How do I reactivate a wireless connection that I already had working on Ubuntu 12.04

I will check these tomorrow, thanks.  I will let you know if this solves the issue for me.

What is the make and model of that wireless card?
To "reactivate" you need a windows driver file every time you try

The first link seemed to be rolling right along...

ifconfig wlan0 up
ran with no errors, no comments

iwlist wlan0 scan
ran and listed the wireless connections

iwconfig wlan0 essid NETWORK_ID key WIRELESS_KEY
This one I had some problems with.  Using the right network ID and key (not in quotes, neither parameter had any spaces), and noticing to put s: in front of the key so it was not expecting hexadecimal, it did not work.  When I tried it again, this time without the key, it came back with no complaints.  I'm not sure if this is right or not but, since I had it working prior, I figured it may have cached the credentials that were already working.

dhclient wlan0
This command never returned

I will check the other link too... In the meantime... any ideas?

@gheist:
  I am using a USB wireless by Netgear.  The model is WNDA 3100.  I had it running with NDISWRAPPER, including the Windows drivers.

@All:
  I would love to be able to get this to where it is recognized in the GUI, that way I could use the GUI to enable, disable, etc.  I can keep that for a separate question if needed though.

A side note... since those directions worked as far as they did (I saw the available wireless networks) I feel safe in assuming that the wireless setup is valid.  To be so close, yet so far...

I thought it might be important to mention this too:

When trying:
iwconfig wlan0 essid NETWORK_ID key WIRELESS_KEY

and specifying the wireless key with s: I get this message:

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A):
Set failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

I personally have two other devices running on this wireless network and I have double and triple checked that the key is correct.  I thought that maybe set encode had something to do with the type of communications it was attempting to do with the router.

Does that spark any ideas?

Native driver is here:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/otus

(hint: "sudo modprobe otus")

The link you gave shows that otus stopped being included in the distros.  The command you listed, is that to test and see if my distro has it?  I guess I would need to know how to remove the NDISWRAPPER and get this installed and compatible with Ubuntu 12.04.  If you have any steps I could follow that would help.  I am not a computer newbie but I have been working with windows most of my career, new to Linux.

It is natively supported BUT you need to get firmware on some USB  or load via wired connection http://wiki.debian.org/carl9170#supported

Sorry for being short in words.

You can uninstall ndiswrapper easily

sudo apt-get remove ndiswarpper


now reboot and check dmesg for signs of 9170 asking for firmware
btw you are not alone - all broadcom wireless cards do same pain.

OK, Linux newbie here... "check dmesg for signs of 9170 asking for firmware"...

I would love a verbose explanation that assumes I know nothing and explains how the networking works and what this step is accomplishing in the process.  Not only do I want to get this working, I want to understand what made it work and why.

I hope that'snot asking too much.  In the meantime, I can try what you have said and remove ndiswrapper.  The installation is very new.  If I mess anything up I can always reinstall.

I just need to know how to do what you last said.

dmesg | less

/917 - search the 9170 if any

(up/down to navigate q to exit)

lsmod | less (and dig for 917)

modprobe carl9170
(at least following line appears in dmesg if module was not present:

usbcore: registered new interface driver carl9170

does not matter if device is connected before or after)

dmesg| grep 917 -> to get the output I wish to see

I should be able to get you those results after I get home tonight.

I booted up my system, about to try testing out what you gave me and... the wireless came up on it's own.  It must be from some of what I have done thus far... I wish I knew what!

Now I need to know, should I still try to uninstall what is working and try for a more native driver?  Can you tell me what I should expect if I do (what makes it worth the uninstall and reinstall)?

If it is still worthwhile, I will try it.  Let me know.

I would tend to think that removal of ndiswrapper allowed good driver to load properly and good luck for us firmware was already installed....

Only I didn't remove it.  I just booted up the system and it worked.  So, the question now is, do I remove NDISWrapper and install the other one?

you do not need another ndiswrapper

the working driver is in the kernel already one or other way

You can check dmesg or ethtool -i wlan0 to see which driver is being used.

if no ndiswrapper there it is safe to uninstall and forget.

Thanks for that, I should be able to check it tonight then.  I assume the same thing you wanted to see the results of before:
dmesg| grep 917

exactly ;) but since it works it is just for statistics - if reboot recompiled ndiswrapper or disabled it (in mandriva or fedora it recompiles, in suse od debian it loses the driver)

OK, new news.  I ran the command:
dmesg | grep 917

[    0.000000] Memory: 8094356/9175040k available (6555k kernel code, 787332k a
bsent, 293352k reserved, 6645k data, 920k init)
[   13.291724] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00:0: 0xD34C: Condition still not met after
 20ms, skipping following opcodes

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Not really sure what they tells you...

