?
Wat CLI command did you run to get the status outputs you got above after [*] Networking support -->
And I am not sure how I go about adding a dummy wireless module. I don't have the menu choices you showed. Is there a command-line-interface equivalent?
Thanks again for helping out
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Put simply, if it has the word "ornoco" anywhere in the name, blacklist it. Better yet, recompile your kernel and don't include ornoco support. You don't want to blacklist the PCMCIA stuff, as it's needed. ndiswrapper will probably call it, so it needs to be ready to go. You'll have to check /var/log/dmesg to see if anything is happening at the time of ndiswrapper being invoked. If the device does come up, then you'll have to be sure that it is properly called at boot time, and given an IP address, and such. That's more about the rc system your distro uses, and I have no experience with it.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 5:48 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Robert, thanks for chipping in
I am on kernel 3.2.0-23 (Linux Mint 13 - Mate Edition - is based on Ubuntu 12.04)
I am doing all my command-line-interface work as root
I am including ndiswrapper as a new (last) line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf since there are two files) and this, combined with running
ndiswarpper -m
is supposed to make ndiswrapper auto-load on boot
As for blacklisting the orinoco drivers, I know I am supposed to. I just don't know if I am supposed to blacklist more than the one I have already included:
orinoco_cs
in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
when I run
lsmod | grep orinoco
I get
orinoco_cs 12864 1
orinoco 69818 1 orinoco_cs
cfg80211 188714 1 orinoco
pcmcia 39791 1 orinoco_cs
pcmcia_core 21511 4 orinoco_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
compat 20367 6 orinoco_cs,orinoco,cfg80211,rfcomm,bnep,bluetooth
Am I supposed to blacklist all of these?
Wat CLI command did you run to get the status outputs you got above after [*] Networking support -->
And I am not sure how I go about adding a dummy wireless module. I don't have the menu choices you showed. Is there a command-line-interface equivalent?
Thanks again for helping out
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
I am not technically savvy enough to recompile or otherwise mess at the kernel level
I do not know if the kernel is properly configured for wireless or not. I do know that with the native linux drivers (orinoco), I can see, but not connect to the wireless access points in range. So I know the kernel is at least allowing partial functionality but with ndiswrapper, I am getting nothing, so before I mess with the kernel, I'd like to at least get ndiswrapper up to the level where it can see wireless access points. If, after that, it cannot connect either, then:
- maybe the hardware is an issue (although it was working under Windows)
- maybe the kernel needs configuring (hope not)
I blacklisted both
orinoco
orinoco_cs
and then followed the remainder of the ndiswrapper setup (as I understand it) so my ndiswrapper setup went as follows
(Add blacklist orinoco and blacklist orinoco_cs to end of file)
cd /etc/modprobe.d
nano blacklist.conf
(Install and confirm the Windows driver was installed)
Send the results of lspci -n, and the entire /var/log/dmesg. I need to see everything that's loading or trying to load. You probably now have a directory /etc/ndiswrapper. In that, you should find the .inf and .sys files, as well as the .conf files that configure the adapter. If they are all there, then enter the command iwconfig. This is a part of wireless-tools, which I believe you already said you had installed. If so, you should get some acknowledgment that the wireless adapter has been activated. Perhaps there's an LED to indicate a change in state? If you get none, then modprobe ndiswrapper. Run iwconfig again. If it remains unable to find a wireless adapter, then there is a serious issue.
Do you know that the adapter actually works with windows? If so, then there is a serious configuration issue with your kernel, ndiswrapper, or both. If not, then why beat a most-likely-dead horse? Seeing that the PCMCIA port comes up is a good thing. I just need to be sure of what things are starting on your machine, and when. Perhaps add the PCMCIA module into the list of modules to call just before ndiswrapper gets called.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 5:48 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
I blacklisted both
orinoco
orinoco_cs
and then followed the remainder of the ndiswrapper setup (as I understand it) so my ndiswrapper setup went as follows
cd /etc/modprobe.d
nano blacklist.conf
(Add blacklist orinoco and blacklist orinoco_cs to end of file)
cd /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
ndiswrapper -l
(To confirm the driver was installed)
wlags48b : driver installed
ndiswrapper -m
(Write the configuration for modprobe - already done)
cd /etc
nano modules (Add ndiswrapper to file so it starts on boot)
shutdown -r now (Reboot)
The system does not even recognize that I have an existing wireless card
The GUI for Windows Wireless Drivers shows "Hardware present: no"
I does not look like ndisrapper is even loading the Windows drivers
Am I following the correct commands to install and configure ndiswrapper?
Are there command-line-interface commands I can run to see what the status is and help me diagnose?
