[Miryr]

Hello once again, well, yesterday XP crashed on me and I had no way to start Windows so I decided that the best to do was to install Ubuntu. Everything went excellent until I decided to go on the internet. My wireless card doesn't seem to be supported by Linux, that is to say, it recognizes that there's various internet lines but it simply won't log on and it keeps asking me for the password a hundred times.

Anyway, I started reading that this was a common problem, and fortunately there was a solution. However, since I'm just starting to use Linux this wasn't as easy. First I downloaded Ndiswrapper and the necessary driver, and then I started using the terminal to get Ndiswrapper working.

I got all this, so I assume that Ndiswrapper is installed:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic M=/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic'
  LD      /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/built-in.o
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/crt_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/hal_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ndis_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ntoskernel_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ntoskernel_io_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/rtl_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/usb_exports.h
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/crt.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/hal.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/iw_ndis.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/loader.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ndis.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ntoskernel.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ntoskernel_io.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/pe_linker.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/pnp.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/proc.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/rtl.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/wrapmem.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/wrapndis.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/wrapper.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/usb.o
  CC [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/divdi3.o
  LD [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ndiswrapper.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST 1 modules
  CC      /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ndiswrapper.mod.o
  LD [M]  /home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver/ndiswrapper.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver'
make -C utils
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/utils'
gcc -g -Wall -I../driver -o loadndisdriver loadndisdriver.c
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/utils'
miryr@Miryr:~/ndiswrapper-1.56$ sudo make install
make -C driver install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic M=/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic'
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST 1 modules
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-22-generic'
echo /lib/modules/2.6.31-22-generic/misc
/lib/modules/2.6.31-22-generic/misc
mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.6.31-22-generic/misc
install -m 0644 ndiswrapper.ko /lib/modules/2.6.31-22-generic/misc
/sbin/depmod -a 2.6.31-22-generic -b /
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/driver'
make -C utils install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/utils'
install -D -m 755 loadndisdriver /sbin/loadndisdriver
install -D -m 755 ndiswrapper /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper
install -D -m 755 ndiswrapper-buginfo /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-buginfo

NOTE: Windows driver configuration file format has changed since 1.5. You must re-install Windows drivers if they were installed before.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/miryr/ndiswrapper-1.56/utils'
mkdir -p -m 0755 /usr/share/man/man8
install -m 644 ndiswrapper.8 /usr/share/man/man8
install -m 644 loadndisdriver.8 /usr/share/man/man8

I have looked through many guides and the best I seem to find is
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and even then I have some problems.

How does one unzip to a temporary directory? At first I thought it was just unzipping, so I skipped that step. So, obviously I can't find the rmmod ath_pc file when I searched for it. I get this error message when I try "ERROR: Module ath_pci does not exist in /proc/modules". Can anyone please help me with this nightmare?

[runrabbitrun]

I've never bothered with the nightmare that is wireless (well, maybe a little a few years ago), so take what I say with a grain of salt (or better yet, wait for someone who knows what they are doing)

First, the error you get: "ERROR: Module ath_pci does not exist in /proc/modules" just means that that module doesn't exist. Looking at the doc you linked, you don't want to use that module, so no biggie.
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Unzipping to a temp folder just means to unzip it anywhere that is not used for routine stuff. usually, "tar xvfz" will create a top-level folder for you, but if you're not sure, just "mkdir wlantemp" in your home dir, "mv ndis.*.gz wlantemp" to move that file to your new temp folder, and extract it from there ("tar xfvz ndis*.gz"). Sounds like you already did something like this, though.

Did you follow the next steps (#8 - sudo ndiswrapper -i net5112.inf"), after rebooting? Did that give you any output?

Have you looked at the output from the "ifconfig" command? It may show that you already have an interface for your wireless device.

Maybe post the output from the "ndiswrapper" command above, "ifconfig", and "cat /proc/modules" (you may need to be root to do that) - may be helpful for troubleshooing...

Anyway, that's all I've got...

[alphawolf]

Which wireless adapter do you have?

[Miryr]

	Originally Posted by alphawolf To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Which wireless adapter do you have?

I have the default one in my laptop it's atheros AR5xx

[MrDoom]

If you're up to it, and support isn't already compiled in, you could just recompile support into the kernel. I hear nothing but horror stories whenever ndiswrapper is involved.

Device Drivers --->
Network Device Support --->
Wireless LAN --->
Atheros Wireless Cards --->
Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support

If you want to try that and need help let me know.

[Miryr]

	Originally Posted by MrDoom To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	If you're up to it, and support isn't already compiled in, you could just recompile support into the kernel. I hear nothing but horror stories whenever ndiswrapper is involved. Device Drivers ---> Network Device Support ---> Wireless LAN ---> Atheros Wireless Cards ---> Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support If you want to try that and need help let me know.

