install ndiswrapper in Ubuntu - I can't figure it out

[Admin]

I recently installed Ubuntu, and surprise surprise I find myself reading hundred page long threads on how to enter terminal command lines just to get my wireless card to work.

Every single thread asks me to use the wget command to download the files needed to get wireless working. Ironic . . . Not to mention that I need to boot into Windows to read threads, boot into Ubuntu to try it out, boot back into Windows to read more threads, repeat repeat repeat.

Ok, enough with the sarcasm . . .

Supposedly I install a program called 'ndiswrapper' that makes windows wireless card drivers work in Ubuntu 9.10. According to some threads, I don't need to install it. They suggested running commands like:

root@pikachu:/# sudo ndisgtk
sudo: ndisgtk: command not found

root@pikachu:/# sudo aptitude search ndis
v   ndiswrapper-modules-1.9 

root@pikachu:/# sudo aptitude install ndisgtk
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information     
Initializing package states... Done
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "ndisgtk"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "ndisgtk"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information     
Initializing package states... Done

root@pikachu:~/Desktop/temp/DRIVER# sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
sudo: ndiswrapper: command not found

As you can see, none of them worked. Now other threads suggest I install ndiswrapper. So here is my failed attempt:

root@pikachu:~# cd Desktop
root@pikachu:~/Desktop# cd ndiswrapper-1.55
root@pikachu:~/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic M=/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic'
  LD      /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/built-in.o
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/crt_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/hal_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/ndis_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/ntoskernel_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/ntoskernel_io_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/rtl_exports.h
  MKEXPORT /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/usb_exports.h
  CC [M]  /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/crt.o
In file included from /home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/crt.c:16:
/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/ntoskernel.h: In function ‘PushEntrySList’:
/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/ntoskernel.h:905: error: implicit declaration of function ‘cmpxchg8b’
make[3]: *** [/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver/crt.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic'
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/john/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2
root@pikachu:~/Desktop/ndiswrapper-1.55#

I also tried uninstall commands, etc.

There is no Windows Wireless option in the Administrator drop-down menu, either.

Anyone with ideas?

other thoughts . . . Ubuntu takes about 25 seconds to boot up with minimal programs running, while Windows takes about 30 seconds. Of course, if I have other programs like firewall, anti-virus, and wireless card drivers running my Windows takes more like 45 seconds to load. Ubuntu does shutdown *much* faster however. Getting any drivers to work appears to take hours/days, so probably not worth saving 20 seconds/bootup.

[Admin]

Well, I fixed the ndiswrapper problem. Turns out to be a bug in the software.

open ntoskernel.h file inside ndiswrapper-1.55/driver and then change the line 878 as follows (31 is changed to 32)

old line:

Code: [Select]

    #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,31)new line:

Code: [Select]

    #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,32)

I managed to install my wireless driver. Unfortunately it still doesn't detect any wireless networks . . . 
Back to reading forums . . .

I also figured out why ndisgtk won't install. I installed Ubuntu using a USB key, but apparently Ubuntu refuses to install any software except from the internet and a CD-rom. Internet still doesn't work for me, and I don't have any cd-roms available (I live in a 3rd-world country, so it'll take half a day to get one). I can't find any USB key installation options.

[TrickyNekro]

Just a suggestion, a network cable, if you can't make it yourself costs about 4 - 5 dollars....
It can save you from reboots....

Have you tried the auto detecting drivers program that Ubuntu have???
There is also a very very very large database on drivers on Ubuntu forums (or another page I can't remember)
sudo apt get- them ;-)

I have also heard other guys complaining about wireless... Did you download any management program or not???

Funny this is that with Ubuntu you get the chance to break the 3DES AES encryption is using, but not all the wireless cards will work with that...

Try googling the model of the laptop plus Ubuntu drivers (although I'm not talking to a noob, sometimes the easiest things never past our minds)
Have you found any other drivers for the wireless that aren't for Ubuntu 9.10, perhaps 8.XX something. If you are using the same
bit processing pattern (32 bit - 64 bit) then try it out.
64 bit processing is new, enough to cause you trouble finding drivers in any system (even windows 7 that Vista drivers are supposed to work...)
As the most  unfortunate outcome if you are using 64 bit, try turning to 32 bit, But I don't think things would get that dark really.

And a last shot in the dark, although that wouldn't matter a lot, have you set the working region properly ( I mean country of operation like USA, England, Greece... etc etc etc) Not all the countries use the same 2.4GHz channels...

Peace!!!
And happy freeware!!!! ;-P

[Admin]

I'm in an apartment building with a shared wireless router. No wired access.

Have you tried the auto detecting drivers program that Ubuntu have???

