Having problem with wireless connection

English Network/Internet
1

I wiped a Windows PC and did a full install of Suse 11.1 and am now trying to get my Dynex wireless card to work.

I read the post it notes and followed the directions. I got the following results:
linux-zm5x:~ # ndiswrapper -l
ndiswdm : driver installed
device (4317:0720) present

linux-zm5x:~ # lsusb
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 4317:0720
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
linux-zm5x:~ #

YaST => Hardware => Hardware information

No Wireless LAN entry

UDI:/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_4317_720_43860000_if0

No firmware entry in bootlog. The only thing I found was an entry:

Waiting for mandatory devices: wlan0 nsc

countdown from 30 to 0 (ie. 30 29 28 27 etc.)

wlan0 no interface found
failedsetting up service (remotefs) network ……failed

sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan gave 2 lines
lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.
eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.

In the Post It there was a comment about making sure it was turned on but I didn’t see anything that stated one way ot the other about the kill switch.
Another thing is the YaST => Network Devices => Network Settings interface I set the internal NIC card to “on Cable Connect” and then had to add the wireless card. I added ndiswrapper to the Module Name but it doesn’t stay there. Every time I go back to double check myself that has to be added again.

Did I miss doing something? I have been trying to read all the posts and searching in Google but can’t find what I may have missed.

2

If i’m not mistaken, i believe this device has a broadcom chipset. In which case, uninstall the ndiswrapper driver & install the broadcom firmware.Then follow the tutorial supplied by lwfinger to get it working

Andy

3

deltaflyer44 wrote:
> If i’m not mistaken, i believe this device has a broadcom chipset. In
> which case, uninstall the ndiswrapper driver & install the broadcom
> firmware.Then follow the tutorial supplied by lwfinger to get it working

No, this is not a Broadcom chip. They all have PCI IDs of 14e4:43XX. I
didn’t find an ID of 4317:0720 in any built-in driver, thus the OP
will need to use ndiswrapper.

4

Thanks for reminding me larry, my mistake. To the OP, take note from larry & ignore my post

Andy

5

I am using ndiswrapper but it isn’t working. Did I miss a step somwehere? Is there something more I need to post to help troubleshoot the problem? Or can you point me to the documentation I need to complete/fix this install?

6

In debugging a wireless connection, you have to know how far it got.

I did not see any mention of actually loading ndiswrapper. Note -
there are two parts. One of them is the user-space routine that you
used to install the Windows driver. The second is the kernel module
that is loaded separately. If the command

lsmod | grep ndis

does not return anything, then you need to issue the command

sudo /sbin/modprobe -v ndiswrapper

The next step is to see if the wireless interface is there:

/sbin/iwconfig

The results should now include wlan0.

If wlan0 exists, the next step is to know if it is working at least
far enough to scan for nearby APs:

sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan

Post the results. If you do see your AP in the above results, you
should be able to add a connection with NetworkManager.

7

What I read said that NetworkManager was not for home networks so I haven’t been using it. I mentioned that in earlier post.

8

My last post I quoted what you said and entered my results in the quote under what you said. Sorry to confuse. I’m new to the boards. Should I repost seperately?

9

Hmm,whoever said network manager wasn’t for home networks,isn’t very clued up.I have used several different managers & stuck with network manager as it is slightly easier than the others. when doing ndiswrapper,did you modprobe ndiswrapper ? Have a look at my personal helpfile here Howto’s scroll down to the relevant part

Andy

10

Hardhead wrote:
> My last post I quoted what you said and entered my results in the quote
> under what you said. Sorry to confuse. I’m new to the boards. Should I
> repost seperately?

Putting the response where you did; however, you need to make a clear
break between the text that you are quoting and your response. TRhe
way you did it made it look as if your answers were part of what was
being quoted.