The new news is this.  The wireless only came up when the network cable was connected.  I rebooted without it and I have no wireless.  Not only that but it took a long time booting up because it was looking for the wired network!  When it did come up I did not even have the network tools in the top bar menu.  Previously when the wireless came up, the top bar tool menu showed a list of available wireless networks and the wired network.

I need to stop the system from trying to find the wired network.

I need to get the system to start on the wireless network.

Help!

sudo /sbin/modprobe carl9170

dmesg

(should be by the end if driver activated)

if not:

sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper

sudo reboot

on fresh boot check in
dmesg | less

if carl9170 loads i.e if dmesg has line that reads:

usbcore: registered new interface driver carl9170


modprobe it if it does not.

reconnect device waiting 15s between.  if driver is active but no device detected - also try other USB port etc.

First try on

sudo /sbin/modprobe carl9170
dmesg

seems to have worked.  Rebooting.

On reboot I get:

System Program Problem Detected
Do you want to report the problem now?

Cancel                               Report Problem

This has been happening though.

I ran:

dmesg | grep usbcore:

and got 8 lines (listing just what was registered):
usbfs
hub
usb
libusual
usb-storage
uas
usbhid
ndiswrapper

Looks like ndiswrapper gets on the way.

Thus:
(checking)
sudo /sbin/rmmod ndiswrapper
echo $?
(should be 0 - zero and not other number)
sudo /sbin/modprobe carl9170
echo $? (same)

Module has two parameters:
nohwcrypt:Disable hardware crypto offload (bool)                                                                                                                  
noht:Disable MPDU aggregation. (int)                                                                                                                                

which can be given firstly on modprobe line (nohwcrypt=y and noht=1) - just to see if they prevent crashes.

Once module is loaded without crashing check:

sudo /sbin/ethtool -i wlan0
driver: carl9170 = Victory!!!

driver: ndiswrapper = Ouch - it is still there

if you see carl9170 working just remove ndiswrapper:

sudo apt-get purge ndiswrapper

Now check boot files for carl9170 being disabled:

grep carl9170 /etc/modprobe.d/*

if it says "blacklist carl9170" use "sudo pico" against 50-xxx.conf file to add "#" in front of respective line

if you had to use module parameters than you can make a new file with them to apply at boot:
sudo pico /etc/modprobe.d/99-local.conf

and add a line:
options carl9170 nohwcrypt=1

warning - any misspelling will yield system that you need to correct in a single user mode.


PS normally modules are auto-probed and all this juggling is unnecessary.

I don't have ethtool, get that with aptget?

I can check this tonight or tomorrow.

I would LOVE to get to a point where it scans it automatically, especially being able to connect before login.

I will let you know the results when I try the above steps.

sudo /sbin/rmmod ndiswrapper
echo $?
0

sudo /sbin/modprobe carl9170
echo $? (same)
0

sudo /sbin/ethtool -i wlan0
driver: ndiswrapper+bcmwlhigh5
version: 1.57+Netgear,11/05/2009, 5.60.18
firmware version:
bus-info: usb-0000:00:12.2-6
supoprts-statistics: no
supports-test: no
supoprts-eeporm-access: no
supports-registry-dump: no

I tried:
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper
E: unable to locate package ndiswrapper

is it time to re-install?

ndiswrapper is loaded.
rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe carl9170

does it work after? Sort of should.

I guess I forgot to mention that I did the rmmod before showing the ethtool results.  Then I tried the apt-get remove with no luck.

one day kernel will update and ndiswrapper will disappear
so far there is some file left after instalation of ndiswrapper that kernel is loading

In order for that to happen I need a network connection, right?  I have to run a hard wire to it any time I want to use it (why I am going wireless).  I think the re-install would probably be easier and faster, since getting rid of the NDISwrapper is the issue.

ndiswrapper will fail at some kernel update and carl9170 will take it's place - no need to worry. http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170 - firmware included with driver.

I ran a hard wire connection to the server and ran the updates.  When it rebooted I was able to see and use the wireless as long as the hard wire was connected when I booted.  I removed the hard wire and rebooted and got nothing.  I did try:

ifup wlan0

it told me wlan0 was skipped because it was not recognized (paraphrasing).

I figure you will want me to rerun some of the last tests.  I should be able to do that tonight or tomorrow.

ubuntu uses networkmanager, ifup does damage at best.

