Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

i wish to make wireless work on my lap..
under win xp this dongle works fine, but under puppy i can't make it work..
i have a toshiba satellite 4030cds (celeron 300 with 192meg ram) which loves puppy, but is really unhappy w/o wifi..
i found this page
https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1384037&forum_id=323167
but was not much help since i am not really a guru..
what to do?
Thanks

BlackAdder · Joined: 22 May 2005 Posts: 382

Your device may be supported by the madwifi drivers, although your post implies that it is a USB dongle, and that may put a question mark over its support.
Check out the readme file madwifi-ng_README which can be found at http://mymirrors.homelinux.org/puppy/wireless/ The drivers were created by tempestuous (forum name).
If you want to install and try out the driver, follow the instructions in the readme file carefully. The commonest error is to forget to start with the command cd /
If it works, please report back and consider yourself one step closer to guru status.
I'm more of a sadhu, myself.

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

No, MADWiFi doesn't support Atheros-based USB adaptors ... yet. I think part of the problem is that these USB adaptors use "softmac" firmware.

The link you provided is a good explanation of how to use the latest ndiswrapper with the DWL-G132, including how to load the adaptor's firmware using the load_fw_ar5523 utility, which is linked to libusb.
Barry has included ndiswrapper 1.15 in Puppy2. Maybe when Puppy2 reaches final stage we can look at providing you with the firmware loading utility. Then you only need to be concerned with steps 6 and 7 of that howto.

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

seems that for now i can give up the hope of making it work with puppy :p

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

hello puppy 2.0 is released!
i would be very happy if someone gives me hints about how to make my dongle work with it! so i can finally get rid of winzoze (the lap is tooooo old and xp runs toooo slow).
Thanks!

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

some news:
i tried ndiswrapper with the windows drivers...on puppy 1.0.X the interface didn't even bother to turn on, plus ndiswrapper gave me errors..
on puppy 2.0 ndiswrapper actually loads the drivers nicely and the interface turns on, a Wlan0 shows up in ethernet wizard as well in wireless wizard..however i am not able to make it work, seems it simply doesn't go on transmit since the rx/tx led is always off..
i think there is something that i've to do but i don't know what..
any idea?
Thanks

ZeNiTRaM · Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 29

Hi,
I've got an SMC WiFi dongle with the same chipset as yours. And I have the solution....

The load_fw_ar5523 isn't needed anymore in newer versions of Ndiswrapper. You just only need to load BOTH net5523.inf and athfmwdl.inf on Ndiswrapper and then do a modprobe ndiswrapper.
Anyway, if you reboot (not shutdown) the computer, the firmware keeps loaded and it doesn't work anymore. You have to plug it off and then on again or shutdown and then power on.

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

unfortunately this doesn't work at me..if i just load the two drivers the interface sits down there doing nothing..

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

ZeNiTRaM is right ... as long as you have ndiswrapper 1.17 ... but Puppy2 has ndiswrapper 1.15.
You could go ahead and compile ndiswrapper 1.17, it's at release candidate stage 2 at the moment. I will probably make a dotpup of 1.17 when it reaches final stage.

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

tempestuous but i see there is final 1.17!
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93482
unfortunately i don't have enough space for a kernel source so i can't compile Sad

does anyone knows if just the kernel headers is fine?
and are they included in Puppy 2?

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

I just tried to compile ndiswrapper 1.17 in Vector Linux 5.1. It complains it needs gcc 3.4, and I have gcc 3.3.4.
Anyone else able to help?

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

tempestuous if u tell me how to do i can compile it on debian sid..
but beside debian sid i have nothing else.. so.. Very Happy

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

When kernel modules are involved, the question is not just "how do I compile?" but "how do I compile modules that are compatible with my kernel?".
Now the answer gets more complex. Start here - http://www.puppylinux.com/development/compilekernel.htm

In the meantime ...
I just installed gcc-3.4.6 from Slackware .tgz packages, and successfully compiled ndiswrapper 1.17.
Since Puppy2's kernel was not compiled with this version of gcc, success is not guaranteed.
I attach it as a DotPup for you to try.
Please report. If it works I will include it at http://www.dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/wireless-drivers/
Also please report if the instructions in the README file are correct, or if you had to change any commands.

Nevermore · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

hello thanks unfortunately
it doesnt work..the msg i get is this:
FATAL: error inserting module ndiswrapper.ko is not in correct format.

ZeNiTRaM · Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 29