ndiswrapper help! (a/k/a "Make my eyes stop bleeding")

[JoeyJoeJoe]

It's been five hours straight of reading various how-to documents, swearing at everyone in my house, kicking my (imaginary) dog, uninstalling, reinstalling, uninstalling and then re-reinstalling ndiswrapper and I cannot take it anymore.

Dell Latitude D600

Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)

kernel is 2.6.17-11-generic

lspci results for wireless card: 02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

ndiswrapper -v
utils Error: no version specified!
driver version: 1.22
vermagic: 2.6.17-11-generic SMP mod_unload 586 REGPARM gcc-4.1

I have read how-tos on ndiswrapper site and in various and sundry places all over the web and have had zero luck so far.

I am a Linux noob and I want to very much play around with Ubuntu, but if I can't do wireless on my laptop, it is useless to me.

Where do I start troubleshooting this?

[trickster]

Hi,

Have you looked at this link?
http://www.flexion.org/site/index.ph...ion=Page&id=11

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Thanks, I will try that out tonight and let you know. GUI set up is what I need at this point.

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Trickster,

i installed ndisgtk and the GUI indeed shows the currently installed Windows driver as bcmwl5 and 'Hardware present' reads "Yes" so that's good.

I also installed wifi radar application and I can see my neighbors access points, no problem. They're encrypted though so I cannot connect.

My struggle now is that my home wireless network is WPA and I cannot figure out how to connect to it. I tried downloading wpa_gui but the applet just reads "Could not get status from wpa-supplicant" no matter how I try configuring it.

I've gotten closer and I'm going to continue searching on wpa_supplicant stuff, but if you have any other advice, I'd be happy to hear it.

Thanks,
JJJ

[trickster]

Check this link for info on setting wpa_supplicant:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=263136

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I tried the instructions and no joy at all with wpa_supplicant

I have a lot of questions about these instructions. I will go step by step

1. Ran the following in terminal window:

Code:
wpa_passphrase 'MYSSID' 'MY_PSK'Where 'MYSSID' and 'MY_PSK' correspond with that of my wireless router.

I got the resultant psk string and copied it

2. Ran

Code:
sudo gedit /etc/wpa_supplicant.confA blank file opened. Is that normal? I followed the instructions adding the following to the .conf file:


Quote:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
#ap_scan=2

network={
ssid='MYSSID'
scan_ssid=1
proto=WPA RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
psk='MY_PSK_STRING'
}

I saved this file.

3. I ran

Code:
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfacesHere is where things got kind of confusing. What you see below is what I currently have in that file. I placed what the instructions said under 'auto eth0' originally but that immediately dropped my wired connection when I ran wpa_supplicant in the final step. So I fixed it by placing the info from the instructions under auto eth1 since that is my wireless card when I run iwconfig. I am also using ndiswrapper to install my Windows driver so I changed that too.:


Quote:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid "XBOXWAP"
pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dndiswrapper -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

4. when I run

Code:
sudo wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dndiswrapper -i eth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf... nothing happens. Here are the results when I run it with the -dd switch


Quote:
joe@UbuntuLaptop:~$ sudo wpa_supplicant -Dndiswrapper -i eth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd
Initializing interface 'eth1' conf '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' driver 'ndiswrapper' ctrl_interface 'N/A' bridge 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
Line: 4 - start of a new network block
ssid - hexdump_ascii(len=7):
58 42 4f 58 57 41 50 XBOXWAP
scan_ssid=1 (0x1)
proto: 0x3
key_mgmt: 0x2
pairwise: 0x18
group: 0x18
PSK - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED]
Priority group 0
id=0 ssid='XBOXWAP'
Initializing interface (2) 'eth1'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
SIOCGIWRANGE: WE(compiled)=20 WE(source)=18 enc_capa=0xf
capabilities: key_mgmt 0xf enc 0xf
WEXT: Operstate: linkmode=1, operstate=5
Own MAC address: 00:90:4b:b3:d6:d0
Driver does not support WPA.
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=0 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=1 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=2 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=3 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
Using existing control interface directory.
bind(PF_UNIX): Address already in use
ctrl_iface exists and seems to be in use - cannot override it
Delete '/var/run/wpa_supplicant/eth1' manually if it is not used anymore
Failed to initialize control interface '/var/run/wpa_supplicant'.
You may have another wpa_supplicant process already running or the file was
left by an unclean termination of wpa_supplicant in which case you will need
to manually remove this file before starting wpa_supplicant again.

Failed to add interface eth1
State: DISCONNECTED -> DISCONNECTED
WEXT: Operstate: linkmode=-1, operstate=5
No keys have been configured - skip key clearing
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
Failed to disable WPA in the driver.
No keys have been configured - skip key clearing
WEXT: Operstate: linkmode=0, operstate=6
Cancelling scan request

Anyone? I'm a total noob, so I may need some rudimentary instruction.

As another note, I have wifi radar running and it is at least seeing my neighbor's networks so I think the driver is working on some level.

Also, my SSID is hidden, if that is complicating things (??)

And the driver does support WPA. At least in Windows it does.

[Schotty]

I would suggest if you cannot get a native driver for linux, getting a USB stick that is supported.

Since I am short on time (need to jet for work), I will give you this link and the reccomendation of Orinoco NICs for Linux/BSD usage (works on Mac and Win too).

http://www.schotty.com/wordpress/?page_id=34

[JoeyJoeJoe]

No joy on the site you referenced. Broadcom isn't supported?

[trickster]

I wish I could help you more, but I don't have Ubuntu installed or a Broadcom wireless card to test.
I can try to point you to a few different places, perhaps they will be useful.

Try this:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m.../index.php/WPA

[peter]

My experience with the Broadcom wireless chipset with ndiswrapper has been abysmal on Fedora. Maybe its the same with Ubuntu.

I had much better luck totally uninstalling nsdiwrapper and using the fwcutter package instead.

I also tested ndiswrapper on one wireless NIC and fwcutter on a Broadcom NIC on the sme machine and neither would work. It is almost as if they are mutually exclusive, you either have ndiswrapper, or fwcutter, never both.

I came to that conclusion after a week of banging my head against the wall. I hope you guys have better luck.