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August 10th, 2008

py theas22Ubuntu Master

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Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: Paris

Beans: 5,505

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty

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Compr ehens ive nd i swr apper t roub leshoo t ing gu ide

I n t r o d u c t i o n

There are plenty of good how-tos on ndiswrapper out there, but many of them lack thorough troubleshooting

sections or omit important information. This guide is intended to diagnose and solve the most common issues

that prevent ndiswrapper from working, even after it appears to be successfully installed and configured.

This guide assumes that you've followed ndiswrapper instructions somewhere and as far as you know complete

all steps successfully, but still are unable either to see wireless networks (using the "iwlist scan" command) or

make your system detect your wireless interface at all. (If you can see networks but can't manage to connect

some reason, steps 5 and up may be useful, although they were not written specifically for your situation.) If t

describes your troubles, start at the top of this guide and work your way down; hopefully you'll discover the

source of your problem and be able to resolve it.

Please note that this is not intended to be another guide to installing and setting up ndiswrapper, as that woul

be redundant. If you need help getting started with ndiswrapper, refer to the community documentation or do

Google search.

1. check w heth er nd isw rapper recogn izes your w i re less card

ndiswrapper won't work until it thinks that your Windows drivers have been properly installed and that they ar

the appropriate ones for your wireless card. You can run the command:

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

(that's a lowercase L, not a 1) to find out whether it recognizes your card properly (make sure your wireless ca

is plugged in and turned on before running that command). If you get a message like:

Code:

netwg111 : driver installed

device (0846:4240) present (alternate driver: p54usb)

then ndiswrapper detects your card correctly and believes that you have installed the appropriate Windows

drivers for it. In that case, go on to check #2 below. If ndiswrapper mentions an "alternate driver" (p54usb in

example above) and you haven't already blacklisted it, you may want to do so now; see check #3 below for

instructions on how to blacklist modules that may interfere with ndiswrapper. (Note that the "alternate driver"

message doesn't necessarily mean that a conflicting driver is causing ndiswrapper not to work. To determine fo

sure whether a conflicting driver is the problem, you need to look at the output of lshw -C Network ; see check

below for details.)

'invalid driver!' message

Search

[all variants] Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide - Ubunt... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p

1 of 14 2/24/20



If ndiswrapper - l complains about an invalid driver, it most likely means that it was unable to find a .sys file

corresponding to the .inf file that you loaded into ndiswrapper. The .sys file (which usually, but not always, ha

the same name as the .inf file) needs to be in the same directory as the .inf when you install the Windows driv

So if ndiswrapper is telling you that an invalid driver is installed, try installing your Windows driver again, and

make sure that the .sys file is in the same folder as the .inf that you install into ndiswrapper.

finding the right drivers: Note : the nd i sw rapper da tabase i s cu r ren t l y dow n ; p lease see the no t i ce be lo

f o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n

If the output of 'ndiswrapper -l' says that a driver is installed but doesn't mention either device XXXX:XXXX

present or invalid driver , then something's wrong: most likely you installed the wrong Windows driver.

The most reliable way to locate the appropriate Windows drivers for your wireless device is to search the

ndiswrapper site for your wireless card's device ID and chipset model. To get the device ID and chipset model

your card, run the command:

Code:

lspci -nn

or, if your wireless card is an external USB stick, use:

Code:

lsusb

The output of the 'lspci' or 'lsusb' command should include a line describing your wireless card (note that the

relevant line may not necessarily include the word "wireless"; it may mention only "ethernet" or "network

communications device" or something similar), including its device ID. For example, here is a line for an Ather

PCI wireless card, with the important information in bold:

Code:

01:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC [168c

and here's the line for a Netgear WG111v2 USB wireless card (in this example, the chipset model is not

mentioned...but you should always at least see the device ID number):

Code:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0846:4240 NetGear, Inc. WG111 WiFi (v2)

Once you've determined the device ID of your wireless card, use Google to search the ndiswrapper site (the

built-in search function of the site doesn't work very well). Search for site:ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net [device

I D] or site:ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net [chipset name] , e.g.:

Code:

site:ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net 168c:001a

or:

Code:

site:ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net ar2413

IMPORTANT NOTE: as of early October, the ndiswrapper database has been broken for some time--it returns

blank pages when you try to access it. It's not clear when this is going to be resolved. As a result, I copied

Google's cache of the database pages to my personal website. You can access them here. Put your wireless ca

name or device ID into the search function of that site, and any relevant pages in the database will be brought

up.