If you help me in that I'll worship you as a god.

[MrDoom]

Alright. I dunno what version of ubuntu you're using, but it shouldn't matter too much. Be warned that this is somewhat 'involved', but if you get as much practice as I do compiling and installing kernels, you forget that it was ever 'hard'. It's simple in itself, just not something people are usually used to doing.

Step zero: have a bootable CD or USB ready in case something goes wrong and you're unable to boot from disk. Installing a kernel is relatively low-risk, but it's easy to accidentally do stuff that can affect your ability to boot. We'll also take the precaution of leaving the already-existing kernel in place in case the new kernel doesn't boot.

First we'll have to check to see that support isn't already compiled in (because if it is, then something's wrong and odd). Fire up your favorite terminal and check what directories are under /usr/src:

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	$ ls /usr/src

* Don't type the $ - I indicate with this that you should do this as a regular user; if there's a # it means perform the command as root (via sudo). So '# foo' is equal to '$ sudo foo'. It shouldn't be a problem but you may need to add yourself to the sudoers file if it isn't set up properly. Indicate if using sudo doesn't work.

You'll probably either see a linux directory or symlink (light blue by default), and maybe a linux-2.x.x.x directory if linux is a symlink. These are our kernel sources. Move into linux if it's available, or else the linux-2.x.x.x if it's there. If you don't see any of that, tell me.

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	$ cd <whatever>

We're in the source directory for the linux kernel. There are several ways to configure the kernel. The easiest and least technically-complex way is via an ncurses-based menuconfig:

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	$ make menuconfig

If you get an error about not having the ncurses-dev package, then install them with

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# apt-get install libncurses5-dev

and try the command again.

It may be named differently under the ubuntu repos, but it should work. Just let me know if this doesn't work.

You should see some technobabble scroll by before being brought to a blue and grey screen. This is the kernel configuration system. By default it should have the same configuration as your current kernel. We simply can work from this.

Use the menu keys to move the cursor. The spacebar toggles selection states. Drivers or other kernel options and features can be off/disabled/nonpresent (an empty set of brackets [ ]), compiled in directly (asterisk[*]) or compiled as on-disk modules that are only loaded into memory when they are needed (an M [M]) Highlight select and press enter on any list item with an arrow (--->) to open up the associated submenu.

From your starting position:

Device Drivers --->
Network Device Support --->
Wireless LAN --->
Atheros Wireless Cards ---> (make sure this is set to 'M')
Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support (set this to 'M')

If none of these are available your kernel might not have driver support (though with any recent kernel version it's unlikely to be a problem). Indicate if this is so. If those settings are already set, then stop reading, support is already compiled in and something else is wrong.

Exit back to the top-level screen with 'Device Drivers' and scroll all the way down to 'Save configuration' and press enter. Accept the default (.config). Now scroll down and select exit.

Time to build the kernel!

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# make

And with that one command, your kernel should begin compiling. If you get an error and some spiel about a command not being found (basically anything relating to compiling software), then just install the core building tools:

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# apt-get install build-essential

If that doesn't resolve it, replace build-essential with whatever command isn't being found. Sometimes individual commands have different names from the packages that include them (like when a packages provides several commands). Let me know if you get stuck here.

Unless you're running on a supercomputer at CERN, this is going to take some time. Even on my dual-core 2.13 GHz proc it can take about 15-20 minutes for a kernel that's been stripped bare of unneeded features and modules. *buntu systems include a heck of a lot of modules and other stuff that you specifically won't need, in order to provide the widest range of support for common devices, so it can take even longer. Go get something to eat, or something.

When it's finished (without errors), you still need to compile the modules. Do so:

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# make modules_install

This shouldn't take nearly as long. This installs all of the kernel modules to the /lib/modules directory.

Now we're going to install the new kernel:

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/linux-2.x.x.x-test

If you're running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu, then the proper directory is actually arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage.

Replace the x's with the proper version numbers. It really doesn't matter that much, but I like to do it so I know what version it is at a glance. Also append the -test at the end of the filename. Your present kernel is probably named 'vmlinuz' or something like that, but we don't want to overwrite it, just in case.

It's a good idea to copy the configuration file to the boot directory as well. It doesn't directly affect how anything runs, but it's a good self-documentation habit. I enable kernel options so that I can get the configuration directly from my kernel (I've screwed up my /boot directory enough times to learn to do that), but having it in boot is also a good thing just in case the source directory is deleted or we can't access the .config file at some later point.

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	# cp .config /boot/config-2.x.x.x-test

Again replace the x's with the proper version numbers. Add -test at the end if you want; we don't want to overwrite the present configuration file.