I don't know if this will help or not but, after reboot, the last few lines of /var/log/dmesg came back as [ 20.452188] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0 [ 21.153749] snd_ali5451 0000:00:06.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0 [ 21.153768] snd_ali5451 0000:00:06.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0 [ 21.153779] snd_ali5451 0000:00:06.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003) [ 21.154382] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 11 [ 21.154395] snd_ali5451 0000:00:06.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKH] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11 [ 21.280387] init: failsafe main process (578) killed by TERM signal [ 22.585711] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x1e0-0x1e7 0x1f0-0x1f7 0x200-0x207 0x220-0x22f 0x330-0x33f 0x370-0x377 [ 22.599306] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x1e0-0x1e7 0x1f0-0x1f7 0x200-0x207 0x220-0x22f 0x330-0x33f 0x370-0x377 0x388-0x38f [ 22.602306] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x3f0-0x3f7 0x408-0x40f 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7 [ 22.603285] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: 0x388-0x38f [ 22.618105] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x3f0-0x3f7 0x408-0x40f 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7 [ 22.619088] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean. [ 22.619967] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: [ 22.656888] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x1e0-0x1e7 0x1f0-0x1f7 0x200-0x207 0x220-0x22f 0x330-0x33f 0x370-0x377 0x388-0x38f [ 22.659282] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x3f0-0x3f7 0x408-0x40f clean. [ 22.698060] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean. [ 22.699056] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: memory probe 0x0c0000-0x0fffff: excluding 0xc0000-0xcbfff 0xe0000-0xfffff [ 22.699113] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean. [ 22.699169] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: memory probe 0x60000000-0x60ffffff: excluding 0x60000000-0x60ffffff [ 22.699222] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean. [ 22.717064] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0x0c0000-0x0fffff: excluding 0xc0000-0xcbfff 0xe0000-0xfffff [ 22.717126] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean. [ 22.717183] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0x60000000-0x60ffffff: excluding 0x60000000-0x60ffffff [ 22.717241] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean. [ 22.718276] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean. [ 22.753634] pcmcia 0.0: pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia0.0 (IRQ: 11) [ 22.762816] clean. [ 22.787925] 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7 [ 22.788513] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean. [ 22.789394] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean. [ 22.790385] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: memory probe 0x0c0000-0x0fffff: excluding 0xc0000-0xcbfff 0xe0000-0xfffff [ 22.790441] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: excluding 0xa0000000-0xa00fffff [ 22.790501] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: memory probe 0x60000000-0x60ffffff: excluding 0x60000000-0x60ffffff [ 22.790554] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket2: cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean. [ 22.845122] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready [ 22.847367] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready [ 22.848369] e100 0000:00:0a.0: eth0: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Half Duplex [ 22.849525] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready [ 24.280296] vesafb: mode is 1024x768x32, linelength=4096, pages=0 [ 24.280307] vesafb: scrolling: redraw [ 24.280315] vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:8:8:8, shift=0:16:8:0 [ 24.285304] vesafb: framebuffer at 0xfc000000, mapped to 0xf8280000, using 3072k, total 3072k [ 24.286847] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48 [ 24.286922] fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
The wireless card in the laptop was working with Windows. It was not a great card, with limited range, but it did work.
The wireless card also does get recognized with the native linux orinoco driver. It will show in
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and it will see the wireless access points in range but I cannot connect to them. (Not sure if that is a hardware or config issue, which is why I am trying the windows drivers under ndiswrapper)
I do have a directory at
/etc/ndiswrapper/wlags48b
and in it are the files
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 08:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 22 08:19 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 407 Jan 22 08:19 11C1:AB20.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422 Jan 22 08:19 11C1:AB21.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 22 08:19 wlags48b.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 22 08:19 wlags48b.sys
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 22 08:19 wnags.cnt
I do not know what the .conf or .cnt files are. I assume they are something to do with what ndiswrapper did when I ran ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
I ran iwconfig and got
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Which is what has been happening all along; it is like I have no hardware (or no drivers to recognize the hardware).
Note that when I use the native orinoco_cs driver, iwconfig does show the eth1 card
I ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then ran iwconfig again, but the result was identical to above
Running lspci gets me
00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1644/M1644T Northbridge+Trident (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c3)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 01)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535/M1543 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82551QM Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
00:0c.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.1 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.2 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
00:10.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:12.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1 (rev 82)
which confirms that the system is not recognizing the driver for the PCMCIA card when using ndiswrapper
Again, note that with the orinoco driver, the PCMCIA card does show in lspcmcia
(not a lot of good since I con only see, but not connect to wireless access points using the orinoco driver)
I have attached the full dmesg file (seemed to make more sense than including inline in post, given its size)
As a try, I then added the three PCMCIA modules
pcmcia
pcmcia_rsrc
pcmcia_core
to the modules file ahead of the ndiswrapper entry so the PCMCIA modules would load first. I then rebooted and saved the contents of the second dmesg file as the second half of the dmesg file attached - you will see the delimiter between the two as a line of asterisks (*)
After this reboot, I again ran
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
I then ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
Is this helping us get closer to a solution are are we just confirming that something is really wrong here?
I'll answer your last question first. Yes, we are finding issues. Will it result in a functional wireless adapter? I'm going to go a bit out on a limb, and say most likely, but not without more effort. You may have to switch kernel sources until you find one with the ornoco drivers that aren't bad. From some of my reading, it seems those drivers are hit and miss.
The first thing I note from your dmesg is that ndiswrapper is clearly called. That it does not respond means either there is a kernel configuration issue, or ndiswrapper doesn't like the drivers. It is most likely a kernel issue, as there has been a small but ongoing war between Linus Torvalds, and any thought of letting ndiswrapper do its thing in peace. There are versions of the kernel that won't allow ndiswrapper to finish compilation, and there are others that will allow it, but won't allow ndiswrapper to work at run time. Your setup may be falling into that crack.