The result should return a link to the ndiswrapper wiki with information on where to find good Windows drivers

your card. For instance, the search above (for device ID 168c:001a) leads to a page with this information:

Quote:

* Chipset: Atheros AR5007EG (rev 01)


2 of 14 2/24/20



* PCI ID: 168c:001c

* Driver: ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/noteboo...s_v5_1_1_9.zip

* ndiswraper version : > 1.45

* other : need to uninstall all madwifi kernel module before use ndiswrapper

* other : if you can’t get any AP signal, try to enable wifi radio through wlan switch (it’s look like

nothing happened when you try to enable through wifi, because the LED is not compatible with linux(i’m

using ubuntu 7.04), but if you try ‘iwlist wlan0 scan’ you’ll see some AP information

* other : 64-bit XP driver is available at http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Support/...Name=GN-WI01GT

which nicely outlines where to find Windows drivers for the card in question, and special tweaks that may be

required to make the card work.

If your wireless card is very new, you may not find any references to it on the ndiswrapper site. If that's the ca

try using the Windows drivers that came on a CD with your wireless card, or download drivers from the

manufacturer's site. You may have to try a few different versions of the Windows drivers before you get one th

works.

what if the Windows drivers are inside a .exe file?

Increasingly, wireless-card vendors are releasing Windows drivers in .exe format, making it difficult to extract

.inf and .sys files that you need to load into ndiswrapper (loading the whole exe. won't work). On Linux, you ca

sometimes extract .exe packages using the commands 'unzip' or 'cabextract' (needs to be installed first with s

apt-get install cabextract ), or use 7-zip in Windows to break the .exe open. If that doesn't work, try running th

.exe installer using wine; it should extract the driver files to a directory at some point, at which time you can c

them over elsewhere, then kill the installer (the Windows installer will not make your wireless card work on Lin

even if it appears to install everything properly; don't bother trying). In a worst case, install the .exe package

a Windows machine, and the .inf and .sys files that you need should be copied into c:\windows\system32 (or

system64), from whither you can copy them to your Linux system.

forcing device recognition:

In rare cases, ndiswrapper doesn't recognize wireless cards even when the correct Windows drivers are installe

If this happens, you can force ndiswrapper to try to use a certain driver for a given device with the command

sudo ndiswrapper -a device-id driver , e.g.:

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -a 0846:4240 netwg111

Note that there is a small chance that forcing ndiswrapper to use the wrong driver can cause physical damage

your wireless card, so you should not use the -a argument unless you have a good reason to believe that the

Windows driver that you're selecting is the right one for your card, even though ndiswrapper disagrees.

2. check m ach ine a rch i tec tu r e

An important caveat to ndiswrapper, and one that many tutorials fail to mention, is that the architecture of the

Windows drivers that you use with ndiswrapper needs to match that of your Linux kernel--no exceptions. In ot

words, if you're running 64-bit Ubuntu, the Windows drivers that you use need to be built for 64-bit Windows.

ndiswrapper -l reports "device present" but you still can't get your wireless card to work, this is the likely culpr

ndiswrapper will still report "device present" even if the Windows drivers are not the right architecture.

If you don't know whether your kernel is 32 or 64-bit, run the command:

Code:

uname -m

If the output is 'i686' (or possibly 'i586' or 'i486' on older machines), you have a 32-bit kernel; if it's 'x86_64,'you're using 64-bit. If the output is anything else, you don't have an x86-compatible processor and you can't u

ndiswrapper (because Windows doesn't support platforms other than x86).

If you installed Windows drivers built for the wrong architecture, find the appropriate ones and install them (yo

will need to remove the bad ones first with the sudo ndiswrapper -r driver-name command). Refer to check #1

above for information on locating good Windows drivers.

Keep in mind that for some wireless cards, 64-bit Windows drivers were never released. If this is the case for

your device and you want to use a 64-bit Linux kernel, you're probably out of luck. You could complain to your

wireless-card vendor and demand 64-bit Windows drivers, or you could check to see if any native Linux driver

support your card. Otherwise, your only option is to switch to a 32-bit kernel.