Nope, but I know the drivers didn't exist. A thousand other people in the forums were asking about the same exact driver.
 

sudo apt get- them ;-)

can't, requires internet access, silly . . . many Linux programs apparently don't offer download links so I can get them while in Windows, including Wine, making it very difficult . . .


I've given up for now, but my gf has a wired connection at her place so I'll try again in a few days when she's back in town.

But to be honest, if using Linux means spending hours reading forums to do basic tasks, I think I'll stick with XP for a few more years. I prefer to spend my time reading robot forums

[TrickyNekro]

Hey, I didn't know that you don't have access to wire!!!

Well, I dunno, If you don't want to read linux forum (until you finally set up your system) why bother having them,
It's free but it's not for everyone... true...

I really use XP, but Linux has so many goodies, I can't resist to them (try writing an article in Linux and one in XP, there is a great help with photos vids etc etc...)

It's either love it, or hate it.

Which wireless card do you have, I may be able to get you a hand, if you like...

[Admin]

Well, I dunno, If you don't want to read linux forum (until you finally set up your system) why bother having them,
It's free but it's not for everyone... true...

I spent half my day reading on the Ubuntu forum . . . for me, time is money, so its not really free.

Which wireless card do you have, I may be able to get you a hand, if you like...

I'm using a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card. The last step I got to work was this:

sudo ndiswrapper –i bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -l

And it then said this:

bcmwl5 : driver installed
   device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: ssb)

I rebooted, then ran this command:
sudo iwlist scanning

And finally got stuck with this output:

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0  Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

I browsed around and found someone saying this below will fix the problem, but I don't have any internet connection to do apt-get . . .

1) sudo apt-get --purge remove b43-fwcutter
2) reboot
3) sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter (confirm firmware download)
4) reboot

Also, do you recommend any wireless network scanning program? For ummm . . . if and when I get this to work?

[madchimp]

Never tried setting up a wireless card in Ubuntu but have been running it for awhile now and I really like it. In fact the install is easier than windows xp since Ubuntu picked up all my hardware on its own i didn't have to install all the drivers like i did in windows. In fact I set my system to dual boot but have only went back into windows once for an email address i somehow forgot to back up to put into my linux email client. Also I've read that 9.1 is kind of buggy so a lot of people dropped back to 9.04 I know one issue with linux is the wireless support. From the reading I've done what card it is isn't as important as the chipset it uses as far as native linux support goes, the ndiswrapper is supposed to be able to make most cards work. As far as the scanning I believe the card has to have native linux support so cards needing ndiswrapper might be out for the fun stuff heheh. not positive on that though.

almost forgot here's a link to manually download packages gotta love google
http://packages.ubuntu.com/

[Admin]

madchimp, good point about Ubuntu finding all the drivers. I had to manually download all my XP Dell drivers onto an external HD before installing my new internal HD. Not even Dell would include drivers on their own cds!

Well, except Ubuntu totally blew it for the wireless card

Also I've read that 9.1 is kind of buggy so a lot of people dropped back to 9.04 I know one issue with linux is the wireless support.

I hear that happens with all new Linux versions. I intentionally waited a month before getting 9.10 hoping that problems would have weeded themselves out.

Unfortunately I have several important programs I use often that have no Linux equivalents. The #1 being AutoDesk Inventor (CAD), and since its processor intensive I shouldn't even use it with Wine. #2 being Vegas Movie Studio (really good movie creation software). #3 being AVR Studio. #4 being CuteFTP, way better than any Linux FTP software I've seen. As for image creation, Gimp sucks.

I personally think Microsoft Office is better than OpenOffice, the latter being very buggy, but the most recent OpenOffice is acceptably close enough.

My primary interest in using Linux was that I've heard its much better on battery life, and better startup times, so its good for traveling. But I haven't verified it on my laptop, yet.

almost forgot here's a link to manually download packages gotta love google
http://packages.ubuntu.com/

Interesting! I'll have a look.

[madchimp]

#4 being CuteFTP, way better than any Linux FTP software I've seen.

I just use the Nautilus file manager it has ftp and sftp built in so you can manipulate files as if they were locale doesn't get much easier than that.

As for image creation, Gimp sucks.

I actually like it. It took some getting used to though. It's especially nice when you have my budget lol

I personally think Microsoft Office is better than OpenOffice, the latter being very buggy, but the most recent OpenOffice is acceptably close enough.

I can't remember the last time I used MS Office I was even using OpenOffice when I was still using Windows again the budget plays a roll lol

[chelmi]

Unfortunately I have several important programs I use often that have no Linux equivalents. The #1 being AutoDesk Inventor (CAD), and since its processor intensive I shouldn't even use it with Wine. #2 being Vegas Movie Studio (really good movie creation software). #3 being AVR Studio. #4 being CuteFTP, way better than any Linux FTP software I've seen. As for image creation, Gimp sucks.