Before I type anymore I need to know some additional information, and a lot of this might have been a waste anyways if you've already got module support. So go ahead and do this, and when you're done, peek into the boot directory

	Originally Posted by Terminal Command
	$ ls /boot

And tell me if you see anything called 'initrd' or anything similar. We may need to generate a new one (quick and simple, but necessary).

Let me know if any of this isn't understandable or if you get stuck.

[Miryr]

I'm sorry for this question but, what's the command to go into the source directory? Is it the name where all the files are?

[MrDoom]

	Originally Posted by Miryr To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I'm sorry for this question but, what's the command to go into the source directory? Is it the name where all the files are?

/usr/src contains on most systems the top-level directories for the linux kernel.

So if you

cd /usr/src

and then

ls

You should be seeing something. What do you see when you perform that?

EDIT: Example: I use the 2.6.35.4 version of the kernel. So when I want to work on it, I use
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.35.4

Most distros will brand the kernel with additional information, so it might not just be the verion number.

The directory you want to be under when you invoke 'make menuconfig' should look like this as far as contents go:

arch Documentation ipc mm REPORTING-BUGS tools
block drivers Kbuild modules.builtin samples usr
COPYING firmware kernel modules.order scripts virt
CREDITS fs lib Module.symvers security vmlinux
crypto include MAINTAINERS net sound vmlinux.o
dest init Makefile README System.map

[tooboku]

Linux loves Atheros. You shouldn't have problems with drivers.

Are you on WPA or WEP? Most of the time it assumes you're using WEP.

Setting up WPA is a little more work. If you're doing it manually, /etc/wpa_supplicant is your best bet. I would at least give that a google.

Also, if it keeps asking you for authentication and not saving it, you probably don't have permission to that file. Before you get settled into Ubuntu, why not give Fedora a chance?
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[Latro]

Originally Posted by tooboku To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Linux loves Atheros. You shouldn't have problems with drivers. Are you on WPA or WEP? Most of the time it assumes you're using WEP. Setting up WPA is a little more work. If you're doing it manually, /etc/wpa_supplicant is your best bet. I would at least give that a google. Also, if it keeps asking you for authentication and not saving it, you probably don't have permission to that file. Before you get settled into Ubuntu, why not give Fedora a chance? To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Yeah, I have never had a problem with my Atheros in Ubuntu. It's always auto-configured. Is this a very old Atheros, perhaps?

[tooboku]

The older the better actually. Linux developers are poor and can't afford fancy computers. That's why you should donate to your favourite projects once in a while.
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That was a joke btw... but honestly, the older the device the better.

[JTG]

Miryr, were you able to get it to work? I'm having similar trouble with my Debian (Ubuntu is based on it), so if it works for you, i may be able to get it to work for me
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[Miryr]

Sorry I couldn't answer a few days ago, I had unrelated computer issues.

Anyway, I managed to solve it updating to the newest versions of Ubuntu and I also bought a Linksys receptor, both of these seem to have completely eliminated the issues.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get Flash to work since it keeps telling me it's installed but no site reacts to it.

[tooboku]

You have to configure your browser to work with it.

[Miryr]

	Originally Posted by tooboku To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	You have to configure your browser to work with it.

Supposedly it's already configured. Anyway, Seamonkey has no such problems so I just use that to watch videos.

[JTG]

So the solution was buying a new wireless adapter that's supported? Blah.

I'll give the above instructions a shot this weekend though, since my goal is getting my onboard wireless card to work, not just getting wireless access
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Anybody have previous experience with Realtek's RTL8187B? It's apparently a little USB adapter that's commonly installed on laptops. They just take it out of its case and solder the card to the laptop's board. I know it's on USB port 0BDA:8189, but beyond lsusb to show it, i have no idea how to get the OS to recognize that it's a wireless card.

Could moving to a newer release fix the problem? I read on the Debian page that RTL8187B support was added in 2.6.27 but i think i'm running 2.6.23 or .25

[Miryr]

Switching to the new OS made me be able to use my built in card. However, since my internet modem is far away I decided that this was a good excuse as any to buy the receptor. Now I can connect twice to the same network and hog the resources.

[JTG]

Does it even work like that
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[Miryr]

I log in to two different connections, so I suppose it does.

[JTG]

But does the computer have greater capacity to transfer data, or does it just use one at a time and then swap if there's a hiccup?

[Miryr]

	Originally Posted by JTG To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	But does the computer have greater capacity to transfer data, or does it just use one at a time and then swap if there's a hiccup?

I think it's the latter, to be honest I'm not quite sure myself. However, I can't seem to figure out how to stop the computer from asking me to introduce the password (which is already in the input area) every time one line isn't as accessible.