I have found that it's not uncommon for there to be ornoco driver issues as well. By googling the PCI address I assumed to be your card (12a3:ab01), I found another user with similar issues. I don't see a resolution, which may be the most telling thing.
At this point, barring a sudden flash of usability from ndiswrapper, your best bet is to see if others found resolution, and what that resolution was. I am of the opinion that ndiswrapper is not going to be that solution, as it doesn't activate the device. The kernel native drivers do, so to some degree, the device is functional. But it's most likely old, and just not up to getting the job done any longer.
I was using a TI PCMCIA card that would respond to ndiswrapper, but could go no further. I pulled it and installed a laptop PCI Atheros internal, and it now has full wireless capability. Some devices just don't age well.
At this point, I think the only real option is to look for a newer, better supported device. As far as I know, you can still get PCMCIA cards.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 6:32 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
The wireless card in the laptop was working with Windows. It was not a great card, with limited range, but it did work.
The wireless card also does get recognized with the native linux orinoco driver. It will show in
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and it will see the wireless access points in range but I cannot connect to them. (Not sure if that is a hardware or config issue, which is why I am trying the windows drivers under ndiswrapper)
I do have a directory at
/etc/ndiswrapper/wlags48b
and in it are the files
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 08:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 22 08:19 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 407 Jan 22 08:19 11C1:AB20.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422 Jan 22 08:19 11C1:AB21.5.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 22 08:19 wlags48b.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 22 08:19 wlags48b.sys
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 22 08:19 wnags.cnt
I do not know what the .conf or .cnt files are. I assume they are something to do with what ndiswrapper did when I ran ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
I ran iwconfig and got
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Which is what has been happening all along; it is like I have no hardware (or no drivers to recognize the hardware).
Note that when I use the native orinoco_cs driver, iwconfig does show the eth1 card
I ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then ran iwconfig again, but the result was identical to above
Running lspci gets me
00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1644/M1644T Northbridge+Trident (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c3)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 01)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535/M1543 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82551QM Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
00:0c.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.1 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.2 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
00:10.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:12.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1 (rev 82)
lspci -n gets me
00:00.0 0600: 10b9:1644 (rev 01)
00:01.0 0604: 10b9:5247
00:04.0 0101: 10b9:5229 (rev c3)
00:06.0 0401: 10b9:5451 (rev 01)
00:07.0 0601: 10b9:1533
00:08.0 0680: 10b9:7101
00:0a.0 0200: 8086:1059 (rev 10)
00:0c.0 0c03: 1033:0035 (rev 41)
00:0c.1 0c03: 1033:0035 (rev 41)
00:0c.2 0c03: 1033:00e0 (rev 02)
00:10.0 0607: 104c:ac50 (rev 01)
00:11.0 0607: 1179:0617 (rev 32)
00:11.1 0607: 1179:0617 (rev 32)
00:12.0 0880: 1179:0805 (rev 03)
01:00.0 0300: 1023:8820 (rev 82)
Since the card is actually a PCMCIA card (internal), I also ran lspcmcia and got
Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:10.0)
Socket 0 Device 0: [-- no driver --] (bus ID: 0.0)
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:11.0)
Socket 2 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:11.1)
which confirms that the system is not recognizing the driver for the PCMCIA card when using ndiswrapper
Again, note that with the orinoco driver, the PCMCIA card does show in lspcmcia
(not a lot of good since I con only see, but not connect to wireless access points using the orinoco driver)
I have attached the full dmesg file (seemed to make more sense than including inline in post, given its size)
As a try, I then added the three PCMCIA modules
pcmcia
pcmcia_rsrc
pcmcia_core
to the modules file ahead of the ndiswrapper entry so the PCMCIA modules would load first. I then rebooted and saved the contents of the second dmesg file as the second half of the dmesg file attached - you will see the delimiter between the two as a line of asterisks (*)
After this reboot, I again ran
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
I then ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
Is this helping us get closer to a solution are are we just confirming that something is really wrong here?
Attachment: dmesg_1_and_2.txt (96.6 kB; text/plain)
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
I did go to the list of "NOT WORKING devices" on the Wiki, and ?fortunatlely? my card was not listed. Unfortunately, my card was also not listed in the list of "known WORKING devies".
Is there another source for drivers (that is safe) that might have the driver I am looking for for the Lucent/Agere Wireless LAN Card?
It seems the driver I have installed has installed but it does not recognize the chipset so will not present the hardware.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Well, it seems we have reached the same conclusion
I have now tried 3 different drivers from different sources (trying to avoid the fraudsters who try to foist their trojans on you as driver installers). No change. It seems the drivers under ndiswrapper are just not being recognized whoch means the hardware will not be presented. Darn.
I am pretty much stuck with Linux Mint - although that is the wrong way to say it since I do think it is a good distro - since I have it installed on my daughter's laptop (in another city now) and I am using this one to help give tech support when she needs it.
So I MAY go get another wireless card/USB solution and see if that works. I really did not want to invest in any new hardware on this laptop since it is 10 years old, but I guess I can afford $20 for a wireless device.
Thank you very much for sticking with me on this; you have been a great help - both technically and supportively (I know, no such word).