What should I be trying now then?

First switch "network" and "wireless" off in GUI, then use ifup, ifconfig, dhcpcd etc manual commands.

When I boot up right now, nothing shows in the GUI for the networking...

Or... did you mean I should connect the hard wire, so hard wire and wireless options become available, and then shut them off?

All I want to award points on this question is to be able to start the wireless without the hard wire connected (An easy GUI way of turning it on would be nice).  I will award the points then, I will open more questions for the rest of what I am looking for.

You said that ifup does damage at best?  Is that only when network manager is running?  If so, I need to know how to tell if it is running, and how to shut it off and get it started if needed.

I think the system is in the state that you wanted to get it to, with NDISWrapper out of the way.  I will go back over some of the commands you gave me previously and see what I can figure out.

modprobe carl9170
0

ethtool still shows ndiswrapper after all updates were done.

What's next?  I can re-install in very little time.

I have re-installed Ubuntu 12.04.

I did the modprobe carl 9170
usb: registered new interface driver carl9170

ethtool shows no such device as wlan0

doing modprobe for ndiswrapper shows:
FATAL: module ndiswrapper not found.

I found a link that removed one of the issues. The line stated:

Open your terminal, type:
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

And remove those lines that come AFTER iface lo inet loopback:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

This advice finally allows the network manager applet to come up so I can attempt to manage my network from the GUI without having to have the hard wire plugged in.

I have the NDISWrapper removed.

All I need to do is get the wlan0 working (currently no wireless sources showing up), and we will be done :-)

find /lib/modules -name ndiswrapper\*

remove any occurences (provided you uninstalled ndiswrapper package)

I have completely reformatted the server.  There is now, no way, that any remnant of NDISWrapper is in there as it has never been installed.  That was simply my "brute force" removal of NDISWrapper.

  It won't hurt to run the command, I will do that when I get home.

I believe I found out that the chipset for my USB wireless is broadcom (NetGear WNDA3100 v2).  I assume that the carl9170 driver you have been attempting to set up is the match for this.  Once it's installed will the network manager be able to see the wireless?

I ran the find command.  Got nothing.

There is no extra software needed. I installed ubuntu 12.04 in a virtual machine and it has carl9170 module present, so system will install module whenever you connect wireless adapter.

dmesg should look like:
[135805.656064] usb 2-1: new full speed USB device number 2 using ohci_hcd
[135805.812082] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=04b8, idProduct=000b
[135805.812089] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[135805.812093] usb 2-1: Product: EPSON Epson Stylus S20 Series
[135805.812096] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: EPSON
^^^^ so far linux negotiates with USB device
[135806.579788] usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2
[135806.580412] usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp
^^^^ udev knows what module that USB device want

I did the lsusb command and it shows the device on there, do I need to unplug it and plug it back in?

I tried the dmesg | grep USB
I couldn't tell if I was seeing it or not.

I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the USB wireless.
I tried the dmesg | grep USB
There were 2 new lines.

usb 1-6: USB disconnect, device number 4
usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd

modprobe carl9170 returns nothing.

do you see the adapter (most likely as wlan0) in /sbin/ifconfig -l (elll)

nope

I have:

eth0
lo
virbr0

I do not have firmware file on my ubuntu, and i cannot find it in *firmware* packages

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170#Firmware-1

you need the later of two as you have kernel 3.2

virbr0 has to do with KVM (do you use it? How?) eth0 is your ethernet adapter.

I think the virbr0 may have to do with the fact that the server was setup to support virtual machines.

I will check on the link you gave when I get home, off to work now.

OK... I downloaded the second file.   Now what?
carl9170.fw

copy it to /lib/firmware:

sudo cp carl9170.fw /lib/firmware/

reboot or reload module:

rmmod carl9170
modprobe carl9170

PS most people having "popular" onboard wireless cards by broadcom have to juggle similarily.

I did the modprobe last night and carl9170 did not show up.  I assume that only means that it was not running?  I should not need the rmmod line then?

I placed th file in the directory and checked to make sure I got it right.

I rebooted.

modprobe carl9170 returns nothing

do you see wlan0 with "/sbin/ifconfig -a" maybe it just works unnoticed?

now USB power draw.

lsusb -v | less

now find a device:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub (ID is different)

Mine has:     Per-port overcurrent protection

which means that each port is limited to 500mA very accurately.

you can also use / and ? to find your netcard and see how much power it draws. if it says 500mA probably you should not put it on port next to webcam or external hard drive....

