Wireless Problems

[thornaj]

Ok here is the deal. I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 with the intergrated TrueMobile 1450 a/b/g card. I had some problems that caused me to have to reinstall both linux and windows. I am having trouble getting the wireless up and running. Here is what I have done and what I get.

I installed ndiswrapper and loaded my windows drives (not the ones from the cd). When I look at the dmesg I get this message.

ndiswrapper: using irq 7
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:11:f5:01:7b:d4 using driver bcmwl5a, configuration file 14E4:4324.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
ndiswrapper (iw_set_bitrate:480): setting bit rate failed (C00000BB)

When I look at iwconfig I get:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any Nickname:"thorncom.net"
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-47 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

When I go to Applications > System Settings > Network, and then try to activate the wireless I get this:

Determining IP information for wlan0... failed; no link present. Check cable?

Can someone let me know how to fix this?

Thanks in advance.
thornaj
[/quote]

[AlexK]

whats output from

ndiswrapper -l

? i find that usually it is better to use drivers from the cd rather than from the net (atleast in my experience).

[thornaj]

When I run:

ndiswrapper -l

I get something like the following:

Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5a driver present, hardware present

I use the bcmwl5a because the bcmwl5 did not work before.

[psic]

Good, next type 'modprobe ndiswrapper'. After that, you must (sorry, I'm watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), check the instructions on setting up your wireless interface:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...ure_interface:

[thornaj]

I did:

modprobe ndiswrapper

I took all of the following steps from the ndiswrapper installation wiki located at: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...ure_interface: and these are the results.

[root@thorncom ~]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device wlan0 recommend version 18 of Wireless Extension,
but has been compiled with version 17, therefore some driver features
may not be available...

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"thorncom.net"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.18 GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm
          RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:100/100  Signal level:-35 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:10   Missed beacon:0

sit0      no wireless extensions.
[root@thorncom ~]# modprobe ndiswrapper
[root@thorncom ~]# iwlist wlan0 scan
Warning: Driver for device wlan0 recommend version 18 of Wireless Extension,
but has been compiled with version 17, therefore some driver features
may not be available...

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:4E:67:36
                    ESSID:"thorncom"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-41 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

[root@thorncom ~]# ifconfig wlan0 up
[root@thorncom ~]# dhclient wlan0
dhclient(7128) is already running - exiting.
[root@thorncom ~]# ndiswrapper -m
modprobe config already contains alias directive

I still do not have the wireless running. Any ideas from anyone. If it would be helpful I am willing to give anyone who can help me either my e-mail addy or my IM screen name. Just let me know what to do to fix this. I love linux and want to use it more, but I have to have my wireless.

Thanks again,
thornaj

[winter]

What chipset is on the card?

[thornaj]

I am not sure if this is what you mean or not but here goes. I have a:

Dell Wireless WLAN 1450 Dual Band WLAN Mini-PCI Card. I know that it is a/b/g compatible

Did that help any. if not let me know.

Thanks again
thornaj

[AlexK]

do the following:

iwconfig wlan0 essid thorncom channel 11 mode Managed

[thornaj]

When I ran the following successfully with no effect:

iwconfig wlan0 essid thorncom channel 11 mode Managed

Can someone tell me how to remove the ndiswrapper so that I can start at the begging?

Thanks
thornaj

[AlexK]

when you say no effect, can you ping any site or anything?

to remove present driver use ndiswrapper -e driver_name