DSL USER Group Community

I have spent several days in futility trying to connect my HP laptop with DSL to wireless via D-Link WUA 1340 wireless USB adaptor

I was unable to locate a Linux compliant driver from the supplier

I have then tried to use the Ndiswrapper without too much success.

This is what happens:

When I use the ndiswrapper utility from the DSL control panel with the pathname for the .inf file it gives an error that the inf file “is already installed. Use –e option to remove it”

When I use the –e option from the root terminal it says that the .inf file is not installed – and to use –l option to list the installed drivers

When you do this it then states that the .inf file is an invalid driver (amongst other drivers which it lists in that folder which are also invalid)

It also says try devid option with the USBID in the form XXXX:XXXX (How/where do I check this?)

I am unable to move further to modprobe or iwconfig

Could anyone please give me some guidance – I am a Newbie – hopefully not for too long

Many thanks

FJK

1 416 450 7086

Hi,

The ndiswrapper module and tools are for use with windows drivers, not with native linux drivers. What you said is that you are using ndiswrapper with a linux driver. If you want to use ndiswrapper you must have the MS Windows files for your card. There will be files (use the XP files if you have a choice) with .inf, .sys, and possuibly .bin. You will need the inf and sys files for sure. If there is a bin file copy that one onto your linux drive, too. There may not be a bin file.

Use the command "ndiswrapper -l" (no quotes -this is the listing option) to see what DSL has install as ndiswrapper drivers. This command will return the exact name(s) of installed ndiswrapper drivers. One at a time, use the "ndiswrapper -r <drivername>" command to get rid of them. <drivername> must be spelled exactly as returned from the listing command. Run the listing command again until nothing is returned.

When you have no more ndiswrapper drivers installed change directory to the directory that has those Windows files. From that directory run your command (as root) "ndiswrapper -i <inf filename>". DSL will get all excited then will tell you it has installed the driver. If your card is plugged in it should also tell you the device is present. Run the listing command again just for the soul satisfying feeling in your tummy that all is ok.

Your additional statements indicate that you already know how to use modprobe and the additonal steps to use your card once that driver is installed. I hope this helps. I struggled with getting all the steps in the right place at the right time and I found that the pretty gui tools don't work as well as the cli tools - no surprise to me. Using the wrong Windows files for your card will break your system. Don't ask me how I know this. I think that if you get past this hurdle you will be online with that card soon.

Bill

I think it uses the ralink rt73 driver, get it from here. http://www.techspot.com/drivers/driv...rmation/11460/
to compile in dsl 4.? versions need gnu-utilitis, gcc with libs from mydsl/system and kernel 4.31 source from mydsl/testing installed. then follow the readme instructions that come with the driver.

DSL + WUA 1340 + ndiswrapper

Here is an update:

I have made some progress on installing the usb wifi stick but still not fully functional - DSL at least notices the wifi usb stick and at shutdown states "proc/bus usb umounted" amongst other commands

but it still can't mount the device

lsusb gives "Bus 002 Device 002: ID 07d1:3c04 D-link system"

when I cleaned up ndiswrapper of all the files as

suggested by w r cromwell and gave it the .inf file for the

driver thus: ndiswrapper -i autorun.inf it said nothing (I was

waiting for bells and whistles!!) and returned me to the command

prompt

then running ndiswrapper -l gave "autorun invalid driver"

I then tried to install the usb device thus:

ndiswrapper -d 07d1:3c04 autorun.inf

it reported "no such file or directory; Driver 'autorun.inf' is

not installed properly

all very interesting but frustrating nevertheless

when i try to mount the usb wifi stick through command, mount

/dev/sda5 it reports that "can't find /dev/sda5 in /etc/fstab or

/etc/mtab"

Is editting of these fstab, mtab files the issue?

if i try the mount through the desktop utility, it reports that

/dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

elsewhere it reports error:mount:relocation error: mount:

undefined symbol: blkid_known_fstype

help, anyone out there?

thanx

FJK

Hi,

You dont "mount" your network card whether or not its wired ethernet or wireless and whether or not it's a usb card or some other form. Mount is for drives and file systems. So lets forget all about "mount".