I will check on that tonight as I have no time in the morning.  I find it pretty hard to believe that it is a power issue  since it was working with NDISWrapper.  As long as I started with the network cable plugged in, I could unplug it and the wireless had no problems.

>  I started with the network cable plugged in, I could unplug it and the wireless had no problem

This may or may not point to a utility called rfkill (install it)
which in turn does the same as wifi on/off bt on/off network on/off buttons.

It could happen that ir tuns amok and switches wireless via USB off dead when ethernet cable is off (when it would be logical otherwise)

If you manage to enable external wireless with rfkill from command line just report a bug and write your wireless card enabler script into /etc/rc.local while you get fix back from ubuntu...

I was under the assumption that the Network Manager applet did not load because my hard wire network did not work without the cable installed.  Without that, it would not load the wireless.

When the hard wire was plugged in, the network manager loaded and so the wireless worked.

That was all back when I had NDISWrapper working.

/sbin/ifconfig -a
eth0
lo
virbr0

lsusb -v | less
bus 002: Device 001 ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation USB 2.0 Root Hub
I saw so many USB root hub devices some said 200ma some said 100ma some said 0ma.
I saw nothing about per-port over current protection.

Max Power on the WNDA3100v2 is 200ma.

The 100ma draws I saw was on the keyboard and mouse.

Would it still be worthwhile to try RFKill?  If this winds up making it work, how hard would it be to set it up in a batch type file (I eventually want to connect to wireless before a user logs in - possibly my next EE question).

You just write commands in order you used them in a text file..... (you can read them from history file)

Not having power control on USB ports does not mean they will power water cooker though.

What do you have in lsusb with all usb devices removed?
check lsusb -t to find the USB port that is not in pair (i.e 1/2 3/4 5/6) with any builtin device.

I am not sure what you are asking me to do here, do you want me to unplug all USB devices?  Did I mention that the keyboard and mouse are USB?

You need to somehow isolate port where you plug network card from the port you plug other devices.

lsusb -t numbers devices from 1 to some even number.

make sure your mouse and keyboard is nor on the port which makes pair with netcard.


24dBm equals 260mW which basically means thar with reception amplifier basically means no other device can share the pair of ports this one uses.

It is a real pain having to walk back and forth so I can type all of this in... I assume you are still on the power deal even though it was working.  I hope the effort will at least put that fear to rest for you.  Sorry about the grumbling, if it can be made to work it will be worth it.

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1D6B:002 Linux Foundation 2.0 Root Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1D6B:002 Linux Foundation 2.0 Root Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1D6B:001 Linux Foundation 1.1 Root Hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1D6B:001 Linux Foundation 1.1 Root Hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1D6B:001 Linux Foundation 1.1 Root Hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1D6B:001 Linux Foundation 1.1 Root Hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1D6B:001 Linux Foundation 1.1 Root Hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0846:9011 NetGear, Inc. WNDA3100v2802.11abgn [Broadcom BCM 4323] 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045E:0084 Microsoft Corp. Basic Optical Mouse
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 045E:0752 Microsoft Corp.

lsusb -t
1-6:1.0: No such file or directory
/:  Bus 07.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/2p, 12M
/:  Bus 06.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
/:  Bus 05.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=HID, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=HID, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, driver=ohci_hcd/3p, 12M
    |__ Port 6: Dev 4, If 0, Class=vend., Driver=, 480M

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Not quite as bad as I though, only took half an hour :-)

I hope that gives you some useful info.

|__ Port 6: Dev 4, If 0, Class=vend., Driver=, 480M
                                           

each port has its own bus - no problem with power then - each gets 500mW as per spec.

no driver attached..... and after modprobe carl9170 ????


i found on ubuntu forums:

Should work with the latest linux-firmware package. Please reopen the linux task if there's still a problem.


basically the old firmware file gets in the way unless you upgrade the firmwares package

(apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade) should do all upgrades for you.

I did apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.  I tried the modprobe carl9170 and still get nothing.

Reboot showed nothing too... I am tempted to load NDISWrapper again... it had it working at one point.  Should I hold off on that?

OK... it was a pain to get it installed last time and this time is no different.  I have it installed and installed the driver.  No problems to that point.  The ndisgtk (UI) won't let me configure a wireless device like wlan0 so... still stuck.

Sadly it will stay like that. There is no open-source driver for the card (not on Linux, not on BSD), no chance to make it run easily as the b43 and equivalent drivers never worked with USB. Even broadcom linux driver (sta by broadcom) has no USB support.

What I need now is some help bridging the gap between installing NDISWrapper and getting wlan0 working.