3. reso lve con f l i c t s w i t h compet in g w i re less d r i ve rs


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If ndiswrapper - l looks good and you're sure that your Windows drivers are built for the right architecture, but

you still can't get the system to recognize your wireless device, it could be because another wireless driver is

trying to control the card. Some native Linux wireless drivers (many of which are built into the Ubuntu Linux

kernel by default) will claim a device even though they're not capable of driving it successfully.

To check whether another driver is trying to claim your device, use the command lshw -C Network . Here's an

example of the output:

Code:

*-network:0

description: Wireless interface

product: AR2413 802.11bg NICvendor: Atheros Communications Inc.

physical id: 1

bus info: pci@0000:01:01.0

logical name: wifi0

version: 01

serial: 00:19:e0:67:8a:f1

width: 32 bits

clock: 33MHz

capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath_pci ip=192.168.1.3 latency=168 maxlatency=2

In bold is information about which driver (module) is controlling the device in question (if you don't see any

drivers or modules mentioned and the first line of lshw mentions UNCLAI MED , move on to check #4). In the

example above, the driver is ath_pci, which is a native Linux driver for Atheros-based wireless cards. Other

common drivers that may conflict with ndiswrapper are 'b43' (Broadcom chipsets), 'ssb' (Broadcom), 'bcm43x

(Broadcom), 'iwl3945' (Intel), 'iwl4965' (Intel) and 'rt2x00' (Ralink).

ndiswrapper won't work until you tell the system not to use the module that's trying to claim the card. You can

prevent the system from loading modules by adding them to '/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist' (in Ubuntu 9.04 and

later, this file is named /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf' instead of just 'blacklist'). Open up the blacklist file wit

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

(or 'sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf' if you're using Ubuntu 9.04 or later) and add to the bottom of t

file a line to blacklist each module that you want the system to ignore. For example, to blacklist 'ath_pci,' add

line:

Code:

blacklist ath_pci

Then save the file and run this command:

Code:

sudo update-initramfs -k all -u

Now reboot. Thereafter, the system will not load ath_pci until you remove it from the blacklist, and ndiswrappe

should be free to claim the wireless card.

module- dependency issues:

Once in a while, the system will load a module even though it's on the blacklist. This happens because the mod

is a dependency of another module that's not on the blacklist--for example, 'b44,' an ethernet driver, requires

'ssb' module and won't allow it to be unloaded, so you have to also add 'b44' to the blacklist in order to force t

system to ignore 'ssb.'

If after a reboot lshw -C Network still shows a module other than ndiswrapper claiming your wireless card, use

the rmmod command to remove the module. For example, to remove 'ssb,':

Code:

sudo rmmod ssb

If the system doesn't want to unload the module because of dependency issues, it will tell you which modules


4 of 14 2/24/20



at the root of the dependency, so that you can blacklist them too. If 'ssb' cannot be unloaded because of 'b44,

for example, then the command above would output:

Code:

ERROR: Module ssb is in use by b44

Then you could blacklist 'b44' as per the instructions above (don't forget to run update-initramfs -k all -u after

editing your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file) and everything would be great (except your ethernet may not work

but that's another issue).

module-alias problems:

If you still find the conflicting module being loaded and you're sure that module-dependency issues are not the

problem, it's probably because an alias of the module in question needs also to be blacklisted (thanks to

caljohnsmith for pointing this out). To find out if the module that you want to blacklist has aliases, run the

command:

Code:

depmod -n | grep alias | grep -v ':' | grep -i [module name]

e.g.:

Code:

depmod -n | grep alias | grep -v ':' | grep -i p54usb

would list aliases for the module p54usb , a driver for Prism-based USB wireless cards. The output from the

example above would tell you that p54usb has the alias prism54usb , so in order to blacklist p54usb effectively

you would need also to add the line blacklist prism54usb to your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file.

*many thanks to nightmarelord for pointing out the bit about running sudo update-initramfs -k all -u after

updating the blacklist file.

4. check tha t t he nd isw rapper m odu le i s loaded

If the lshw -C Network output for your wireless card looks like:Code:

*-network:0 UNCLAIMED

description: Ethernet controller

product: AR2413 802.11bg NIC

vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.

physical id: 1

bus info: pci@0000:01:01.0

version: 01

width: 32 bits

clock: 33MHz

capabilities: pm cap_list

configuration: latency=168 maxlatency=28 mingnt=10

then no driver, including ndiswrapper, is trying to claim the card. This is bad, because you want ndiswrapper t

claim it.