"Autorun.inf" is *NOT* the inf file for your wireless interface. That is for MS Windows users. It starts the interactive menu on a Windows system (from the CD) so the user can select among such things as "Install", "Help", "More Info", "Order Pizza", etc. It will never, ever operate your wireless interface. So you looked at the CD that came with your wireless adapter and you grabbed the first inf file you saw. You probably will have to look in some subdirectories and into one that says something about XP (the XP drivers are recommended for Linux). Thats where you will find the Windows drivers for your interface. The file names might include "WUA" or "1340" and/or other cryptic gibberish. The files will have that somewhat cryptic name with inf, sys, and possibly bin as extensions. There will be several files with similar names and those extensions. The interfaces I have worked with have one inf, more than one sys file, and one or no bin file. Copy all of those files to your Linux computer. Then clean up your 'drivers' again withe the ndiswrapper -r command and then install the new, *correct* drivers. If you found and copied the correct files then the ndiswrapper -l command will show you just one device installed and if the interface is plugged in it will say "device present".

If you get that far then you will be ready to create the module link. You have indicated that you already found instructions for that. There should be a step like lsmod | grep ndiswrapper that checks to make sure the module is not already loaded (shouldn't be at this point). Then you can run "ndiswrapper -m" to make the kernel module loadable. If that command says it's already a module then life is good. Otherwise it will tell you that it made some link and it may give you a warning. Mine does that to me even though everything is ok. It says something about 'future versions' and is NOT a failure message.

Run the modprobe ndiswrapper command. ndiswrapper is the module name that ndiswrapper setup for you. You may see indications that your interface is getting excited if it has any lights on it. Rerun the lsmod command from above and it should report the ndiswrapper module. look and see if you have a wlan0 interface installed by running the iwconfig command.

If you see anything like wlan0 then follow the directions for your OS (DSL) so that the module gets loaded every time you start the computer. You may have to put a command in your startup scripts. Once you have wlan0 you might be able to use the DSL control panel to get it up and running. Those control panel apps didn't work for mine. I had to use the information about wpa_supplicant to get it to talk to the wireless network and the OS. I used the tutorials right here on LinuxQuestions to get my interfaces running.

I hope you have success this time.

Bill

Thanks Bill

WUA 1340 – some progress – then setback

Here is what I did and what responses I got. I have retained your suggestions and the responses that I got from the system.
________________________________________
Hi,

Q. So you looked at the CD that came with your wireless adapter and you grabbed the first inf file you saw.

A. Actually it was the only inf file on the CD – see below for all the files

Q. You probably will have to look in some subdirectories and into one that says something about XP (the XP drivers are recommended for Linux). Thats where you will find the Windows drivers for your interface. The file names might include "WUA" or "1340" and/or other cryptic gibberish. The files will have that somewhat cryptic name with inf, sys, and possibly bin as extensions. There will be several files with similar names and those extensions. The interfaces I have worked with have one inf, more than one sys file, and one or no bin file.

A. You are absolutely right – there were 4 files there:

WUA1340.exe
WUA1340.ini
D-Link.ico
Autorun.inf

Q. Copy all of those files to your Linux computer.
A. Done

Q. Then clean up your 'drivers' again with the ndiswrapper -r command and then install the new, *correct* drivers.
A. Installed WUA1340.exe

Q. If you found and copied the correct files then the ndiswrapper -l command will show you just one device installed and if the interface is plugged in it will say "device present".

A. It copied all the four files altho’ I only specified one. It did not say device present

Q. If you get that far then you will be ready to create the module link. You have indicated that you already found instructions for that. Then you can run "ndiswrapper -m" to make the kernel module loadable. If that command says it's already a module then life is good.

