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Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:11 pm
by Ramblin
Well, that would qualify as a bust ...

I installed and configured the Windows drivers using ndiswrapper and when I went in to look at the results via
Menu->Administration->Windows Network Drivers
The driver was shown (as the only one) in the list and it had underneath it "Hardware Present: No"

So when I went to the Networking icon in the taskbar to see what the wireless network card saw, it was blank and the wireless entries were not even there.

I backtracked, removing the Windows wireless driver and went back to the Orinoco driver and I am now back to where I was - I can see but not connect to a wireless network.

Here's what I did:
Blacklisted the existing native (partially working) orinoco_cs wireless driver by editing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and added, as the last line
blacklist orinoco_cs
Installed the following windows driver files into a new directory in /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159744 Jan 18 14:26 WAAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8704 Jan 18 14:26 WDAGS48B.DLL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31199 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.INF
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156672 Jan 18 14:26 WLAGS48B.SYS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172032 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS48B.CPL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 917 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.CNT
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 319216 Jan 18 14:26 WNAGS.HLP
changed the directory to /etc/network-wireless/lucent-agere and ran

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ndiswrapper -i WLAGS48B.INF
confirmed the windows driver was installed by running

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ndiswrapper -l
wrote the configuration for modprobe by running

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ndiswrapper -m
added ndiswrapper to the startup list by adding, as the last line in /etc/modules
ndiswrapper
reboot the computer

This resulted in no wireless at all, so I undid it all and reverted back to the native Linux orinoco_cs drivers, rebooted the computer, and I am back to the place I was before:
I can see but not connect to a wireless network

Note, for all the above, I disabled Mac Address filtering and encryption (no WPA, ...) so I did not have to worry about that.
I tried it for mode = Infrastructure and mode = Ad-hoc

aaaarrrggghhh!

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:40 am
by Ramblin
By the way, the reason I used ndiswrapper at the command-line to install the windows driver instead of the graphical version at Menu->Administration->Windows Drivers
is because when I tried to use the graphical version, when I clicked Install after selecting the driver, I got the error message
Module could not be loaded. Error was:

FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

Is the ndiswrapper module installed?
When I clicked OK it seemed to install anyways and the fact that I could use ndiswrapper at the command line and the fact that the Package Manager showed ndiswrapper (as well as ndiswrapper-utils and ndiswrapper-common) as being installed, led me to believe there was something funny with the graphical version so I used the command-line version.

I also noticed, when I ran

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lspcmcia -vv
that I got
Socket 0 Device 0: [orinoco_cs] (bus ID: 0.0)
Configuration: state: on
[io 0x0100-0x013f flags 0x108]
[io 0x0000 flags 0x100]
[mem 0x00000000 flags 0x200]
[mem 0x00000000 flags 0x200]
[mem 0x00000000 flags 0x200]
[mem 0x00000000 flags 0x200]

Product Name: TOSHIBA
Wireless LAN Card
Version 01.01

Identification: manf_id: 0x0156 card_id: 0x0002
function: 6 (network)
prod_id(1): "TOSHIBA
" (0x1d03483e)
prod_id(2): "Wireless LAN Card
" (0x6460fbbc)
prod_id(3): "Version 01.01
" (0x1d656d8f)
prod_id(4): --- (---)
which does confirm that it is a PCMCIA version with Toshiba Wireless LAN Card

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 12:04 pm
by AlbertP
Ok, sorry for the confusion, I forgot to tell you that ndiswrapper-dkms needs to be installed to get this working (no matter if you're doing it manually or through Windows Wireless Drivers). You can use wired internet to install that package from the repository.

Also please use infrastructure mode and not ad-hoc. Ad-hoc support in this card seems to be pretty limited.

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:15 am
by Ramblin
Well, good news and bad news

Good news: After adding ndiswrapper-dkms, the error message that used to be generated when I used the graphical Menu->Administration->Windows Drivers has been eliminated

Bad news: it made no difference

When I went back in after adding ndiswrapper -dkms and added the Windows drivers using the same method as before (see above) I got the same result: I cannot see any wireless networks and the wireless network does not even show up as an option when I click the icon in the taskbar.