R
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
You're welcome. I'm always up for helping out if at all possible. It's too bad that we've reached the same conclusion, but sometimes it's best to know when you're licked.
I wish more people were more helpful when it comes to being part of a community focused on computers. I'm having some issues with a FreeBSD/Gentoo Linux hybrid, and it seems that the people on the mailing list are of the opinion that if it's not happening on their computers, it's not happening. So, I'm left with a partial working hybrid, and a seeming batch of attitude.
Oh well. It's not like I can't reformat the drive in question and do another Windows XP setup just in case I run into someone who wants some musical production work done.
Good luck on the device hunt.
Cheers,
Bob
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:34 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Well, it seems we have reached the same conclusion
I have now tried 3 different drivers from different sources (trying to avoid the fraudsters who try to foist their trojans on you as driver installers). No change. It seems the drivers under ndiswrapper are just not being recognized whoch means the hardware will not be presented. Darn.
I am pretty much stuck with Linux Mint - although that is the wrong way to say it since I do think it is a good distro - since I have it installed on my daughter's laptop (in another city now) and I am using this one to help give tech support when she needs it.
So I MAY go get another wireless card/USB solution and see if that works. I really did not want to invest in any new hardware on this laptop since it is 10 years old, but I guess I can afford $20 for a wireless device.
Thank you very much for sticking with me on this; you have been a great help - both technically and supportively (I know, no such word).
R
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
For whatever reason, I could not get the Native Linux Drivers (orinoco_cs) to work, and we could not get the ndiswrapper solution to work with Windows Drivers that did work in WinXP. ndiswrapper would not even present the hardware which orinoco did but only 1/2 way (I could see but not connect to access points)
So, after ?? days of trying, I gave up, and went and spent $16 (Candian) on a TP-Link mini-PCI card (http://www.tp-link.com/ca/products/details/?model=TL-WN861N = discontinued but still available in selected retail), installed it, reinstalled Mint 13 - Mate (I had been messing with it so much I figured a clean install was warranted) et voila - I have fully functioning 802.11 with WAP2 encryption, 802.11n support ,...
Methinks it might have been smarter to just go get the darn thing instead of futzing around (technical term), but I would not have learned nearly as much ... :-)
Thanks for the help you did provide - it steered me in the right direction.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
We always discover that we've spent more time on something after we've spent too much time, never before or during. I'm glad to see you fixed it. I did the same basic thing, substituting an internal PCI mini device for the PCMCIA that came with the machine. It's been working like a champ ever since.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion]323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 10:55 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Well,
For whatever reason, I could not get the Native Linux Drivers (orinoco_cs) to work, and we could not get the ndiswrapper solution to work with Windows Drivers that did work in WinXP. ndiswrapper would not even present the hardware which orinoco did but only 1/2 way (I could see but not connect to access points)
So, after ?? days of trying, I gave up, and went and spent $16 (Candian) on a TP-Link mini-PCI card (http://www.tp-link.com/ca/products/details/?model=TL-WN861N = discontinued but still available in selected retail), installed it, reinstalled Mint 13 - Mate (I had been messing with it so much I figured a clean install was warranted) et voila - I have fully functioning 802.11 with WAP2 encryption, 802.11n support ,...
Methinks it might have been smarter to just go get the darn thing instead of futzing around (technical term), but I would not have learned nearly as much ... :-)
Thanks for the help you did provide - it steered me in the right direction.
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
There is a "fullsome" thread at
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=123071
on this topic, but although the fellow there was trying (a lot) to help; we ended up stymied and he recommended I come to this forum, so here I am.
I have an old Toshiba Portege PP350C-002GJP 32-bit laptop with 1GB RAM
It came with Windows XP and had stayed that way until recently when I decided to move to a more efficient OS - Linux
After looking around, Linux Mint won the contest so, using the Ethernet wired connection, I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya - Nate edition and I love it
However, I cannot get the wireless connection to work.
The wireless hardware is an old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (internal PCMCIA) which out-of-the-box registers with a Linux-native orinoco_cs driver and can be seen with the command-line entry of:
lshw -C network to be present as
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
Unfortunately, no matter what configuration options I set at either the laptop or the router, including eliminating all security and encryption at the wireless access point, with the native orinoco_cs driver, I can see the wireless access point but not connect to it.
the CLI command
mintwifi shows the RC_DraytekWAP (my access point) as visible but with a pretty high signal to noise ratio, if I am reading this correctly (note the laptop is 6 feet from the WAP and was doing fine in Windows mode over wireless)
eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"RC_DraytekWAP"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:50:7F:AB:C4:00
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Sensitivity:1/0
Retry limit:8 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=74/70 Signal level=-28 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:24
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
So I decided to try ndiswrapper, but with ndiswrapper, the system, does not even recognize that there is a wireless card present, so I do not know if I did something wrong using ndiswrapper or if ndiswrapper does not handle this old card.
Here is what I did; if anyone can see something I did wrong, please correct me and I'll try again.
