HowTo for pcmcia wireless?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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nduanetesh
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HowTo for pcmcia wireless?

#1 Post by nduanetesh »

Hi,

I feel like I'm setting myself up for a "here's the link, moron" answer, but I've been searching the old forum and can't find what I'm looking for. Did anybody ever post a straightforward, generic set of instructions for using ndiswrapper and pcmcia? Many posts come up if you search "ndiswrapper", but a lot of them are pretty old and don't give the information I'm looking for.

I'm trying to get my girlfriend's laptop on the net using her netgear wpn511 wireless card. I have the windows drivers and am ready to roll...if only I could figure out the "type [blank] at a terminal window" part.

Any help appreciated.

ND

Oh, and maybe I should mention that I'd like to do it using the multisession CD...does that make a difference? If I have to go to the liveCD, that's no problem.

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Pizzasgood
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#2 Post by Pizzasgood »

I don't know if PCMCIA cards work the same, but this is how I set up my PCI card:
1. Get the Ndiswrapper stuff I needed from Bladehunter (driver, config files, etc) and extract to the proper locations (make sure you get some files that look like 1234:2323:13434.conf, otherwise it didn't extract correctly).
2. Edit /etc/rc.d/wireless.conf to work for my card (FYI, if your network is Infrastructure, that's Managed in this file.)
3. Add this stuff to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

#This should make the wireless junk work.
. /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless

rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.pid 2>/dev/null
rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.cache 2>/dev/null
rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.info 2>/dev/null

dhcpcd eth1


4. Reboot and pray.
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nduanetesh
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#3 Post by nduanetesh »

Am I correct that ndiswrapper is included in puppy now? But associated config files are not? or are they all device specific?

ND

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Pizzasgood
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#4 Post by Pizzasgood »

The module, which is what runs when it does the network, is in Puppy. The other parts that take the Windows driver and spit out a bunch of files you need isn't in Puppy, so someone with a normal distro that has the full Ndiswrapper needs to take the drivers and run them through the program then give you the outputted files. Bladehunter was doing this before, but he doesn't seem to have migrated over here yet. Well, I guess I could try it. Attach your driver files and I'll give it a shot.
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JohnMurga
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#5 Post by JohnMurga »

This would be a perfect chance for someone to test the cut down perl binaries I posted in the the cutting edge forum with NDisWrapper :-)

Either way I try and do it myself tonight.

Cheers
JohnM

Guest

#6 Post by Guest »

Thanks guys. I'll have my g/f email me the drivers (she lives two hours away) and then I'll post them here for you guys to process. This will be awesome if we can get it to work!
ND

nduanetesh
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#7 Post by nduanetesh »

HI guys,

Finally got the drivers in my hot little hands, and now I'm uploading them to you guys! Hope somebody can run them through the grinder for me. And I hope that I have the sense to be able to make use of them once you do. I won't be seeing my lady's laptop until sunday (interesting play on words there), so no big rush on these. If you need any other files or anything, just let me know. Thanks in advance.

ND

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JohnMurga
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#8 Post by JohnMurga »

Hey

I just run it through, although I am not sure what you have to do next.

I think you just have to extract this archive to /etc (so a "ndiswrapper" dir will be created), and then your drivers will be loaded and you'll be able to "modprobe" the "ndisdriver" kernel module, etc, etc ...

PS

Cheers
JohnM

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Pizzasgood
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#9 Post by Pizzasgood »

rc.d_files.tar
Yeah, you'll want to extract that to /etc, then you'll want to download the .tar I attached and extract that in /etc too. It will add the /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless and /etc/rc.d/wireless.conf files. Then you need to edit /etc/rc.d/wireless.conf to work with your modem, like I said earlier. Finally, add this stuff to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

#This should make the wireless junk work.
. /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless
rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.pid 2>/dev/null
rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.cache 2>/dev/null
rm /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-eth1.info 2>/dev/null
dhcpcd eth1
#End of wireless junk

That should do it. Then just reboot and hopefully it will work.
Last edited by Pizzasgood on Mon 16 Oct 2006, 04:02, edited 2 times in total.
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nduanetesh
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#10 Post by nduanetesh »

Thanks guys!

Talk about fast service running those drivers through Ndiswrapper...

As I think I mentioned before, I won't be able to play with the 'puter 'til sunday, so I won't be able to report any news until then. That'll give me some time to read up on ndiswrapper, though. And hopefully with the info and help I've gotten from you guys, it'll be a snap to set up. (fingers crossed)

Thanks again! You'll hear from me on sunday.

ND

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#11 Post by Guest »

One word

Ndiswrapper won't be loaded by the pcmcia subsystem. You load ndiswrapper via modprobe or whatever and then config the card.

For cards covered by the pcmcia subsystem editng /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts with automagically do all the work.