The eht1 connection no longer shows when I do a
lshw -C netowrk
or a
Iwconfig

When I revert back to the orinoco drivers, I revert back to the same situation as before: I can see but not connect to the wireless networks

I used mode=Infrastructure and disabled encryption

Question:
1) do the files in the driver directory need to be executable?
2) am I supposed to blacklist additional modules beyond orinoco_cs

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:10 am
by AlbertP
Could you run ndiswrapper -l and inxi -N and post the output?

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:24 pm
by Ramblin
While using the orinoco-cs driver I get

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ndiswrapper -l
(returns to root prompt; nothing listed)

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inxi -n
Network: Card: Intel 82551QM Ethernet Controller driver: e100
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: half mac: 00:00:39:65:8b:e0

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lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82551QM Ethernet Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:00:39:65:8b:e0
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100 driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=half firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.152 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:11 memory:f7eff000-f7efffff ioport:eec0(size=64) memory:f7ec0000-f7edffff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
After installing the Windows Drivers per the above method with the command-line I get

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ndiswrapper -l
wlags48b : driver installed

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inxi -n
Network: Card: Intel 82551QM Ethernet Controller driver: e100
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: half mac: 00:00:39:65:8b:e0

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lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82551QM Ethernet Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:00:39:65:8b:e0
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100 driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=half firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.152 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:11 memory:f7eff000-f7efffff ioport:eec0(size=64) memory:f7ec0000-f7edffff
Same result as before:
- with orinoco_cs I can see but not connect to wireless networks
- With Windows driver, I cannot see (and obviously not connect to) wireless networks

The Windows driver does show up as installed in Menu->Administration->Windows Wireless Drivers
but under it it shows Hardware present: no

I did notice that in /etc there were two files:
modules
modules.conf
which had identical content so I added the ndiswrapper to the end of each (but as you can see it made no difference

I also ran

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inxi
(no -n)
CPU~Single core Mobile Intel Pentium III CPU - M (-UP-) clocked at 800.000 Mhz Kernel~3.2.0-23-generic i686 Up~9 min Mem~192.9/985.8MB HDD~40.0GB(13.5% used) Procs~134 Client~Shell inxi~1.7.33
so you could see the system I am using in case that helps

It looks like the Windows driver are not being loaded (no eth1 showing) or they are the wrong ones (hardware present; no)

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:37 pm
by AlbertP
ndiswrapper -l does not say hardware present. Probably you can ask this at the ndiswrapper forum (http://sourceforge.net/p/ndiswrapper/discussion/323168).

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:26 pm
by Ramblin
I looked at the ndiswrapper discussion board. I'll post there, but from the activity level on the forum (last post November, 2012) I cannot imagine they will have a lot to contribute.

I do appreciate all the effort you have put in here. You helped be realize what card I have and you gave me a solution to the Windows Driver GUI to let it work properly, as well as showing me some new diagnostic commands.

Thank you for taking me this far.

RIchard

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:02 pm
by Ramblin
Posted at the ndiswrapper help forum at
https://sourceforge.net/p/ndiswrapper/d ... /ac39a32d/

Let's see what they say

Re: Orinoco Driver on old Toshiba Portege not working in Min

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:49 pm
by Ramblin
Well,

For whatever reason, I could not get the Native Linux Drivers (orinoco_cs) to work, and if you look at the ndiswrapper thread (they were actually very good about trying to help) we could not get the ndiswrapper solution to work with Windows Drivers that did work in WinXP. ndiswrapper would not even present the hardware which orinoco did but only 1/2 way (I could see but not connect to access points)

So, after ?? days of trying, I gave up, and went and spent $16 (Candian) on a TP-Link mini-PCI card (http://www.tp-link.com/ca/products/deta ... =TL-WN861N = discontinued but still available in selected retail), installed it, reinstalled Mint 13 - Mate (I had been messing with it so much I figured a clean install was warranted) et voila - I have fully functioning 802.11 with WAP2 encryption, 802.11n support ,...

Methinks it might have been smarter to just go get the darn thing instead of futzing around (technical term), but I would not have learned nearly as much ... :-)

Thanks for the help you did provide - it steered me in the right direction.