11

Hardhead wrote:
> lwfinger;2015138 Wrote:
>> In debugging a wireless connection, you have to know how far it got.
>>
>> I did not see any mention of actually loading ndiswrapper. Note -
>> there are two parts. One of them is the user-space routine that you
>> used to install the Windows driver. The second is the kernel module
>> that is loaded separately. If the command
>>
>> lsmod | grep ndis
> I did get this:
> linux-zm5x:~ # lsmod | grep ndis
> ndiswrapper 177228 0
> usbcore 167276 5
> ndiswrapper,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
> linux-zm5x:~ #

OK, ndiswrapper is loaded.

>>
>> does not return anything, then you need to issue the command
>>
>> sudo /sbin/modprobe -v ndiswrapper
>>
>> The next step is to see if the wireless interface is there:
>>
>> /sbin/iwconfig
>> The results should now include wlan0.
>
> If this is a command it didn’t do anything. I opened the file with a
> text editor but when I searched for wlan0 and got nothing.

It should have been a command, but I gave it to you wrong. Try

/usr/sbin/iwconfig

>> If wlan0 exists, the next step is to know if it is working at least
>> far enough to scan for nearby APs:
>>
>> sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan
>>
> This command still gives this:
> sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan gave 2 lines
> lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.
>
> eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.

OK, this lets us know that wlan0 has not been created. There is a
problem with ndiswrapper.

Just to check, what does the following command show?

sudo ndiswrapper -l

I know you posted that output earlier, but I’m just confirming that
nothing has happened since then.

>>
>> Post the results. If you do see your AP in the above results, you
>> should be able to add a connection with NetworkManager.
> What I read said that NetworkManager was not for home networks so I
> haven’t been using it. I mentioned that in earlier post.

Quite the contrary. If the computer is hardwired to the network, then
one might not use NetworkManager; however, for a computer that
connects wirelessly and does any roaming, then a connection manager is
needed. There are others besides NM, but NM is the one in a standard
setup.

12

>It should have been a command, but I gave it to you >wrong. Try

>/usr/sbin/iwconfig

inux-zm5x:~ # /usr/sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

>OK, this lets us know that wlan0 has not been created. >There is a
>problem with ndiswrapper.

>Just to check, what does the following command show?

>sudo ndiswrapper -l

>I know you posted that output earlier, but I’m just >confirming that
>nothing has happened since then.

linux-zm5x:~ # sudo ndiswrapper -l
ndiswdm : driver installed
device (4317:0720) present

>Quite the contrary. If the computer is hardwired to the >network, then one might not use NetworkManager; >however, for a computer that connects wirelessly and >does any roaming, then a connection manager is needed. >There are others besides NM, but NM is the one in a >standard setup.

This is a PC in a room with no wired connection so I am using wireless. It doesn’t roam or even move so I took the advise of the post it and set it up using YaST2 Network Settings and chose the option “Traditional Method with ifup”

I do have another question. How many files should have been copied from the Windows driver CD to get this to work? I only found 2 files in the driver folder : ndiswdm.inf and ndiswdm.sys and wasn’t sure if there should be more.

13

Hardhead wrote:
> This is a PC in a room with no wired connection so I am using wireless.
> It doesn’t roam or even move so I took the advise of the post it and set
> it up using YaST2 Network Settings and chose the option “Traditional
> Method with ifup”
>
> I do have another question. How many files should have been copied from
> the Windows driver CD to get this to work? I only found 2 files in the
> driver folder : ndiswdm.inf and ndiswdm.sys and wasn’t sure if there
> should be more.

Those are the only two files that are needed; however, you still do
not have a wireless device (wlan0) created. Until you solve that
problem, nothing will happen.

I don’t do ndiswrapper and I will not be able to help you any more.

Larry

14

Can you by chance point me in the right direction? I haven’t found ndiswrapper support in the forums.

15

look here Ndiswrapper - openSUSE or here Howto’s ( scroll down for this one ) or here Ndiswrapper howto - openSUSE

Andy