Can't connect via wireless network

[quazar]

Hi, I am new to Ubuntu and am trying to get my wireless network card working. I have a TrendNet TEW 423PI card. I have installed the rtl8185 driver and blacklisted the rlt8180 driver. I have ndiswrapper installed along with wpasupplicant. My router is encrypted with WPA-PSK. I have checked my wpa_supplicant.conf file and all the info there looks good (e.g. ssid, password). I've been through all the forums I can think of and worked for many hours searching for related threads, but I really need this to work and so I am here asking for help.

I have read the Wireless Setup- Start here and have all the relevant info asked for there.

I am running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) on a Dell Dimension 8200 Pentium 4 with 1 gig RAM.

I can't think of any additional relevant info, but if more is needed, I will provide. I would really appreciate a little help as I have spent hours trying to figure this out on my own.

Thanks


lspci -knn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset Host Bridge (MCH) [8086:2530] (rev 04)
	Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
	Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset AGP Bridge [8086:2532] (rev 04)
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 04)
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) [8086:2440] (rev 04)
	Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt, intel-rng
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller [8086:244b] (rev 04)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 [8086:2442] (rev 04)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller [8086:2443] (rev 04)
	Kernel modules: i2c-i801
00:1f.4 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 [8086:2444] (rev 04)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:2445] (rev 04)
	Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
	Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 420] [10de:0172] (rev a3)
	Kernel modules: nvidiafb, rivafb
02:08.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller [10ec:8185] (rev 20)
	Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper
	Kernel modules: rtl8180
02:09.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
	Kernel driver in use: 8139too
	Kernel modules: 8139too, 8139cp

lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
binfmt_misc            16776  1 
bridge                 56340  0 
stp                    10500  1 bridge
bnep                   20224  2 
input_polldev          11912  0 
video                  25360  0 
output                 11008  1 video
ndiswrapper           193436  0 
lp                     17156  0 
snd_intel8x0           37532  3 
snd_ac97_codec        112292  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                9856  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            46336  0 
snd_mixer_oss          22656  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                82948  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy          10756  0 
snd_seq_oss            37760  0 
snd_seq_midi           14336  0 
snd_rawmidi            29696  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     15104  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                56880  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              29704  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14988  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ppdev                  15620  0 
dcdbas                 15264  0 
iTCO_wdt               19108  0 
iTCO_vendor_support    11652  1 iTCO_wdt
psmouse                61972  0 
snd                    62628  16 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
pcspkr                 10496  0 
serio_raw              13316  0 
soundcore              15200  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         16904  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
intel_agp              34108  1 
intel_rng              12672  0 
agpgart                42696  1 intel_agp
parport_pc             40100  1 
parport                42220  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
shpchp                 40212  0 
8139too                32128  0 
8139cp                 27776  0 
mii                    13312  2 8139too,8139cp
floppy                 64324  0 
usbhid                 42336  0 
fbcon                  46112  0 
tileblit               10752  1 fbcon
font                   16384  1 fbcon
bitblit                13824  1 fbcon
softcursor              9984  1 bitblit

dmesg

[   12.769277] ndiswrapper version 1.53 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[   12.897633] ndiswrapper: driver net8185 (Realtek,02/01/2007,5.1097.0201.2007) loaded
[   12.897991] ndiswrapper 0000:02:08.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   13.197546] ndiswrapper: using IRQ 17
[   18.141745] wlan0: ethernet device 00:14:d1:ea:2a:16 using NDIS driver: net8185, version: 0x50449, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'Realtek RTL8185 Wireless LAN (Mini-)PCI NIC                                     ', 10EC:8185.5.conf
[   18.141922] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

dmesg | grep firmware

returns no output

uname -r

2.6.28-11-generic

Thanks in advance for the help. Let me know if you need any other info.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome,
Have you seen this thread?
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...-networks.html

[quazar]

I saw that thread earlier and after reading it, I see the my problem isn't quite the same, my wireless card recognizes mine and other networks. I just can't connect to it. I'll try reinstalling ndiswrapper and blacklisting the rtl8180 driver before I reinstall. Maybe that'll work.

Thanks for the help.

[quazar]

I tried reinstalling ndiswrapper and the drivers, but still to no avail. I can see my network and the card seems to be working but I still cannot connect to the network. Does the default keyring have anything to do with the problem? When I'm prompted for the security key, the WPA-PSK password that I entered is changed to a hexadecimal number 64 numbers long.

[MikeTbob]

Have you tried without NDISWrapper?

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
sudo modprobe rtl8180
sudo iwconfig wlan0 up
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

[quazar]

Yeah, I tried that too. When I enter the 'sudo modprobe rtl8180' part of that sequence of commands the computer locks up on me.

[MikeTbob]

Have you thought about trying a different Linux? Some work better than others and some just don't work. Trial and error is your friend. Use LiveCD's to test your hardware before installing.

[quazar]

Sounds like that might be the way to go, thanks for all the help.

[quazar]

Thought you might want to know that I finally got it working. Here's what I did:

1. Took out the card and reinstalled Ubuntu.
2. Blacklisted rtl8180, then installed ndisgtk.
3. ran "sudo update-initramfs -k all -u" (saw this in a forum, don't know if it made a difference or not, but...)
4. Downloaded the rtl8185 driver for Windows XP from the Realtek website.
5. Installed the WINXP2K drivers under System>Admin>Windows Wireless Drivers

Then it started working.

Thanks again for all the help.

[quazar]

By the way...

I installed version 10.10 instead of 9.04.

First I tried running Ubuntu 10.10 live and the wireless card worked, but when I installed 10.10, it wouldn't work. That's when I started the above steps.

Also,
After I blacklisted rtl8180 I then put my wireless card back in.

I got some help here: [all variants] Comprehensive ndiswrapper troubleshooting guide - Ubuntu Forums (This is the title of the post I found, I wanted to post the link but I can't since I haven't posted 15 posts yet, sorry)

to find out that the driver that came with my card were corrupted.

I ran

dmesg | grep -e ndis -e wlan

and found that I had "unknown symbols" which told me that the driver file I was using was corrupted.

Hope this helps others with the same problem.