A. Ran "ndiswrapper -m" It reported “modprobe config already contains alias driver”
Life so far so good

Unfortunately, from here onwards things got a little bit complicated. At this point according to some instructions I was following I re-booted

Then I ran ndiswrapper –l It gave me the message “wua1340.exe is not a valid driver!”

Removed it, then tried to load it – message “couldn’t copy wua1340.exe at usr/bin/ndisw line 139”

Went to usr/bin and saw 2 files there “ndiswrapper” and “ndiswrapper – bug info”

Q. Run the modprobe ndiswrapper command. ndiswrapper is the module name that ndiswrapper setup for you. You may see indications that your interface is getting excited if it has any lights on it.

A. Ran # modprobe ndiswrapper
No response – back to command line prompt. Only one even mildly excited was me ;-)

Q. Rerun the lsmod command from above and it should report the ndiswrapper module.

A. Yes it did. Then when I ran /sbin/lsmod it gave

Module Size used by Not tainted
Ndiswrapper 175740 0
Usbcore 57824 1 ndiswrapper hid usb-uhci

Q. look and see if you have a wlan0 interface installed by running the iwconfig command.

A. Ran iwconfig

Responded:
lo no wireless extension
etho no wireless extension

Q. There should be a step like lsmod | grep ndiswrapper that checks module is already loaded

A. Ran #modprobe –c | grep ndiswrapper
Responded alias wlan0 ndiswrapper – first inkling of wlan0 – I am getting excited

Incidentally on the CD there were other directories like “bin” with files wua1340.dbd and sample_test.dbd and another directory called “drivers” with setup.exe none of which were copied to the working folder when I copied ‘everything’

Q. I used the tutorials right here on LinuxQuestions to get my interfaces running.
A. Thanks for that – I will persist until I crack it and then hopefully put out a tutorial on linuxquestions.org for others

From your guidance and the responses, I have a gut feeling that I am close and will make sure that I go the full hog

Thanks for taking the time and all the assistance. Much appreciated. :-)

FJK

Hi,

You still are not using the right files. Can you see that WUA1340.exe is NOT WUA1340.inf? If the driver files are named WUA1340 they will be WUA1340.inf, WUA1340.sys, and possibly WUA1340.bin. You will not need any other file types. If your CD does not have any files resembling the above in subdirectories like /win95, winxp, etc then the files are packed into that self executing zip file named WUA1340.exe (or some other other zip, cab, or archive file.

There is a linux tool named cabextract that might help you extract those devious files from the archive. You can also run your cd on an XP machine and install the drivers there. I have done that before. You risk making a mess of the windows machine by leaving unused files on it but who cares about what happens to a Windows machine. I have also installed the Windows drivers on a WINE system. The install won't complete because it doesn't have everything it needs under WINE. However, in my experience, before it stops and complains it does unpack and copy the very files you need in the .wine directory <smile>. You have to use one method or other to get access to the files I told you about. The names may vary a little from what you have already seen. I would expect WUA???.inf, etc. Once again - there will be one inf file, one or more sys files, and maybe (or not) one bin file. Exe, ini, dbf, dat files (or anything else) just leave. Those are trash for a Windows box.

Thanks for your continuing responses and patience with a newbie

Some more progress but no breakthrough yet

I tried to run the CD on a Windows machine if only to get access to the files – just couldn’t locate any .inf file – even with zip or rar

Eventually, I located the windows drivers on the device site which I copied to the system

These were Dr71WU.inf; Dr71WU.sys, Dr71WU98.sys, dr71wu.cat, setup.exe – your description was spot on

Ran the stuff again with the .inf file – received message “driver installed, hardware present” :-)

Beyond this it is unable to proceed, because of the (I think) the module I had used earlier – I need to be able to uninstall the module via modprobe somehow :-(

ndiswrapper –m yielded “modeprobe config already contains alias directive”

But modprobe ndiswrapper yielded

ndiswrapper (import: 241): unknown symbol: ntoskrnl.exe : ‘ZwWriteFile’
ndiswrapper (load_sys_files: 213) : couldn’t prepare driver ‘dr71wu’
ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver: 132) : couldn’t load driver ‘dr71wu’

when I check lsmod I see the same info that I saw earlier under ndiswrapper when I had used the wrong .exe file (same file size etc) – how can I undo this?