Using 7zip on my PC, I extracted, from the driver package on the Toshiba web site, the Toshiba Wireless Network Card driver for the laptop from the .exe file and transferred the following files to a new directory /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 Jan 18 14:26 WAAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 18 14:26 WDAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.INF
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.SYS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172032 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS48B.CPL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.CNT
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319216 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.HLP
* Question: do the driver files need to have executable permissions? *****
Using the CLI at root level, I then:
Blacklisted the native orinoco_cs driver by adding, to the end of
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist orinoco_cs
* Question: do I need to blacklist more than just that file? *****
installed the Windows driver with ndiswrapper by changing to the /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere directory and running
ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
confirmed the driver was installed by running
ndiswrapper -l and I got
wlags48b : driver installed
wrote the configuration for modprobe by running
ndiswrapper -m
added ndiswrapper to the startup list by adding, as the last line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf - I had two files which were identical so I added to both)
ndiswrapper
reboot the laptop
with this configuration, the wireless card does not show up on any query, including
lspcmcia
iwconfig
lshw -C netowrk
mintwifi
Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
R
Last edit: Ramblin 2013-01-21
I don't know how I came up on this, but I'll bite, as I have some experience with ndiswrapper.
I will start by saying I know nothing of Linux Mint. I know a lot about the Linux kernel; however, so at least I can get you headed in a better direction.
Firstly, if you are going to use ndiswrapper, disable the ornico drivers in the kernel. You cannot have the ornico drivers trying to come up as ndiswrapper does. At the very least, it will cause the wireless adapter to not function. At most, it could cause a system lock as the two drivers compete for one device.
Secondly, you have to make sure you're set properly for wireless operation in your kernel. If you are not properly setup, no matter which driver you attempt to use, you will fail.
[*] Networking support -->
--- Wireless
<> cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
[ ] nl80211 testmode command
[ ] enable developer warnings
[ ] cfg80211 regulatory debugging
[ ] enable powersave by default
[ ] cfg80211 DebugFS entries
[*] cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility
{} Common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers
[ ] lib80211 debugging messages
<*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
Default rate control algorithm (Minstrel) --->
[ ] Enable mac80211 mesh networking (pre-802.11s) support
[ ] Export mac80211 internals in DebugFS
[ ] Trace all mac80211 debug messages
[ ] Select mac80211 debugging features --->
Once you have those settings setup properly, you then need to go down and select a dummy wireless module to allow other wireless settings that are hidden to be enabled so ndiswrapper can use those hidden settings. I use the following:
Device Drivers ---> Network device support ---> Wireless LAN --->
<M> Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
[ ] Enable promiscuous mode
[ ] Enable full debugging output in IPW2100 module.
This is acceptable as you don't have that device in your machine, so it won't be found. ndiswrapper will be able to find the hidden kernel symbols, and that's the idea in the first place.
Please note this example is using kernel version 3.6.11 vanilla. The placement of your settings will vary depending on the version. While I am speaking of kernel issues, DO NOT DO THIS WITH 3.7.x KERNEL SOURCE! There is a current bug that won't allow ndiswrapper to compile against the 3.7.x kernel versions. Don't even try. You will fail. 3.6.11 works fine, in case you were in need of source known to work properly with ndiswrapper.
Once you have those kernel issues set and that kernel compiled, you will then have to compile ndiswrapper against that particular kernel. I would advise installing wpa_supplicant with its associated GUI feature so you can see better what your adapter sees. I would also advise getting rid of all extraneous networking setups or applications until you get the wireless going. Once you get the basics, then you can build upon them. Until you get the basics going, adding other packages and such will just make the troubleshooting that much more difficult.
You will most likely have to invoke ndiswrapper from whatever it is your version of Linux uses to call modules at boot. On its own, ndiswrapper is not called at boot, at least not for Gentoo. I have to invoke it at boot time to use it.
While it is unsaid above, you need to do this all as root, or use su or sudo. I always log in as root, so I don't worry about such trivialities.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
There is a "fullsome" thread at
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=123071
on this topic, but although the fellow there was trying (a lot) to help; we ended up atymied and he recommended I come to this forum, so here I am.
I have an old Toshiba Portege PP350C-002GJP 32-bit laptop with 1GB RAM
It came with Windows XP and had stayed that way until recently when I decided to move to a more efficient OS - Linux
After looking around, Linux Mint won the contest so, using the Ethernet wired connection, I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya - Nate edition and I love it
However, I cannot get the wireless connection to work.
The wireless hardware is an old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (internal PCMCIA) which out-of-the-box registers with a Linux-native orinoco_cs driver and can be seen with the command-line entry of:
lshw -C network to be present as
-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
Unfortunately, no matter what configuration options I set at either the laptop or the router, including eliminating all security and encryption at the wireless access point, with the native orinoco_cs driver, I can see the wireless access point but not connect to it.
the CLI command
mintwifi shows the RC_DraytekWAP (my access point) as visible but with a pretty high signal to noise ratio, if I am reading this correctly (note the laptop is 6 feet from the WAP and was doing fine in Windows mode over wireless)
eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"RC_DraytekWAP"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:50:7F:AB:C4:00
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Sensitivity:1/0
Retry limit:8 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=74/70 Signal level=-28 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:24
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
So I decided to try ndiswrapper, but with ndiswrapper, the system, does not even recognize that there is a wireless card present, so I do not know if I did something wrong using ndiswrapper or if ndiswrapper does not handle this old card.
Here is what I did; if anyone can see something I did wrong, please correct me and I'll try again.