Take a look at virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/). There is package in official ubuntu repository or you can add the repository from sun to your list of repositories.
It's amazingly powerful. I use it for Quartus II (hw design for FPGA) without any performance issue.

Chelmi.

[z.s.tar.gz]

@admin: Here are some download links for premade ubuntu packages for ndiswrapper:
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-common_1.54-2ubuntu1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-utils-1.9_1.54-2ubuntu1_i386.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndisgtk/ndisgtk_0.8.4-1_i386.deb

You're going to want to install them in that order to take care of dependency checking.
Also, you never specified what wireless card you have.

Hope that helps.

[Admin]

Take a look at virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/). There is package in official ubuntu repository or you can add the repository from sun to your list of repositories.
It's amazingly powerful.

Chelmi, would you say its better than Wine?

@admin: Here are some download links for premade ubuntu packages for ndiswrapper:
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-common_1.54-2ubuntu1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-utils-1.9_1.54-2ubuntu1_i386.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndisgtk/ndisgtk_0.8.4-1_i386.deb

Also, you never specified what wireless card you have.

you forgot to read this post
(I finally managed to get ndiswrapper to work)
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=9813.msg75127#msg75127

[z.s.tar.gz]

Touché.

[Weird Fishes]

Chelmi, would you say its better than Wine?

Wine emulates apps, virtualbox emulates operating systems.

So you could install windows right into Ubuntu, and everything (to a point) that works in Windows would work, unlike wine, where it's really hit or miss.

You could also go the other way if you wanted, and run Ubuntu inside Windows.

Another thing I just saw on Lifehacker was portable ubuntu for windows: http://portableubuntu.sourceforge.net/index.php.
It's Ubuntu inside a standalone app, and it's portable. Depending on why you wanted ubuntu, might be a good choice.

[chelmi]

Take a look at virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/). There is package in official ubuntu repository or you can add the repository from sun to your list of repositories.
It's amazingly powerful.

Chelmi, would you say its better than Wine?

Not even comparable Seriously, I was really surprised to how good the performance were. The only thing that was not very good was for music software (I use a software to replace the band that I don't have :p ). Give it a try. You install it through APT, then you install windows like you would do on a standard machine (except that you can continue to work on the machine while it's installing the other OS) and that's it!

Chelmi, would you say its better than Wine?

Wine emulates apps, virtualbox emulates operating systems.

So you could install windows right into Ubuntu, and everything (to a point) that works in Windows would work, unlike wine, where it's really hit or miss.

Virtualbox does not emulate anything. And to be precise, neither does wine (wine is not an emulator). Wine re-implements Windows system APIs on top of Linux.
Virtualbox is a virtualization tool. It allows you to run several operating system on the same processor as if they were running on physically separated machines.

[Admin]

What if I already have Windoze on my machine, would another installation be required or can Wine/Virtual box access it no problem?

(I'm sure it'll be obvious if I run the software, or read the manual, but I'm feeling lazy )

[Weird Fishes]

Virtualbox does not emulate anything. And to be precise, neither does wine (wine is not an emulator). Wine re-implements Windows system APIs on top of Linux.
Virtualbox is a virtualization tool. It allows you to run several operating system on the same processor as if they were running on physically separated machines.

I knew I was gonna get called out on that. 

[chelmi]

What if I already have Windoze on my machine, would another installation be required or can Wine/Virtual box access it no problem?

(I'm sure it'll be obvious if I run the software, or read the manual, but I'm feeling lazy )

No, you need a new installation as far as I know. But you don't need a new partition. Virtualbox will create a file in your Linux home directory that will contain the system. And this file can be re-sized if you install more and more software.

[z.s.tar.gz]

there used to be a project to mount .vdi files as disks, I wonder if the opposite can be accomplished?
If anything you could use clonezilla to make a virtual version of your xp partition, but I don't know exactly how that would work.

[Admin]

Hmmm what I'd like to do is be able to access both partitions at the same time.

I noticed I can access my Windoze files from Ubuntu automatically, but I'd like to run Windows programs with those files from Ubuntu if possible.

(I'm probably asking for too much!)

[chelmi]

Hmmm what I'd like to do is be able to access both partitions at the same time.

I noticed I can access my Windoze files from Ubuntu automatically, but I'd like to run Windows programs with those files from Ubuntu if possible.

(I'm probably asking for too much!)

You can access files on other partitions from a Virtualbox OS, they will appear in a "Network Drive" in your guest OS.