Incidentally the usb wifi dongle was plugged in at the time

Does anyone know how to use

modprobe –r function?

I may be able to proceed if I can somehow surmount this hurdle

Thank you FJK

Hi,

Progress!

The rogue module you created by trying to make an ndiswrapper module with that exe file is caught sideways in DSL's throat. We have to find a way to go around that. I am not currently running a DSL distribution. One possibility is to format and reinstall DSL. That's the MS Windows way and I think it's wimpy. But... DSL is Derned small and it doesn't take much to wipe it and start over. That depends, of course, on attitude, what else you may already have on the system that would have to be redone, etc. Assuming you don't want to "do-over" -

Try using the modprobe -remove <funky-module-name>. If the -r won't work this probably won't either. I see that some distributions won't allow the removal of modules. What's up with that? Try it anyway but don't waste too much time on it.

Assuming you are still stuck... look in your /etc/ndiswrapper directory. There will be at least one subdirectory there and it should be named dr71wu. There may be another folder there with the name of your rogue ndiswrapper configuration. If there is... move that entire folder (and any others except for the dr71wu folder) somewhere else. I would just delete it but I never recommend that for somebody else's computer. Restart your computer. Hopefully the rogue module is not installed and just maybe your dr71wu version is loaded.

You might have to use modprobe to reinstall the ndiswrapper module. You might even have to run the ndiswrapper commands to remove and reinstall the dr71wu including the -m command.

Now it's time for you to do the work and come back with the results. If all else fails there is still the option of wiping DSL and starting over - this time with the right files.

Bill

Here’s the latest

I am close – very close but not operational yet

I finally managed to remove the installed modules by using modprobe –r with a lot of coaxing of the system

I checked the /etc/ndiswrapper directory - mercifully only one file there and the correct one

Then I re-ran the whole process from initio

I get all the right signposts: “dr71wu driver installed”

Plugged in the usb stick wifi: “hardware present”

Ndiswrapper –m: “modprobe config already contains alias directive”

Modprobe –c | grep ndis: “alias wlan0 ndiswrapper”

Iwcofig

Eth0
Lo

(No wlan0 listed)

+++++++++++++++++++

After you reboot, you get a message that usb device 2 is not claimed by any active driver

Lsusb: “Bus 003 Device 002: ID 07d1:3c04 D-Link system”

Ndiswrapper –d 07d1:3c04 dr71wu: “Driver ‘dr71wu’ is used for 07D1:3C04”

BUT the damn stick doesn’t just light up!!

I am now thinking that maybe the alias needs to be deleted and re-initiated somehow

I will be out over the weekend but should be able to pursue this further sometime next week

Regds

FJK

A happy penguinista here :-)

After weeks of struggling to set up my WUA 1340 D-Link on DSL Linux, (Ndiswrapper, wua_supplicant, tarballs and gunzips), today I downloaded Puppy Linux and connected to the internet with absolutely no hastles - straight out of the box.

With my struggle to set up my wi-fi I gathered a lot of information from LQ which will no doubt come in helpful in the future when I experiment with other distros. Incidentally, I am still holding onto my DSL system so that I fully exploit it

Thanks to all of you in the Linux community for selflessly helping others to come on board and share the freedom of being set loose from the bondage of Bill G and co.

I pledge to follow your example and do likewise when I am able to walk and run (I am still crawling as a Newbie)

Regards

FJK