Ubuntu Internet Help

[Megagab999]

Ok, so I just installed Ubuntu on my Compaq PC (SR5350F) and I had a few problems but after I make everything work. So I noticed that I didn't have internet so I installed NDISwrapper (took me a loong time ). Then I installed my Windows driver for my Linksys card (WMP300N) with ndiswrapper:

"ndiswrapper -i /Desktop/WMP300N/Drivers/bclwm5.inf"
There were no errors.

I did "modprobe ndiswrapper" at the end and then I did "ndiswrapper -l" It shows:
bclwm5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4329) present (alternative driver: ssb)

My card's ID is : 14E4:4329;
There are also these numbers before the ID --> 01:0.0 0280
When I do "iwconfig", there is no wlan0 ...
I have tried a lot of things, nothing works. Am I doing something wrong??

Thanks in advance,
Megagab999

[Bemk]

My advice is go looking for an alternative native Linux driver, as you can see, ndiswrapper can be buggy.

You can also try to get another wlan device, that is supported by Linux, or Ubuntu more specifically.

[D-cat]

It may not have installed as wlan0.

Try ifconfig and see what interfaces are available.

[Bemk]

Thanks D-Cat, I forgot that one.

It doesn't take away the fact that I don't like NDISWrapper, but I think you should decide for your self.

[Megagab999]

Ok thx for the quick reply!

It doesn't take away the fact that I don't like NDISWrapper, but I think you should decide for your self.

Is ther another way to make my Internet work other than NDISWrapper??
I am gonna boot Linux and then edit this post!

It may not have installed as wlan0.
Try ifconfig and see what interfaces are available.

Well I remember that it showed three devices and they all didn't have wireless connections or something like that...

My advice is go looking for an alternative native Linux driver

There are no Linux drivers for my Linksys card (none that I know of...).

EDIT: Ok so here are the old ones and the new entry is below:

lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
pan0 no wireless extensions.

[Megagab999]

Ok so great news! I booted Ubuntu and when I opend terminal and entered iwconfig, there was a new entry :

lo-------------------------no wireless extensions.
eth0---------------------no wireless extensions.
eth1---------------------IEEE 802.11 Nickname:""
Access Point: Not-Associated
pan0--------------------no wireless extensions.


Ok the new one is "eth1". I am writing this from Ubuntu and I have succesfullly connected to my wireless network!!

Thank you all for your help and quick replies!
Megagab999

[stef4001]

I don't like ndiswapper ether but it solved my problem i do like ubuntu and if you see that mandriva installs directly my wireless card than i need to hope that ubuntu implements de drivers also standard.
Try Ultimate edition 2.0 e real improvement for ubuntu 8.10

[Bemk]

This might go a bit of topic, but the point why Ubuntu doesn't include the drivers by standard is simply because they aren't allowed to do it. In Mandriva you pay for some editions and then you also pay for the drivers. Ubuntu is (and I hope it will stay) free, so there's nobody paying for the drivers.

There's more software in payed editions of Linux distro's that needs to be payed for, most of the time.

The reason why Ubuntu can't include the drivers is just simply because they're not allowed to do so.

I still don't get why hardware developers refuse to make their drivers open source, while they do make them free of charge. Could it be because they're scared some mistakes are discovered in the code?

[kr0nik]

mine did the same thing. try using ndisgtk instead. ive posted this one around for a while and it seems to work, check it out...

update with: sudo update-manager -d
install ndiswrapper. Find the native windows drivers for your wireless card. in my case i had to use netgears wn311t. When they were extracted i would get netmw14x.inf (the driver).
find out what the device number is (forget what its called exatly) but it will be ####:#### (it will have letters) so do a "lspci -nn" minus the quotes.
it will show a list of stuff with network devices and such, Find your wireless adaptor and on the line with it it will have something like:
00:04.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet [1039:0900] (rev 91)

Im not booted into linux so im ssh'd into my shell. but your wireless card will show something like that. note down the numbers nad letters inside the [####:####]

"sudo ndiswrapper -i driver.inf" (/etc/ndiswrapper will create a folder named "netmw14x" inside it. make sure you are in the directory with the driver file. and dont forget the .inf part).

"sudo ndiswrapper -a 11ab:2a08 netmw14x" (lspci -nn will show device ids. with different versions of ndiswrapper it might be -d. but do sudo ndiswrapper -a or -d depending on your version. "ndiswrapper -a ####:#### driver" notice the driver on this one doesnt have the .inf part )

"sudo ndiswrapper -l" will now say the device is present and it can be configured normally.

after that you'll want to edit your network manager so you can use it with the wireless adaptor. so do

sudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
under [ifupdown], change managed=true

after youll want to add your alias with ndiswrapper so

"sudo ndiswrapper -m"

next youll want to make the module dependencies (its like a makefile) so do:

"sudo depmod -a"

and then youll want to load the modules so it will work:

"sudo modprobe ndiswrapper"

and then

"sudo ifup wlan0"


an overview of commands

1. sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
2. sudo ndiswrapper -i driver.inf
3. lspci -nn (note down the device id)
4. sudo ndiswrapper -a ####:#### driver
5. sudo ndiswrapper -m
6. sudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf (change managed to true)
7. sudo depmod -a
8. sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
9. sudo ifup wlan0

and your wireless should show up in the network manager

[edit] atleast thats all waht worked for me. i tried for months to get wireless to work and it wouldnt. the only thing i didnt do was change the managed to true which made it work. an easier way to install the driver though is using ndisgtk so you dont have to go through all the hassle of running commands. as it says ndisgtk gimp toolkit so its for x instead of a command line.

[Megagab999]

Dude, read the previous post, this thread is resolved. after I restarted my computer several time a new device appeared called "eth1". Everything works now! Thanks again for all your help and support!