yet another ndiswrapper question

[exvagabond]

Hello.

I have a desktop running linux mint 7, and recently needed to add a wireless usb adapter to it, to enable wireless networking. I have a laptop with an internal wireless card, so I am somewhat familiar with how to get things to work. However, I am getting stuck with the wireless usb adapter, and am looking for some advice. I would update the computer to a more recent version of linux mint, but everything else work, and I do not want to go through the trouble if I can avoid it.

The adapter in question is the netgear WG111v3. From what I have read in the forums and through tinkering, I find that the windows driver works better than the rtl8187 driver.

Here is what I have tried thus far. When I plug the adapter into my computer, it initially tries to use the rtl8187 driver, which is unsuccessful. I promptly remove the driver to prevent any sort of conflict.

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sudo modprobe -r rtl8187
sudo echo blacklist rtl8187 >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

I then got the windows driver files, WG111v3.inf, WG111v3.cat, and WG111v3.sys, and put them into a folder together. Following, I install the windows driver using ndiswrapper

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sudo ndiswrapper -i WG111v3.inf

The install completes without error. I check to make sure that the windows driver is installed:

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sudo ndiswrapper -l

wg111v3 : driver installed
	device (0846:4260) present (alternate driver: rtl8187)

and it is. I then make sure that ndiswrapper is loaded, and rtl8187 is not

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lsmod | grep ndiswrapper
lsmod | grep rtl

Sure enough, everything seems right. After this point, I unplug the adapter and plug it back in, and see what is going on with dmesg

[ 661.628067] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
[ 661.766862] usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 661.936031] usb 1-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
[ 662.336484] ndiswrapper: driver wg111v3 (NETGEAR Inc.,04/23/2007,5.1080.0423.2007) loaded
[ 667.400611] wlan0: ethernet device e0:91:f5:92:99:f6 using NDIS driver: wg111v3, version: 0x1, NDIS version: 0x500, vendor: 'Realtek RTL8187 Wireless LAN USB NIC ', 0846:4260.F.conf
[ 667.400710] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

All looks well. The blue LED on the adapter is on, and occasionally blinks. I then go into the Wicd manager to see if I can find my wireless router, and it tells me "no wireless network found". I know the network is on, as my laptop can access it.

Just to see if the problem is the adapter, or something else, I force the adapter to scan for networks with the following:

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sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

And I do indeed find my network:

wlan0 Scan completed :
...
Cell 04 - Address: 00:1C:10:18:0F:96
ESSID:"GOOD_LUCK"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality:57/100 Signal level:-59 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0

Is there any reason why I cannot find the network with Wicd and use it? I also tried restarting the computer with the adapter in, with no success. And advice would be valuable.

Thank you.

[inktitan]

I do not know the exact process but have you looked into usb modeswitch? Sometimes the usb wifi adapters are seen as mass storage devices.

[exvagabond]

Thanks for the advice on usb_modeswitch. It turns out that was not the issue. The problem was I did not understand how Wicd works. (:

What I needed to do was go into the Preference menu of Wicd, and add wlan0 to the "Wireless Interface" box. After I did that, all worked as expected. The wireless points around me were visible, and I could connect to the internet when I selected mine.

Thanks for trying to help out though.

[inktitan]

A good learning experience all the same.