[solved] Sorta there with a Netgear WN511B card

[archtop]

I have just installed Linux Mint XFCE (which is Linux Mint 9) on an old Thinkpad a22m laptop. I am trying to get wireless working using the "WPA & WPA2 Personal" setting in the Linux Mint setup, but am not a Linux pro. I have a Netgear WN511B wireless PCMCIA card; because there seem to be no native drivers, I am using ndiswrapper, which I think I have set up properly. I can use "iwlist scan" and see my router just fine.

I do not have access to a Windows computer, which is a problem for getting the required files -- a *.inf file and a *.sys file, with * usually being wn511b. I can find older ZIP windows install files online that contain the required wn511b.inf and wn511b.sys files; however, using ndiswrapper with these older files, I can connect wirelessly but the resulting setup does not accept my password (I have a Netgear wireless router with WPA).

Some online research has led me to the conclusion that a more-recent Netgear driver download (from the Netgear site), wn511b_setup_6_0.exe, would work, because the site says that a bug was fixed: "Client unable to connect with WNR854T when operating in mix mode wireless security (WPA+WPA2 mix mode)".

Because I myself use "WPA+WPA2 mix" mode, I think this is the problem.

However, the Netgear driver download is not a ZIP file, it is an EXE file. I have Wine, but can't extract the proper files with Wine (the "install" doesn't complete). I even tried extracting the files on a friend's Windows XP machine, but because I could not plug in the actual PCMCIA card into the Windows machine, that install wouldn't complete either.

Ideally, I just need the *.inf and *.exe files extracted from the "wn511b_setup_6_0.exe" install file. But I've searched online and can't find any such thing.

Does anyone know how to extract such files? (By the way, the "wn511b_setup_6_0.exe" install file is NOT a disguised ZIP or CAB file.) And if not, what could I do otherwise?

[archtop]

Just wanted to mention that i just installed and tried Wicd instead of Network Manager, and although I already like Wicd more, I still get the same result (connecting but not being able to get my WPA password authenticated). So I still have questions:

1. Is there any way I can find out if there are any native wireless drovers for the Netgear WN511B card? (Googling this didn't work for me)

2. Is there ANY way I can get the relevant inf and sys files extracted from the wn511b_setup_6_0.exe Windows installation file using Linux applications?

3. If all else fails and I can't use the WN511B wireless card, does anyone have a recommendation for a PCMCIA wireless card that works with WPA and Mint 9 xfce? I truly don't want to go back to the Mac laptop I normally use (yes I know, Macs are nice, but I got all excited about this Linux thing).

[whistler]

If you can see your router, and you're just having problems with authentication, then I would guess that the problem is not with your drivers. I recently had a similar problem, and I found out that Network Manager conflicts with WICD when trying to connect. To further compound the problem, using the software manager to remove Network Manager does not actually remove it. So try a manual remove from Terminal and restart WICD. To do this, open a Terminal and type the following:

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sudo aptitude remove network-manager
sudo /etc/init.d/wicd restart

If it doesn't work immediately, try rebooting and see if you can connect. I have seen this problem stated and solved in this way all over linux forums and it worked for me.

[archtop]

Hi, thanks for the reply . . .

I tried a manual remove of Network Manager (which removed the annoying icon from the panel), rebooted, and still the same problem, unfortunately. I can connect to the weak unsecured wireless signal from down the street, so I know things are working, other than my WPA authentication failure.

The only other thing I can think of to try is to keep looking for someone with a Windows laptop with a PCMCIA slot who might be willing to let me install the newer driver version, so I can get the two files I need.

Or I could get a different PCMCIA wireless card that works with WPA on linux. Anybody have any recommendations?

[whistler]

I'm successfully using a D-Link WNA-2330 on a Dell Inspiron 1100 with Mint 9 LXDE. If you search for it on Amazon, you'll find one for under $15.00.

[archtop]

Well, I'm still trying to get that Netgear WN511B wireless card to work. I actually found someone with a Windows computer to get me the wn511b.inf and wn511b.inf driver files; I installed them using ndiswrapper and -- still no go. My system knows the driver and the hardware are there, it finds my Netgear WPA router, and then fails with the wicd message "connection failed: bad password."

ndiswrapper -l gives me this:

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wn511b : driver installed
	device (14E4:4329) present (alternate driver: ssb)

so I blacklisted ssb but still get the same thing. Acording to lsmod, the ssb module isn't loaded, but I still see "alternate driver: ssb". Is ssb interfering with my wn511b driver somehow?

At some point I may give up and get that D-Link WNA-2330 you recommended. By the way, are you using ndiswrapper with that, and if so, where did you get the *.sys ans *.inf files?

[inktitan]

Run lsmod and see if the ndiswrapper module is listed. I am currently having this issue. I have a netgear and it works great but I just went to a new kernel and it does not include ndiswrapper so I have to put it in myself. But I can't for the life of me remember how I did it the first time. After Windows Wireless Drivers runs I get the ndiswrapper missing error. Are you getting that?