Using 7zip on my PC, I extracted, from the driver package on the Toshiba web site, the Toshiba Wireless Network Card driver for the laptop from the .exe file and transferred the following files to a new directory /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 Jan 18 14:26 WAAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 18 14:26 WDAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.INF
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.SYS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172032 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS48B.CPL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.CNT
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319216 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.HLPQuestion: do the driver files need to have executable permissions? *
Using the CLI at root level, I then:
Blacklisted the native orinoco_cs driver by adding, to the end of
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist orinoco_csQuestion: do I need to blacklist more than just that file? **
installed the Windows driver with ndiswrapper by changing to the /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere directory and running
ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
confirmed the driver was installed by running
ndiswrapper -l and I got
wlags48b : driver installed
wrote the configuration for modprobe by running
ndiswrapper -m
added ndiswrapper to the startup list by adding, as the last line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf - I had two files which were identical so I added to both)
ndiswrapper
reboot the laptop
with this configuration, the wireless card does not show up on any query, including
lspcmcia
iwconfig
lshw -C netowrk
mintwifi
Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
R
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
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Robert, thanks for chipping in
I am on kernel 3.2.0-23 (Linux Mint 13 - Mate Edition - is based on Ubuntu 12.04)
I am doing all my command-line-interface work as root
I am including ndiswrapper as a new (last) line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf since there are two files) and this, combined with running
ndiswarpper -m
is supposed to make ndiswrapper auto-load on boot
As for blacklisting the orinoco drivers, I know I am supposed to. I just don't know if I am supposed to blacklist more than the one I have already included:
orinoco_cs
in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
when I run
lsmod | grep orinoco
I get
orinoco_cs 12864 1
orinoco 69818 1 orinoco_cs
cfg80211 188714 1 orinoco
pcmcia 39791 1 orinoco_cs
pcmcia_core 21511 4 orinoco_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
compat 20367 6 orinoco_cs,orinoco,cfg80211,rfcomm,bnep,bluetooth
Am I supposed to blacklist all of these?
Wat CLI command did you run to get the status outputs you got above after
[*] Networking support -->
And I am not sure how I go about adding a dummy wireless module. I don't have the menu choices you showed. Is there a command-line-interface equivalent?
Thanks again for helping out
Put simply, if it has the word "ornoco" anywhere in the name, blacklist it. Better yet, recompile your kernel and don't include ornoco support. You don't want to blacklist the PCMCIA stuff, as it's needed. ndiswrapper will probably call it, so it needs to be ready to go. You'll have to check /var/log/dmesg to see if anything is happening at the time of ndiswrapper being invoked. If the device does come up, then you'll have to be sure that it is properly called at boot time, and given an IP address, and such. That's more about the rc system your distro uses, and I have no experience with it.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 5:48 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Robert, thanks for chipping in
I am on kernel 3.2.0-23 (Linux Mint 13 - Mate Edition - is based on Ubuntu 12.04)
I am doing all my command-line-interface work as root
I am including ndiswrapper as a new (last) line in /etc/modules (and /etc/modules.conf since there are two files) and this, combined with running
ndiswarpper -m
is supposed to make ndiswrapper auto-load on boot
As for blacklisting the orinoco drivers, I know I am supposed to. I just don't know if I am supposed to blacklist more than the one I have already included:
orinoco_cs
in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
when I run
lsmod | grep orinoco
I get
orinoco_cs 12864 1
orinoco 69818 1 orinoco_cs
cfg80211 188714 1 orinoco
pcmcia 39791 1 orinoco_cs
pcmcia_core 21511 4 orinoco_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
compat 20367 6 orinoco_cs,orinoco,cfg80211,rfcomm,bnep,bluetooth
Am I supposed to blacklist all of these?
Wat CLI command did you run to get the status outputs you got above after
[*] Networking support -->
And I am not sure how I go about adding a dummy wireless module. I don't have the menu choices you showed. Is there a command-line-interface equivalent?
Thanks again for helping out
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
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I am not technically savvy enough to recompile or otherwise mess at the kernel level
I do not know if the kernel is properly configured for wireless or not. I do know that with the native linux drivers (orinoco), I can see, but not connect to the wireless access points in range. So I know the kernel is at least allowing partial functionality but with ndiswrapper, I am getting nothing, so before I mess with the kernel, I'd like to at least get ndiswrapper up to the level where it can see wireless access points. If, after that, it cannot connect either, then:
- maybe the hardware is an issue (although it was working under Windows)
- maybe the kernel needs configuring (hope not)
I blacklisted both
orinoco
orinoco_cs
and then followed the remainder of the ndiswrapper setup (as I understand it) so my ndiswrapper setup went as follows
(Add blacklist orinoco and blacklist orinoco_cs to end of file)
cd /etc/modprobe.d nano blacklist.conf(Install and confirm the Windows driver was installed)
cd /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF ndiswrapper -l wlags48b : driver installed(Write the configuration for modprobe - already done)
(Add ndiswrapper to file so it starts on boot)
cd /etc nano modules(Reboot)
The system does not even recognize that I have an existing wireless card
The GUI for Windows Wireless Drivers shows "Hardware present: no"
I does not look like ndisrapper is even loading the Windows drivers
Am I following the correct commands to install and configure ndiswrapper?