If you've run through all of the checks above but lshw -C Network still reports your wireless card as unclaimed

the most likely cause is that the ndiswrapper module is not being loaded by the system. To check whether it's

present, run the command:

Code:

lsmod | grep ndis

If the output returns nothing, the ndiswrapper module is not being loaded for some reason. Try running this

command to load it:


5 of 14 2/24/20



Code:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Then wait a few seconds and see if your wireless card is detected. If so, great; keep reading for steps on maki

the system load ndiswrapper automatically. Otherwise, move on to check #5.

Loading ndiswrapper automatically at boot:

In modern versions of Ubuntu, ndiswrapper is supposed to be loaded automatically at boot. Sometimes for

various reasons that fails to happen, however. If this appears to be your problem, run this command:

Code:

echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

and the problem should be resolved. This command tells the system explicitly to load the ndiswrapper module

while booting, no matter what.

5. check dm esg ou tp u t

dmesg prints messages from the kernel. If you've run through all of the stuff above but still can't get ndiswrap

to work, it may be because something weird is going on (e.g., a bug in ndiswrapper or the Windows driver);

dmesg should provide some insight into the problem. You can get dmesg information related to ndiswrapper wthe command:

Code:

dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan

Normal output for a working ndiswrapper configuration should look similar to:

Code:

[ 507.517874] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)

[ 507.555668] ndiswrapper: driver net5211 (,05/02/2007,5.3.0.45) loaded

[ 507.969072] ndiswrapper: using IRQ 20

[ 508.055020] wlan0: ethernet device 00:1f:3a:8f:13:96 using serialized NDIS driver: net

[ 508.060224] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/C

[ 508.060642] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper

[ 508.139154] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

If dmesg doesn't mention ndiswrapper at all, run sudo modprobe ndiswrapper and then try dmesg | grep - e nd

-e wlan again, or go back to check #4 to verify that the ndiswrapper module is being loaded by the system.

If your dmesg output contains error messages related to ndiswrapper, try googling them (leave out the numbe

in brackets at the beginning of each line, which are timestamps and will throw off your Google search) to see i

you can figure out a fix. Unfortunately, it's impossible here to cover every kind of strange problem with

ndiswrapper that dmesg may reveal, but Google may be able to help.

In addition, below are some of the most common error messages that you may encounter in dmesg, and their

meaning:

If dmesg complains about "bad mag ic," you probably installed drivers for the wrong architecture (e.g., 32-bit

Windows drivers on 64-bit Linux). Refer back to check #2.

If dmesg mentions something like "rad io d i sab led by ha rdwar e," you probably need to turn your wireless ca

on; see check #6 below.

If dmesg contains a lot of errors that begin with "u n k n o w n s y m b o l ," it probably means that the Windows driv

that you installed is either corrupted or that ndiswrapper doesn't like it for some reason. It may help to reinsta

the Windows driver, or choose a different version of it (e.g., try the Windows 2000 driver instead of the XP one

or try version 1.0 of the driver instead of 2.0). Sometimes it's the case that a certain release of the Windows

driver doesn't agree with ndiswrapper, even though it should. It can also happen that the Windows drivers tha

you downloaded were corrupted in transit, so downloading them a second time (and checking the md5 sum if

possible) may help.

Again, if your error message is not listed above, remember: Google (and, failing that, the Ubuntu forums) is yo

friend.


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6. make sure the w i re less i s tu r ned on

Some computers, particularly laptops, have switches for enabling and disabling wireless cards. Usually this is

either a physical button on the outside of the computer, or a software switch that you toggle using key

combinations, like function+F2. More often than you might think, wireless issues come down to the card being

physically disabled, so if nothing above has helped you yet, make sure that your wireless is turned on.

In rare cases, your wireless card (or the PCI bus holding it) may be disabled in your computer's BIOS for somereason, so if you can't seem to get the system to detect a wireless device at all (even an unclaimed one in the

output of lshw -C Network ), check BIOS.