Does not exist.
Broadcom USB wireless has no open-source driver.
There is PCI and Cardbus driver called b43 around and they say:

...If you have an Broadcom USB device, please use the rndis_wlan driver. The b43/b43legacy driver is not meant to support this device...

What I was trying to get across is that I have installed the NDISWrapper now.  I have successfully installed the driver.  For some reason I do not have a wlan0 at this point.  I thought you might be able to help me get the last step of the way in getting the wlan0 set up.

ifconfig -l  (ell - list them)

ethtool -i eth0 (which driver is attached)

it might be eth* too -

Thanks for sticking with me, I will let you know the results tonight.

With this card it will not get better. If you find the way to sell it - just buy new one-- there cannot be compatibility worse than this.

I did not have the time last night, I will get to it tomorrow at the latest (I have time on Saturday, guaranteed).

I am using this as a learning experience.  I have had it working once and Will again.

The biggest difference between the people who are GOOD in information technology, and the people who are average, is how long they are willing to try regarding any problem they are trying to solve.

Just get matching .inf and .sys from XP driver. older and newer drivers are not that well compatible with ndiswrapper

I know I had it working before, and I already have the drivers installed in NDISWrapper.  I don't remember how I finally got it to work the last time, but I think I downloaded some form of alternate GUI utility for NDISWrapper.

The issue I have now is trying to make use of NDISWrapper.  I need to be able to get a wireless (wlan0) connection set up so the network manager sees it.  Once that step is done, and i can manually get it to connect, I will consider this answered.

I really do appreciate your sticking with me on this.  Once again... so close...

ifconfig -l

ifconfig: option `-l' not recognised.
ifconfig: `--help' gives usage information.

ethtool -i eth0
driver: ATL1E
version: 1.0.0.7-NAPI
firmware-version: L1e
bus-info: 0000:02:00.0
supports-statistics: no
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes

In order to run the ndisgtk (GUI tool for NDISWrapper) you cannot start it and type in your sudo password.  running it from the command line does get me in.  Even then, I see a driver that it says is working and when I try to add anything under wireless, all of the GUI portions needed for that are disabled.  When I was done trying that I noticed that there were errors from running the ndisgtk

sudo ndisgtk

(ndisgtk:2645): libglade-WARNING **: Could not load support for `gnome': libgnome.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

** (nm-connection-editor:2686): WARNING **: Invalid setting Wireless: ssid

** (nm-connection-editor:2686): WARNING **: Invalid setting Wireless: ssid

** (nm-connection-editor:2686): WARNING **: Invalid setting Wireless: ssid

sudo ndiswrapper -l
bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed
      device (0846:9011) present

32bit or 64bit system?

I suspect you soomehow installed 32bit driver on 64bit system and 32bit ndis configurator does not find gnome around.

64 bit system (8GB ram)
The driver has 1 .INF file and 2 .SYS files.  I assumed the inf file would be read correctly to point to the correct .SYS file (64 vs 32).

How can I tell which it is using?

OK.  I tried to uninstall the installed driver and it failed.  I should just try to remove ndiswrapper?  I know I can get it off there if I reinstall, how do I avoid getting the wrong on (If that's what I did last time)?

Any suggestions on the removal of the ndiswrapper?  Reinstall?

ndiswrapper leaves generated drivers behind. you need to find them in /lib/modules/*/* after you remove ndiswrapper.

How do I know which to remove?  Or, was /lib/modules a location that should ONLY contain the files I need to delete?

If I have the wrong version installed... it might not uninstall cleanly...

When I go to reinstall it, do I just use the Ubuntu method?

sudo dpkg-reconfigure --frontend=dialog ndiswrapper

Package `ndiswrapper' is not installed and no info is available.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: ndiswrapper is not installed

That being the case, I will try to reinstall it using the Ubuntu method.  I figure it will know that I am on a 64 bit server and load the appropriate one.

I went to install ndiswrapper using Ubuntu Software Center and it told me it was still installed.  I removed it and reinstalled it.  I retried the command you last had me try and it gives me the same response.

If I try to run the ndisgtk to setup any connections, it asks for a password and the sudo password is rejected.  I understand that this is by design, but how do I get it to work?

sudo ndiswrapper -v
ERROR: modinfo: could not find module ndiswrapper
module version is too old!
utils version: '1.9', utils version needed by module: '0'
module details:
ERROR: modinfo: could not find module ndiswrapper

I really appreciate all your help on this as I learned a lot.  I added my solution to the end just in case someone else needs to find it.  You had great patience dealing with this linux newbie and I really appreciate it.