[SZF2001]

Alright, so I have the craptastic WUSB11v4 card from Linksys. I'm going to make some notes and ask (some) questions at the end of the post, so just skip to the last paragraph if you just want the question.

I'm using Xubuntu (used to be Ubuntu and before that Debian, but I still had the exact same problems all around anyway) right now, and here's my procedure in using the WUSB11v4 card.

First, I grab the latest version of ndiswrapper from the ndiswrapper website - no way in hell will I use the older version that Ubuntu keeps in the repositories. Then, I install (from the CD) build-essential, which makes it so I can run my make commands succesfully and such.

After that installs, I point the terminal to my ndiswrapper file and run "sudo make distclean" then "sudo make" then "sudo make install". Works like a charm.

Then I point the terminal toward my WUSB11v4 driver directory. And I run 'ndiswrapper -i WUSB11v4.inf'. Great, ndiswrapper now reads and is using the driver sucessfully! Which can also be seen with ndiswrapper -l. Hardware present and everything.

Now I run "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" and then "ndiswrapper -m". I also add ndiswrapper as a start up module in '/etc/modules'. Maybe I'll reboot, but it never seems to be important.

I install wifi-radar at this point, with a .deb file I grabbed from the official Ubuntu repository (so I'm not online yet). Doesn't have any dependancies, THANK GOD.

Anyway, this is the point of Hell itself. The card can send out signal and read all the other networks around it, but it can't seem to establish a connection with ANY of them. I blame this on Network Manager, so I delete it and stop the start up program that uses Network Manager in the system tray.

At this point I check out /etc/network/interfaces. I comment out any eth0 connections and, since I used ndiswrapper -m before, I can see 'auto wlan0' stuff.

I'll try something like wifi-radar or Network (under Applications -> System in Xubuntu), which of course cannot establish a connection, but I check /etc/network/interfaces and it's always something really simple, and it never seems to write down that the network is in Managed mode, and always put's the key before the essid. So I have to switch them around and add Managed mode manually.

Then I run 'sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop' and 'sudo /etc/init.d/networking start'. Sometimes it will just find the network in a snap with DHCP, like it should - and others it just can't seem to. It'll say the hardware is asleep (we all know machines can't sleep, damnit! They are either alive or dead!)...

I finally managed to get /etc/network/interfaces right! Yes! But here's the thing - after I shut down my computer, the settings go back to crap and I have to figure it out again!

Here they are, for reference:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback


iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid myessid
wireless-mode Managed
wireless-key1 ****-****-**
auto wlan0

Please note that, yes, I'm using WEP 64bit, and that seems to be the way to set it out working. When I reboot and can't access my network, usually the essid is below the key (which just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE), instead of 'wireless-key1 ****-****-**' it does this 'wireless-key **********' and I end up forgetting and... argh. Nightmare.

I've also installed 'linux-wlan-ng' before, which I think is for my chipset, but when I run 'sudo /etc/init.d/networking start' with it, it just seems to cause problems. No idea where to go from here.

So here's the question - I want to force my /etc/network/interfaces file to stay as I have it written above... What the hell do I do?

[waterhead]

Is it possible that a native Linux driver module is loading and interfering? What chipset does your wireless have?

On Fedora 8 and Suse 10.2 I use Network Manager (aka KNetworkManager). To remember the passphrase, Fedora 8 uses Keyring Manager. Suse uses the KWallet (I have the KDE desktop on both).

[SZF2001]

I've just recently black listed usb_prism2 or something similar in the blacklist list for modprobe, but I can't check it out until my movie is done ripping with AcidRip. I'll get back on that.

[SZF2001]

Alright, got around to rebooting. Yes, I'm double posting, but I think the time difference should make up for it, right?

Anyway. Blacklisted usb_prism2 (or whatever it was called) and tried using linux-wlan-ng ... still made errors, but I can remove it sucessfully without any conflict so that's good...

I think my /etc/network/interfaces gets messed up after using wifi-manager. Yea, stupid idea to not check before using it after a reboot.

I think if I just leave my /etc/network/interfaces alone, it'll keep my configuration. Now I just need to figure out how to make 'sudo /etc/init.d/networking start' go at boot up, since that command makes DHCP work and find my network and everything. Is Network Manager supposed to do that? Because that was the program that started conflicts in the first place. Should I just add that line to Autostarted Applications?

[waterhead]

Before we start blacklisting modules, we need to know the correct one to blacklist. This can be determined from the chipset. Enter this into a terminal and post the output.

/sbin/lspci

[SZF2001]

/sbin/lspci didn't work, but /bin/lspci did.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 12)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 12)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 12)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 12)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller (rev 12)
00:1f.4 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 12)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev b2)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31)
02:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
02:09.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 07)
02:0a.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:0a.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:0a.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 63)
02:0a.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)

And it's working with the blacklisted thing anyway. But I still have to run the command.

[waterhead]

I apologize. I see that the device is a USB wireless. It is a little harder to get the needed info, but try this command.

/bin/lsusb -v

Just post the section relevant to the wireless.

[SZF2001]

Originally Posted by waterhead

I apologize. I see that the device is a USB wireless. It is a little harder to get the needed info, but try this command.

/bin/lsusb -v

Just post the section relevant to the wireless.

Tried it, under normal user and root user, told me it couldn't find the command...

[waterhead]

I did a quick file search on my Mythbuntu box, and found that executable in two places.

/usr/bin/lsusb
/usr/sbin/lsusb

I have been using file locations in the commands, because some distros require it (Fedora). I just entered only the command, with sudo, and it worked that way.

[SZF2001]

Awesome. Thanks for putting up with me so far, and if you haven't noticed I haven't shut off my box since the original post... lol

Anyway, your first command:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 13b1:000b Linksys WUSB11 v4.0 802.11b Adapter

And your second:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 13b1:000b Linksys WUSB11 v4.0 802.11b Adapter

Looks like the same results, but they seem to show a bit more. The card is the only thing plugged into the USB ports anyway, so the results didn't show much else besides blanks.