7 . r e i nst a l l nd i sw rappe r f r om s ou rce

Most people use the Ubuntu repositories (Synaptic or "apt-get") to install ndiswrapper using a Debian package

Sometimes, it's helpful to compile the program from source, which will ensure that the build of ndiswrapper th

you're using matches your system's characteristics as exactly as possible. Compiling from source also usually

gives you a more up-to-date version of ndiswrapper than the one available in the repositories. To compile

ndiswrapper from source, follow these steps:

First, remove Ubuntu's version of ndiswrapper by typing:

Code:

sudo apt-get remove --purge ndiswrapper-common

Next, download the latest stable release of the ndiswrapper source code from the ndiswrapper site and save it

your desktop (if you don't have a wired Internet connection available for this step, download the ndiswrapper

.tar.gz file on another computer and transfer it over via a USB stick or CD). N o t e : Ub u n t u 8 . 1 0 ( I n t r e p i d )

use rs shou ld dow n load nd i swrapper ve rs ion 1 .54 o r l a te r , as earlier versions won't compile on Intrepid.

Additionally, i f you a re us ing Ubun tu 10 .10 ( Maver i ck ) o r l a te r , you w i l l a l so need to app ly a pa tch in

order for the source to compile. To grab the patch, go here, click the "Attached File" link, then click the

"Download" link. Save the downloaded file to your desktop.

Finally, extract the source and compile it (these commands assume that the ndiswrapper. tar.gz file is saved o

your desktop, along with the file ndiswrapper-2.6.35.patch if you need the patch):

Code:

cd ~/Desktop

sudo -s

apt-get install build-essential patch

tar -xzvf ndiswrapper*

cd ndiswrapper*

patch -p0 < ndiswrapper-2.6.35.patch ### Only run this command if you need the patch; othe

make

make install

After that, you will need to reinstall the appropriate Windows drivers into ndiswrapper, and then reboot for goo

measure. Your wireless will then hopefully be working.

8. none o f t h e above he lped

If you've gone through all of the checks above and still have no idea why ndiswrapper won't work, the first thin

to do is google a lot for ndiswrapper + ubuntu + [y our wireless card name] or ndiswrapper + ubuntu + [ your

wireless card device I D] . In many cases, this will lead to a solution: remember, you're probably not the first

person in the world to run into trouble with ndiswrapper with your particular wireless card (although it's possib

if your card is really new). There may be some special hacking required to get it to work, and that should be

documented somewhere on the Internet.

If you're still at a total loss, start a new thread in the Networking and Wireless subforum of this site, or post

below. Include results from the checks above, and hopefully someone will be able to help you figure out what's

wrong and make your wireless work.

---

This is a working guide. If you have suggestions for improvement, please tell me. If this guide helps you, I wou


7 of 14 2/24/20


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/all-variants-comprehensive-ndiswrapper-troubleshooting-guide

also be grateful if you'd let me know.

__________________

Personal site | Understanding Wireless Chipsets | Troubleshooting ndiswrapper | The VAR Guy

Last edited by pytheas22; March 24th, 2011 at 05:21 PM..

August 10th,

2008

caljohnsmith== Happy

Ubuntuing ==

Join Date: Mar

2008

Location:California, USA

Beans: 8,111

Re: Compr ehens ive nd i sw rapper t roub leshoo t ing gu ide

Pytheas22, thanks for writing up a great guide for troubleshooting ndiswrapper! I just have a few suggestion

might want to consider:

Quote:

Originally Posted by py theas22

Code:

netwg111 : driver installed

device (0846:4240) present (alternate driver: p54usb)

then ndiswrapper detects your card correctly and believes that you have installed the appropriate Windows

drivers for it. In that case, go on to check # 2 below.

This is just an idea, but I think that if the user gets the above results from ndiswrapper, the next thing they sho

would be to blacklist the "p54usb" module, because that is being used instead of ndiswrapper according to the a

output. That may be the only thing they need to do to get ndiswrapper working, and they wouldn't need to go t

next steps.

Also, when they go to blacklist the module, it is important that they check for "aliases" of the module. Just as an

"ndiswrapper -l" and "lsmod" may both show that the "prism54pci" module is being used for a particular PCI wir

and yet blacklisting "prism54pci" does no good because the prism54pci module is actually just an alias for the p

module . You have to blacklist the p54pci module instead of the prism54pci module to prevent it from interfering

ndiswrapper.