Are there command-line-interface commands I can run to see what the status is and help me diagnose?
I don't know if this will help or not but, after reboot, the last few lines of /var/log/dmesg came back as
Last edit: Ramblin 2013-01-22
Send the results of lspci -n, and the entire /var/log/dmesg. I need to see everything that's loading or trying to load. You probably now have a directory /etc/ndiswrapper. In that, you should find the .inf and .sys files, as well as the .conf files that configure the adapter. If they are all there, then enter the command iwconfig. This is a part of wireless-tools, which I believe you already said you had installed. If so, you should get some acknowledgment that the wireless adapter has been activated. Perhaps there's an LED to indicate a change in state? If you get none, then modprobe ndiswrapper. Run iwconfig again. If it remains unable to find a wireless adapter, then there is a serious issue.
Do you know that the adapter actually works with windows? If so, then there is a serious configuration issue with your kernel, ndiswrapper, or both. If not, then why beat a most-likely-dead horse? Seeing that the PCMCIA port comes up is a good thing. I just need to be sure of what things are starting on your machine, and when. Perhaps add the PCMCIA module into the list of modules to call just before ndiswrapper gets called.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 5:48 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
I blacklisted both
orinoco
orinoco_cs
and then followed the remainder of the ndiswrapper setup (as I understand it) so my ndiswrapper setup went as follows
cd /etc/modprobe.d
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
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The wireless card in the laptop was working with Windows. It was not a great card, with limited range, but it did work.
The wireless card also does get recognized with the native linux orinoco driver. It will show in
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and it will see the wireless access points in range but I cannot connect to them. (Not sure if that is a hardware or config issue, which is why I am trying the windows drivers under ndiswrapper)
I do have a directory at
/etc/ndiswrapper/wlags48b
and in it are the files
I do not know what the .conf or .cnt files are. I assume they are something to do with what ndiswrapper did when I ran ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
I ran iwconfig and got
Which is what has been happening all along; it is like I have no hardware (or no drivers to recognize the hardware).
Note that when I use the native orinoco_cs driver, iwconfig does show the eth1 card
I ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then ran iwconfig again, but the result was identical to above
Running lspci gets me
lspci -n gets me
Since the card is actually a PCMCIA card (internal), I also ran lspcmcia and got
which confirms that the system is not recognizing the driver for the PCMCIA card when using ndiswrapper
Again, note that with the orinoco driver, the PCMCIA card does show in lspcmcia
(not a lot of good since I con only see, but not connect to wireless access points using the orinoco driver)
I have attached the full dmesg file (seemed to make more sense than including inline in post, given its size)
As a try, I then added the three PCMCIA modules
to the modules file ahead of the ndiswrapper entry so the PCMCIA modules would load first. I then rebooted and saved the contents of the second dmesg file as the second half of the dmesg file attached - you will see the delimiter between the two as a line of asterisks (*)
After this reboot, I again ran
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
I then ran modprobe ndiswrapper and then
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and got the same result as above
Is this helping us get closer to a solution are are we just confirming that something is really wrong here?
I'll answer your last question first. Yes, we are finding issues. Will it result in a functional wireless adapter? I'm going to go a bit out on a limb, and say most likely, but not without more effort. You may have to switch kernel sources until you find one with the ornoco drivers that aren't bad. From some of my reading, it seems those drivers are hit and miss.
The first thing I note from your dmesg is that ndiswrapper is clearly called. That it does not respond means either there is a kernel configuration issue, or ndiswrapper doesn't like the drivers. It is most likely a kernel issue, as there has been a small but ongoing war between Linus Torvalds, and any thought of letting ndiswrapper do its thing in peace. There are versions of the kernel that won't allow ndiswrapper to finish compilation, and there are others that will allow it, but won't allow ndiswrapper to work at run time. Your setup may be falling into that crack.
I have found that it's not uncommon for there to be ornoco driver issues as well. By googling the PCI address I assumed to be your card (12a3:ab01), I found another user with similar issues. I don't see a resolution, which may be the most telling thing.
At this point, barring a sudden flash of usability from ndiswrapper, your best bet is to see if others found resolution, and what that resolution was. I am of the opinion that ndiswrapper is not going to be that solution, as it doesn't activate the device. The kernel native drivers do, so to some degree, the device is functional. But it's most likely old, and just not up to getting the job done any longer.
I was using a TI PCMCIA card that would respond to ndiswrapper, but could go no further. I pulled it and installed a laptop PCI Atheros internal, and it now has full wireless capability. Some devices just don't age well.
At this point, I think the only real option is to look for a newer, better supported device. As far as I know, you can still get PCMCIA cards.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 6:32 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
The wireless card in the laptop was working with Windows. It was not a great card, with limited range, but it did work.
The wireless card also does get recognized with the native linux orinoco driver. It will show in
iwconfig
lspcmcia
and it will see the wireless access points in range but I cannot connect to them. (Not sure if that is a hardware or config issue, which is why I am trying the windows drivers under ndiswrapper)
I do have a directory at
/etc/ndiswrapper/wlags48b
and in it are the files
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 08:19 .
