netgear WPN111 wireless problems

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Michael_
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 31 Aug 2009, 11:03

netgear WPN111 wireless problems

#1 Post by Michael_ »

G'day, I have just installed puppy 4.1.2 as a dual os with mint

The problem being that I cannot connect to wireless (although I can in mint).using my usb adapter. I undertstand the chipset Atheros is not supported.

I believe the only way possible is to use ndiswrapper which I downloaded.I also found out I needed the devx_412.sfs module first so that I can instal it. This is where I am stuck.

When I use the make command I get the following error message

make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/tar/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver'
Makefile:34: *** Cannot find kernel version in /lib/modules/2.6.25.16, is it configured?. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tar/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

So the question is" how do I configure the kernel so that I can use the make command to install ndiswrapper and allow my netgear adaptor to connect to the net.

Thank you

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rjbrewer
Posts: 4405
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2008, 21:41
Location: merriam, kansas

#2 Post by rjbrewer »

Ndiswrapper is already included in the 412 connection
wizard.
Click load modules, then ndis will show up.

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

Michael_
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 31 Aug 2009, 11:03

#3 Post by Michael_ »

thank you for your reply

I have now added the module, but am unable to locate the .inf file to configure the network wizard. All I can find is a .ko file

thanx

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rjbrewer
Posts: 4405
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2008, 21:41
Location: merriam, kansas

#4 Post by rjbrewer »

I've never needed ndiswrapper, think the inf. file is on
a windows disk.

You may not need it, if your ath. version is same as this.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=24496

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#5 Post by tempestuous »

Let's clear this up;
Puppy provides a Linux driver (.ko module) only for PCI/Cardbus devices with Atheros chipsets. The module is called ath_pci.

USB devices with Atheros chipsets currently have no Linux driver support.
So yes, ndiswrapper will be necessary in Michael_'s situation.
And of course, you must provide the Windows driver file, yourself. And don't make the silly mistake of providing only the inf file ... that's just the information file which defines how the driver is to be used. You need all the other Windows Atheros driver components such as sys, cat, etc.

Michael_
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 31 Aug 2009, 11:03

#6 Post by Michael_ »

Thanks for clarifying the .inf position.

What I have done so far

is load the ndiswrapper module within puppy and it appears as a directory within /etc

load the netwpn files into the ndiswrapper directory and running the following comands

ndiswrapper -i netwpn11.inf
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper -l (this shows netwpn11:driver installed)

my problem now is that I cannot load the ndiswrapper module in the network wizard. It always shows ...no interfaces were detected

Yet when I run the command lsmod, ndiswrapper is there. Interestingly though it does not appear in the /etc/modules directory.

Is there some way to install ndiswrapper from the command line because I seem to be missing something here.

Thank you for your help so far

col
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue 04 Jul 2006, 04:26

#7 Post by col »

Hi Michael,

I just bought this usb device and was trying to get it working with 4.1.2 retro without success. Since it was a fresh install (I already had 4.1.2 on cd) I decided to upgrade to 4.2.1 retro. With this version installed the WPN111 device installed straight away via the network configuration screens and ndiswrapper. WPA security doesn't work however (I don't think it's supported by ndiswrapper but I'm happy to be corrected by anyone better informed) but WEP works fine.

Michael_
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon 31 Aug 2009, 11:03

#8 Post by Michael_ »

Thanx Col.

Well I upgraded to 4.2.1. My usb adapter is Netgear wpn111v2.

What I have achieved at the moment is to get the two green monitors on using wlan0 but the received is only 106kb and sent 21kb. I cannot get any web pages open.

I thought it may be a wireless connection problem but when I use Mint (dual boot puppy/mint), the internet worked fine.

Any suggestions.

Thanx

col
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue 04 Jul 2006, 04:26

#9 Post by col »

It sounds like you don't yet have an ip address. After the ndiswrapper set up you need to get an ip address via dhcp or static ip setting. (Sorry if you've done all this and I'm stating the obvious. :) My next step would be to temporarily remove all security settings from the wireless router and see if you can connect. If you have success there you could trial-and-error the various security settings to find out what works and what doesn't. Good luck.

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fantasyl
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat 06 Mar 2010, 10:34

#10 Post by fantasyl »

Hi all!
I have a netgear wpn111 and configuration with puppy 4.3.1 went really smooth, with an old toshiba s1670cds

From the wizard I chose to load the module, then ndiswrapper, loaded the inf file from the cd, and it showed the new interface wlan0 correctly.
I made a wireless profile with my wlan ssid, pw (I can confirm it connects fine to my WPA protected network), then after saving the profile I selected autodhcp to acquire the ip address, and was on the net in just few minutes!

Perfect........until reboot.

Then the wlan0 disappeared (even though I selected to save the config.), and there was no way with the network wizard gui to detect the wlan0 interface again (after loading ndiswrapper, of course).

I went into the console and removed the driver and reinstalled it with

ndiswrapper -r netwpn11
ndiswrapper -i /yourdriverpath/netwpn11.inf
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper

But there was no way puppy could detect wlan0. I rebooted puppy, and then redid the console steps, and then the wlan0 was there again.
Actually when wlan0 is detected I could use the net after reloading the profile, autodhcp, and so on, but every time I reboot the wlan0 interface is gone.

Fiddling with the console, reinserting the wlan card into the usb slot, rebooting, removing/reinstall the ndiswrapper driver usually solves the problem (hint: keep a console open with wpa_cli to have a better idea of what's going on), but I cannot find a one-time solution for the problem on reboot.

Please note that on reboot the ndiswrapper -l list the netwpn11 driver as loaded, and:
modprobe -l shows the ndiswrapper is loaded as well.

Any idea to solve the issue? I'm amazed at how puppy works with 96mb ram, and I did a full install of it on my old laptop, now it's the only os in this pc, and it will stay this way :D. There is no eth card, using wlan it's my only option.

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#11 Post by tempestuous »

Since this forum thread was started in August 2009 Puppy 4.3.x has been released with the 2.6.30.5 kernel. This kernel contains the new ar9170usb driver to support Atheros-based USB wifi devices.
So, in theory, the Netgear WPN111 should be supported ... however, its USB device ID is not recognised by the new driver.
I have just hacked the ar9170usb driver to support the WPN111
Go here to try it -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 681#398681

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