So how do you figure out if the module reported by "lsmod" or "ndiswrapper -l" is just an alias? Here's one way

Code:

depmod -n | grep alias | grep -v ':' | grep -i <module name>

Where <module name> can be a substring, like as follows:

Code:

john@TECH5321:~$ depmod -n | grep alias | grep -v ':' | grep -i 54

alias prism54usb p54usb

alias prism54pci p54pci

alias prism54common p54common

As seen above, prism54pci is just an alias for p54pci. You would want to blacklist "p54pci" and not "prism54pci"

blacklisting the latter will do nothing.

Quote:


For example, here is a line for an Atheros PCI wireless card, with its device ID in bold:

Code:

01:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC [1

Actually the relevant info I think is the "AR2413" and not the PCI ID "168c:001a", because the AR2413 is the ch

card. Ultimately, ndiswrapper cares only about the wireless chipset used, because that determines which Windo

should be used with ndiswrapper.


8 of 14 2/24/20


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/all-variants-comprehensive-ndiswrapper-troubleshooting-guide

Anyway, those are just some ideas, and thanks again for writing a great troubleshooting guide.

Last edited by caljohnsmith; August 10t h, 2008 at 04: 43 PM..

August 10th, 2008 #3

py theas22Ubuntu Master Roaster

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: Paris

Beans: 5,505

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Re: Compr ehens ive nd i sw rapper t r oub leshoo t ing gu ide

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.Quote:

This is just an idea, but I think that if the user gets the above results from ndiswrapper,

the next thing they should do would be to blacklist the "p54usb" module, because that

is being used instead of ndiswrapper according to the above output. That may be the

only thing they need to do to get ndiswrapper working, and they wouldn't need to go

through the next steps.

Check #3 is supposed to cover dealing with competing native drivers, but I agree that it would

make more sense to blacklist the competing driver from the outset if ndiswrapper detects one. I'll

add that in to check #1 (I may not get a chance to do so till tomorrow).

Quote:

As seen above, prism54pci is just an alias for p54pci. You would want to blacklist

"p54pci" and not "prism54pci", as blacklisting the latter will do nothing.

This is a good point. But I've never seen a situation where the alternate driver referred to by

'ndiswrapper -l,' or the driver controlling a card according to 'lshw,' is named something other

than what needs to be added to the blacklist. Have you run into that problem or can you think of

an example? If so, I'll add that in, but I'm not sure whether it's necessary, and I wanted to keep

this guide as short as possible (it's bloated enough already) so as to avoid overwhelming new

users. If you think that this is important, though, then let me know and I'll definitely put it in.

Quote:

Actually the relevant info I think is the "AR2413" and not the PCI ID "168c:001a",

because the AR2413 is the chipset of the card. Ultimately, ndiswrapper cares only about

the wireless chipset used, because that determines which Windows driver should be

used with ndiswrapper.

As far as I know, the XXXX:XXXX device ID is a unique identifier for every kind of chipset out

there (I don't think it has to do with the PCI bus, which is a different number in lspci). All cardswith the same chipset model, regardless of what name they're sold under, share the same device

ID and need the same Windows driver in ndiswrapper to work (but correct me if that's wrong).

Identifying cards by their chipset name (like AR2413 above) works almost as well as the device

ID, but in some cases, there are multiple revisions (e.g. AR2413 rev 01 vs. AR2413 rev 02). I

think that this usually doesn't matter--usually the cards use the same Windows driver--but just in

case there's a difference, I think it makes more sense to go by device ID.

Thanks again for the feedback, and please let me know if you think of anything else.

__________________


August 10th,

2008

caljohnsmith== Happy

Ubuntuing ==

Re: Compr ehens ive nd i sw rapper t roub leshoo t ing gu ide


9 of 14 2/24/20



Join Date: Mar

2008

Location:

California, USA

Beans: 8,111

Quote:


This is a good point. But I've never seen a situation where the alternate driver referred to by

'ndiswrapper -l,' or the driver controlling a card according to 'lshw,' is named something other than what

needs to be added to the blacklist. Have you run into that problem or can you think of an example? If

so, I'll add that in, but I'm not sure whether it's necessary, and I wanted to keep this guide as short as

possible (it's bloated enough already) so as to avoid overwhelming new users. If you think that this is

important, t hough, then let me know and I 'l l definitely put it in.