Just for the record I did do a quick howto on pcmcia setup and wireless, both with Ndiswrapper (PC Cards 32 bit) and cardmgr (older 16 bit cards)

nduanetesh
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#12 Post by nduanetesh »

bladehunter wrote:
Just for the record I did do a quick howto on pcmcia setup and wireless, both with Ndiswrapper (PC Cards 32 bit) and cardmgr (older 16 bit cards)
I was pretty sure that you did, but I got disheartened after searching the old forum for an hour or two and not coming up with it. You get a LOT of results when you do a search for "ndiswrapper". I would be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

I'm going to poke around a little bit with 1.0.2 on that machine, before going for the ndiswrapper solution. I had gotten the card working about two months ago with another live-CD, but I can't remember which one it was...I think I was carrying around Knoppix, Feather and Puppy at the time, so it was probably Knoppix. And it was totally by blind stumbling...you know, one of those situations where you just poke around with things for an hour or two and suddenly it works and you have no idea what you did. But I'm sure I didn't manually load ndiswrapper or set up any card specific drivers...

So, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that with the magic of puppy's new kernel, magical bits of magical internet data will magically flit through the air at the speed of light from a magical router to this newly magically recognized and configured wireless card....but if not, I'll go in armed with information and ndiswrapper and force it into submission.

Thanks for the help so far, everyone. And once again, Bladehunter, if you could point me in the right direction for your howtos (even just give me the title of the thread, if you remember), I'd appreciate it.

ND
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Pizzasgood
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#13 Post by Pizzasgood »

Wouldn't happen to be this, would it? I ran past it a minute ago when I was looking for something else.
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#14 Post by Guest »

Yep that was the one, long before Barry officially had PCMCIA up and going in Puppy.

But I think the rc.wireless & wireless.conf files I posted make it a lot easier, especially with ndiswrapper.

Maybe a wizzard that could go thru the steps to get all the parameters of a user and then write the config file and make changes for rc.local would even be more easier ?

nduanetesh
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#15 Post by nduanetesh »

Hi guys,
Whelp, I'm writing this from WinXP, which should tell you that I've had some problems...

I extracted all of the files given and edited the appropriate file. When I reboot puppy, just before x starts, there is an error message which reads,

insmod: can't read 'ndiswrapper': no such file or directory

Any idea what's going on?

Thanks for the continued help

ND

nduanetesh
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#16 Post by nduanetesh »

OK, so I downloaded and burned puppy 1.0.1, because the disappearing ndiswrapper seemed like a 1.0.2 bug to me...so, I booted 1.0.1 on a clean pup001 file, and did the file extracting, etc...now, when puppy boots, just before X starts, ndiswrapper loads correctly, then I get this:

Error for wireless request 'Set ESSID' (8B1A): SET failed on device eth1; No such device.

So, is this an indication that the pcmcia subsystem isn't seeing the card? or something else?

ND

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BarryK
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#17 Post by BarryK »

I'm running 1.0.2RC right now. I typed:

# modinfo ndiswrapper

...which gives useful info. Then I typed:

# modprobe ndiswrapper

...and it loaded ok.

If you just type
# insmod ndiswrapper
it won't work, can't find the module, you would have to specify the entire path and filename. But there's more to it -- insmod in the 2.6 kernel seems to be partly crippled. It's a different modprobe package that I had to compile for k2.6.

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#18 Post by nduanetesh »

When I was running 1.0.2RC, I first booted up with a clean pup001 file, and after I'd extracted the necessary files and such, I typed

modprobe ndiswrapper

and received no error messages...in fact, I received no message at all. It just gave me a new prompt line, so I took this as a good sign. It was only when I rebooted that I got the error message, which was apparently produced by one of the config files I installed, because it occurred as part of the boot process, rather than by any input I did. So it seems like some bug is causing ndiswrapper to disappear? I'll try all of this again at home, as I'll soon be separated from this computer, and report my findings...

Any ideas on the error message I'm getting with 1.0.1? At least ndiswrapper is loading OK there...

ND

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Pizzasgood
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#19 Post by Pizzasgood »

Sorry. We're past the extent of my knowledge. Good thing Bladehunter's back :)

Good luck!
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nduanetesh
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#20 Post by nduanetesh »

Barry, you're right. "Insmod" gives and error in 1.0.2RC where "modprobe" does not. I'm currently in XP and don't have a utility to handle the .tar files, but I'm nearly positive that one of the configs calls ndiswrapper with insmod. I can change this line to modprobe easily enough. However, I'm suspecting that the pcmcia system isn't seeing (or identifying or something) the card, because after I manually modprobe ndiswrapper, if I then do "iwconfig", I get an output which shows me two devices (one is eth0, but sorry i can't remember the other) and says "no wireless extensions" or something like that for both of them. Sorry I'm not being more precise with the messages. is there any way i can get a list of pcmcia hardware that the system has detected?

ND

PS. i downloaded and burned Feather yesterday (good thing I brought a CDRW!) and all I had to do was run through the network setup wizard and it worked like a charm. Might they have some moves we can steal?
PPS That success makes me all the more determined to get this to work!

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