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This may not be good news (or it may be wrong or outdated news)
I found an old posting from 2005 at
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.ndiswrapper.general/4847
that said the Agere chipset Windows driver WLAGS48B.INF does not work with ndiswrapper
I also went the ndiswrapper list of supported chipsets/vendors at
https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Main_Page
and when I went to the Toshiba page at
https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Category:Toshiba
where 2 of the 3 items listed (none was my card/laptop) said the Toshiba drivers do not work with ndiswrapper. The drivers I have are from the Toshiba web site.
I did go to the list of "NOT WORKING devices" on the Wiki, and ?fortunatlely? my card was not listed. Unfortunately, my card was also not listed in the list of "known WORKING devies".
Is there another source for drivers (that is safe) that might have the driver I am looking for for the Lucent/Agere Wireless LAN Card?
It seems the driver I have installed has installed but it does not recognize the chipset so will not present the hardware.
Well, it seems we have reached the same conclusion
I have now tried 3 different drivers from different sources (trying to avoid the fraudsters who try to foist their trojans on you as driver installers). No change. It seems the drivers under ndiswrapper are just not being recognized whoch means the hardware will not be presented. Darn.
I am pretty much stuck with Linux Mint - although that is the wrong way to say it since I do think it is a good distro - since I have it installed on my daughter's laptop (in another city now) and I am using this one to help give tech support when she needs it.
So I MAY go get another wireless card/USB solution and see if that works. I really did not want to invest in any new hardware on this laptop since it is 10 years old, but I guess I can afford $20 for a wireless device.
Thank you very much for sticking with me on this; you have been a great help - both technically and supportively (I know, no such word).
R
You're welcome. I'm always up for helping out if at all possible. It's too bad that we've reached the same conclusion, but sometimes it's best to know when you're licked.
I wish more people were more helpful when it comes to being part of a community focused on computers. I'm having some issues with a FreeBSD/Gentoo Linux hybrid, and it seems that the people on the mailing list are of the opinion that if it's not happening on their computers, it's not happening. So, I'm left with a partial working hybrid, and a seeming batch of attitude.
Oh well. It's not like I can't reformat the drive in question and do another Windows XP setup just in case I run into someone who wants some musical production work done.
Good luck on the device hunt.
Cheers,
Bob
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:34 PM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Well, it seems we have reached the same conclusion
I have now tried 3 different drivers from different sources (trying to avoid the fraudsters who try to foist their trojans on you as driver installers). No change. It seems the drivers under ndiswrapper are just not being recognized whoch means the hardware will not be presented. Darn.
I am pretty much stuck with Linux Mint - although that is the wrong way to say it since I do think it is a good distro - since I have it installed on my daughter's laptop (in another city now) and I am using this one to help give tech support when she needs it.
So I MAY go get another wireless card/USB solution and see if that works. I really did not want to invest in any new hardware on this laptop since it is 10 years old, but I guess I can afford $20 for a wireless device.
Thank you very much for sticking with me on this; you have been a great help - both technically and supportively (I know, no such word).
R
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
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Well,
For whatever reason, I could not get the Native Linux Drivers (orinoco_cs) to work, and we could not get the ndiswrapper solution to work with Windows Drivers that did work in WinXP. ndiswrapper would not even present the hardware which orinoco did but only 1/2 way (I could see but not connect to access points)
So, after ?? days of trying, I gave up, and went and spent $16 (Candian) on a TP-Link mini-PCI card (http://www.tp-link.com/ca/products/details/?model=TL-WN861N = discontinued but still available in selected retail), installed it, reinstalled Mint 13 - Mate (I had been messing with it so much I figured a clean install was warranted) et voila - I have fully functioning 802.11 with WAP2 encryption, 802.11n support ,...
Methinks it might have been smarter to just go get the darn thing instead of futzing around (technical term), but I would not have learned nearly as much ... :-)
Thanks for the help you did provide - it steered me in the right direction.
We always discover that we've spent more time on something after we've spent too much time, never before or during. I'm glad to see you fixed it. I did the same basic thing, substituting an internal PCI mini device for the PCMCIA that came with the machine. It's been working like a champ ever since.
Cheers,
Pappy
From: Ramblin ramblin@users.sf.net
To: [ndiswrapper:discussion] 323168@discussion.ndiswrapper.p.re.sf.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 10:55 AM
Subject: [ndiswrapper:discussion] Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
Well,
For whatever reason, I could not get the Native Linux Drivers (orinoco_cs) to work, and we could not get the ndiswrapper solution to work with Windows Drivers that did work in WinXP. ndiswrapper would not even present the hardware which orinoco did but only 1/2 way (I could see but not connect to access points)
So, after ?? days of trying, I gave up, and went and spent $16 (Candian) on a TP-Link mini-PCI card (http://www.tp-link.com/ca/products/details/?model=TL-WN861N = discontinued but still available in selected retail), installed it, reinstalled Mint 13 - Mate (I had been messing with it so much I figured a clean install was warranted) et voila - I have fully functioning 802.11 with WAP2 encryption, 802.11n support ,...
Methinks it might have been smarter to just go get the darn thing instead of futzing around (technical term), but I would not have learned nearly as much ... :-)
Thanks for the help you did provide - it steered me in the right direction.
Old Toshiba Wireless LAN Card (Lucent/Agere PCMCIA Card) disappears when try ndiswrapper & Windows drivers
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