I feel exactly the way you do, Pytheas22; if it wasn't because I actually ran into a case of the module being calle

something other then the name necessary for blacklisting, I didn't know such a thing could happen. Here's aexample of how it actually happened:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=876205

Note that Tijmz's "ndiswrapper -l" output showed that the "prism54" module was being used instead of

ndiswrapper. It wasn't until he tried blacklisting the "p54pci" module that he fixed his problem. So I dug into it

deeper, and that's when I found out about the whole aliasing business.

Quote:


As far as I know, the XXXX:XXXX device ID is a unique identifier for every kind of chipset out there (I

don't think it has to do with the PCI bus, which is a different number in lspci). All cards with the same

chipset model, regardless of what name they're sold under, share the same device ID and need the

same Windows driver in ndiswrapper to work (but correct me if that's wrong).

I'm certainly not an ndiswrapper authority, but let's again look at your previous example:

Code:01:01.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC [168c:

If you go to the Ndiswrapper Wiki page under "A", if you search for "168c:001a" you will find two instances:

Code:

Laptop: Acer Travelmate 2310

* Chipset: Atheros ar5211, labelled as AR5005G (168c:001a)

* Driver: from Acer (generic drivers do NOT work) ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/noteboo

Card: Atheros AR2413 / AR5005G

* Chipset: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01) (by lspci command

* pciid: 168c:001a

* Driver: net5211 - 802bg.zip (from ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/travelmate_2

So even though both cards have the exact same "pciid" (PCI ID), they have entirely different chipsets and requi

different drivers. Or at least that is how I've always understood it, and I could be wrong.

Best wishes, great guide.

August 11th, 2008 #5


Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: Paris

Beans: 5,505



Thanks for the suggestions again, and especially for pointing out the module-alias stuff. I had

never heard of that causing problems, so it's definitely good to know.

I added a section about dealing with module aliases. I also put in instructions to search for

Windows drivers according to either the chipset model or the device ID. I think that giving users

the option to do either is best (also, lsusb usually doesn't mention chipset names). Hopefully if

they can't find good Windows drivers with one, the other will lead them to the right download.

Thanks again for the support, and let me know if you ever think of anything else!

__________________



10 of 14 2/24/20



September 4th, 2008 #6

joeradtkeFirst Cup of Ubuntu

Join Date: Sep 2008

Beans: 12


You wrote a beautiful guide, but it didn't solve my problem. I have read loads of threads and tips

with no luck.

I have a Toshiba A205-S5843 with an atheros wireless. It came with windows but I immediately

loaded ubuntu 8.04.

I am submitting some of my outputs from your article:

joeradtke@joeradtke-laptop:~$ ndiswrapper -l

netathw : driver installed

device (168C:001C) present (alternate driver: ath_pci)

lspci -nn

05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless

PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)

joeradtke@joeradtke-laptop:~$ uname -m

i686

joeradtke@joeradtke-laptop:~$ lshw -C network

WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.

*-network

description: Ethernet interface

product: RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controllervendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

physical id: 0

bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0

logical name: eth0

version: 01

serial: 00:1e:ec:33:73:4a

width: 64 bits

clock: 33MHz

capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.2LK ip=192.168.1.177 latency=0

module=r8169 multicast=yes

*-network

description: Ethernet controller

product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter

vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.

physical id: 0

bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0

version: 01

width: 64 bits

clock: 33MHz

capabilities: bus_master cap_list

configuration: driver=ndiswrapper latency=0 module=ndiswrapper

I have blacklisted ath_pci, ath_hal and ath5k.

I did the depmod thing and found no aliases

joeradtke@joeradtke-laptop:~$ lsmod |grep ndis

ndiswrapper 192920 0

usbcore 146028 5 ndiswrapper,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

my guess is the problem lies below:

joeradtke@joeradtke-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan

[ 37.928644] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)[ 38.425015] ndiswrapper (link_pe_images:604): DLL initialize failed for athw.sys

[ 38.425046] ndiswrapper: driver netathw (,06/27/2008,7.6.0.239) loaded

[ 38.425340] ndiswrapper (mp_init:207): assuming WDM (non-NDIS) driver


The other thing which perplexes me as that most of the things I have researched refer to a

logical name for the wireless device such as wlan0, wifi0, ath0 or eth1. None of this exists on my

system although the hardware appears to be recognized at some level.