[archtop]

No, I have always seen the ndiswrapper module listed, or have loaded it by running "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper".

I have since purchased a D-Link WNA-2330 as per whistler's recommendation, and am trying to get that to work. I just installed madwifi and have loaded the ath_pci driver and see it using lsmod. However, wicd does not see my wireless card. (The only time my computer recognized a wireless card was when ndiwrapper saw my wn511b card, but did not allow WPA authentication.)

So I'll keep trying to get madwifi to work with my D-Link card (any hints, anyone?).

[inktitan]

Did the card come with a disk? If so does the disk have a .inf file associated with Windows XP? If yes to both you can use the Windows Wireless Drivers and it eliminates a lot of the guess work. You can also run the inxi -N to see your card and then get that .inf from the manufacturer's site (sometimes).<a href="http://downloadnew.org/drivers ... Driver</a> Have any of these been any help?

[archtop]

For my wn511b card, I had to have someone I know download the driver software from Netgear and install it on his windows xp computer. I used the resulting .inf and .exe with ndiswrapper and that was how I got wicd to at least see the card (but WPA didn't work). For the D-Link card I'm now trying, it did come with a disk with .inf and .sys files. Last night after failing with madwifi I gave ndiswrapper a whirl for my D-link card and -- no go. wicd didn't even see it. (However, ndiswrapper did cause the card's LED to blink in a different manner. Not sure what that means.)

So I'll keep trying things, but I'm pretty frustrated. I really like Mint XFCE and want this to work.

[inktitan]

Can you post the out put of inxi -N and lsmod. It is possible that a default module in the kernel is at odds with the ndiswrapper.

[archtop]

Here's lsmod:

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Module                  Size  Used by
ndiswrapper           182976  0 
joydev                  8708  0 
usbhid                 36110  0 
hid                    67032  1 usbhid
binfmt_misc             6587  1 
dm_crypt               11331  0 
thinkpad_acpi          68083  2 
snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 
snd_seq_oss            26726  0 
snd_cs46xx             76457  4 
gameport                9089  2 snd_cs46xx
snd_seq_midi            4557  0 
snd_ac97_codec        100646  1 snd_cs46xx
ac97_bus                1002  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 
snd_rawmidi            19056  2 snd_cs46xx,snd_seq_midi
snd_mixer_oss          13746  3 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                70662  3 snd_cs46xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
pcmcia                 33024  0 
snd                    54148  19 thinkpad_acpi,snd_seq_oss,snd_cs46xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
nsc_ircc               18220  0 
ppdev                   5259  0 
led_class               2864  1 thinkpad_acpi
irda                  186556  1 nsc_ircc
soundcore               6620  3 snd
psmouse                63245  0 
yenta_socket           20408  3 
nvram                   6171  1 thinkpad_acpi
parport_pc             25962  1 
crc_ccitt               1339  1 irda
lp                      7028  0 
serio_raw               3978  0 
i2c_piix4               8335  0 
snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_cs46xx,snd_pcm
rsrc_nonstatic         10015  1 yenta_socket
shpchp                 28820  0 
pcmcia_core            32964  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
parport                32635  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
dm_raid45              81647  0 
xor                    15028  1 dm_raid45
fbcon                  35102  71 
tileblit                2031  1 fbcon
font                    7557  1 fbcon
bitblit                 4707  1 fbcon
softcursor              1189  1 bitblit
e100                   28211  0 
intel_agp              24177  1 
vga16fb                11385  1 
video                  17375  0 
vgastate                8961  1 vga16fb
mii                     4381  1 e100
agpgart                31724  1 intel_agp
output                  1871  1 video
floppy                 53016  0 

and here's inxi -N:

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Network:   Card-1 Intel 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 driver e100
           Card-2 Atheros Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter driver ndiswrapper

[inktitan]

Have you tried this: Remove ndiswrapper (I think modprobe -r ndiswrapper, or your preferred method), Then open synaptic and type atheros in the search, download and install the firmware-atheros (or you could sudo apt-get install firmware-atheros) This may help. It does appear as if ndiswrapper is your only wifi module but the atheros cards have a better module to use...if it works on your system.


EDIT: Looking at the description i did not see your card listed. You could still try it. I run LMDE. If you are running one of the other versions you may already have different options in synaptic.

[archtop]

Problem solved! I'm now using the D-Link card for WPA wireless.

Your reply prompted me to go back and try madwifi one more time, and tat that point I noticed the card's LED was blinking encouragingly. It occurred to me that I had been assuming the wireless interface for the D-Link was wlan0 as it had been for the Netgear card -- but it was actually ath0. After I corrected things, everything worked. By the way, thanks for your replies.

Now I can have fun with Mint Xfce!

[archtop]

trying to change to title to add [solved] -- hope this works

[inktitan]

trying to change to title to add [solved] -- hope this works

click the edit button on your first post. Glad it is working.