[z.s.tar.gz]

http://www.fs-driver.org/
That will let you mount any ext* filesystem (ubuntu) in windows just like ubuntu mounts ntfs (windows).

[chelmi]

http://www.fs-driver.org/
That will let you mount any ext* filesystem (ubuntu) in windows just like ubuntu mounts ntfs (windows).

It will probably work, but virtualbox offers a better way to share data between the host and the guest os.

[z.s.tar.gz]

It will probably work, but virtualbox offers a better way to share data between the host and the guest os.

In most cases it does, but I've noticed that it can be incredibly slow sometimes.

[Admin]

After hooking up my Linux to a wired internet connection, my above idea kinda fixed the problem. I can now connect to unprotected networks, no problem. But any wireless network that requires a password still won't work. I'm sure after spending a few more days at the problem I can fix it but . . .

Then I played around with Linux for a few days.

[rant]
Linux just sucks, from a user-friendliness perspective. I mean, why would spending hours and days looking for that one hidden linux forum help post to solve my problem, followed by entering a series of memorized command lines, ever compete with the 'it just works' ease of 1 or 2 double mouse clicks in windows?

Sure, Windows takes an additionally 30 seconds a week for me to boot up, but Linux takes hours/days a week to debug.

Sure, I'm technically skilled, but is the at-home mom capable of this? Would about the cancer research scientist, expert at curing cancer, but totally unskilled with operating systems, find Linux easy?

Sure Windows has bugs, but it didn't take me long to find several bugs in both the Linux OS and Linux supported software, too. Even Firefox crashed on me, several times.

I don't see how Linux is safer, as a single app-get command can easily install a virus. Why not? There is no good Linux anti-virus software. Sure, Linux by default requires me to enter my password over and over whenever a system change is made as a security measure, but that protection can easily be added to Windows, if Microsoft wanted.

Linux users have an almost elitist attitude towards it. I'm smart, and only dumb people use Windows. But you can't change the customer to like your product, you have to make a product that the customer likes, or they won't want it. Basic marketing . . .

To me, I see Linux as a 'by geeks, for geeks' operating system. As long as its designed in that way, it'll never beat out Windows . . .
 not even Vista [/rant]

Plus, as I mentioned before, it doesn't support or have reasonable clones of a lot of really good software I use on a daily basis.

The one advantage I saw in Linux was supposedly it had a lower battery usage, great for when I'm traveling and just want to read email. But then my laptop battery fried last week, so wasn't able to test it out . . . doh!

Conclusion: I'll give Linux another two years to play catch-up with Windows, then I'll try it again

[Ro-Bot-X]

It's funny when I see more people came to the same conclusion as I did a couple of years ago. At that time, I was working as a computer tech and one of my co-workers was a linux guy and he was testing out several distros. He had lots of years experience doing that and even he had problems some times that he could not solve for weeks. He was up to date with all the newest versions, he knew all the forums he could get answers to his questions and he was kind to teach me a bit. After a few weeks of trying, I told him that I think Linux is excellent for servers that can run a few operating systems at the same time on virtual machines that you could access remotely and so on, but it sucks to be used and configured by a non tech guy on a daily basis. He admitted that Linux is good enough for office people that have to use only a few programs, like Office, Mail and Browser, perhaps a bit of music in the background. If you want more, you have to be an experienced tech...

[Admin]

It's funny when I see more people came to the same conclusion as I did a couple of years ago.

I've been avoiding Linux for 10 years now for this reason. I had been hearing a lot more lately about Ubuntu becoming easy to use, so thought I'd give it a try . . .

It kinda gives you a greater respect for Windows, really

[madsci1016]

It kinda gives you a greater respect for Windows, really

I have more respect for Microsoft now that I have been using Windows 7, and Windows Home Server.  Both are pretty decent operating systems.

Every night, all my computers wake up at midnight, each performs a virus scan (thank you Avast for WHS integration), then the server performs a differential backup on each one, and sends them back to sleep. All of this pretty much out of the box. I challenge and Linux distro to have this much functionality out of the box (or very nearly).

[z.s.tar.gz]

What you mean to say is that no linux distrobution can do that without you having to learn something.
The equivelent tools are there (even a virus scanner for linux), you're just used to the ones you have now.

[madsci1016]

What you mean to say is that no linux distrobution can do that without you having to learn something.
The equivelent tools are there (even a virus scanner for linux), you're just used to the ones you have now.

No, I mean exactly what I said.

No linux distro will do what I need out of the box.

 I'm glad other people have the time to spend hours a month configuring a computer to do what they need. I do not have that time, and neither does Admin apparently.

I will not consider Linux a viable operating system for myself (or most of the world) until they accomplish what Microsoft already has: zero (or nearly zero) startup configuration required to have a fully functioning computer.