I have turned the device on and off numerous times. I have reinstalled all the stuff a few times.

HELP!!!!

Joe Radtke


11 of 14 2/24/20





Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: Paris

Beans: 5,505



Joe,

It looks like ndiswrapper doesn't like the Windows driver that you loaded. Where did you get it

from? The driver from here should work for your card. Please uninstall the current driver and

install the .inf from that link, and see if it makes a difference.

If not, I believe that you can now also get your card working using native drivers, so that may be

another route to explore if ndiswrapper really won't work. But I'm sure that ndiswrapper works

for 168C:001C, based on this thread which I was involved in a few weeks back.

__________________



Crafty KissesGlmr Klls!

Join Date: May 2007

Location: Not Montana

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Ubuntu Development

Release


Nice guide! Very well written.

__________________The Linux communi ty in terv iews me.

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The middle name is Mason, plz no jokes.

Will be returning to the forums full time in 2011.

You can lose a lot of money chasing girls, but you'll never lose girls chasing money.


joeradtkeFirst Cup of Ubuntu

Join Date: Sep 2008

Beans: 12

Re: Compr ehens ive nd i swrapper t roub leshoo t ing gu ide

I got the driver from the Atheros Czech site that was cited in many threads. I tried your driver,

rebooted and everything works.

Thank you a thousand times; I have been fooling with this thing for two weeks.

Joe

September 5th, 2008 #1 0

John164918a5 Cups of Ubuntu

Join Date: Mar 2008

Beans: 26


Hi, I've managed to set up ndiswrapper with a windows wireless driver without any problems. I

realised my wired ethernet stopped working, so I installed a windows driver for my wired

ethernet card, under ndiswrapper.

It works fine except that every time I reboot, the wired ethernet stops working. To fix this I use

the "Windows wireless drivers" ndiswrapper GUI to uninstall then reinstall the wired ethernet


12 of 14 2/24/20



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driver every time. This is annoying. Can someone please tell me how to get it working better?

here is the result of doing dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan

results of

Quote:

[ 20.084000] ndiswrapper version 1.45 loaded (smp=yes)

[ 20.340000] ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,10/12/2006, 4.100.15.5) loaded


[ 20.712000] wlan0: ethernet device 00:1c:26:ab:85:02 using NDIS driver: bcmwl5,

version: 0x4640f05, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter',

14E4:4311.5.conf

[ 20.712000] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2,

WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK


[ 20.756000] ndiswrapper: changing interface name from 'wlan0' to 'eth1'

[ 20.756000] udev: renamed network interface wlan0 to eth1

[ 438.088000] ndiswrapper: device eth1 removed

[ 438.088000] usbcore: deregistering interface driver ndiswrapper

[ 438.100000] ndiswrapper version 1.45 loaded (smp=yes)

[ 438.128000] ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,10/12/2006, 4.100.15.5) loaded


[ 438.500000] wlan0: ethernet device 00:1c:26:ab:85:02 using NDIS driver: bcmwl5,

version: 0x4640f05, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter',

14E4:4311.5.conf

[ 438.500000] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2,

WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

[ 438.500000] ndiswrapper: changing interface name from 'wlan0' to 'eth1'[ 438.500000] udev: renamed network interface wlan0 to eth1

[ 438.508000] ndiswrapper: driver b44win (Broadcom,11/21/2006, 4.60.0.0) loaded


[ 438.724000] wlan0: ethernet device 00:1c:23:a2:12:02 using NDIS driver: b44win,

version: 0x4003c, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter',

14E4:170C.5.conf

[ 438.724000] ndiswrapper: changing interface name from 'wlan0' to 'eth0'

[ 438.724000] udev: renamed network interface wlan0 to eth0


[ 440.400000] ndiswrapper (NdisWriteErrorLogEntry:192): log: 40050009, count: 0,

return_address: f8bdb1af

What is really happening here?

Also, when does Network Manager applet 7 get released for Ubuntu? I've heard it allows multiple

connections at once which would be really useful as I'm trying to set up wireless in our house atuni.

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