robchou 0 Posted July 19, 2005 Help!!! Need help configuring a wireless card on suse 9.1 personal with a Netgear MA521 wireless card. I have tried to get wireless to work for several weeks now with no luck. Here's what I've tried so far: Initially I thought the card would be autodected, and it was recognized but there was no "link light" on the card and I couldn't connect to the net. I then did some google searches and tried to get my windows xp driver to work using Linuxant's driverloader. I used the web configurator and a driver that I downloaded off of Netgear's website and everything seemed to install properly but when I did iwconfig I did not have an IP address and still there were no "link lights". I finally tried to use ndiswrapper. I found an rpm for version .10 but no rpms for version .12 or later, and .12 was the version that was suggested to work with the netgear driver. Unfortunately ndiswrapper version .10 didn't work I got a "hardware present" message but when I modprobed, the network card would not respond. I tried to compile version .12 but I got an error with make when it was trying to compile usb.c, the error was "usb.c line 543: error: structure has no member named 'act_altsetting'". Now I am all out of ideas. If there are any linux gurus out there I would really appreciate some help. I really don't want to go back to windoze! I would even be willing to buy another wireless card if I am sure that it will work with suse 9.1 personal right out of the box. Any suggestions will help. Thanks! Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted July 19, 2005 Quote: Help!!! Need help configuring a wireless card on suse 9.1 personal with a Netgear MA521 wireless card. Yes, there are a couple of issues. If this is the version of the Netgear card that I think it is, then it uses the ralink driver. Take into consideration that SuSE 9.1 is an older distro and is less likely to work. SuSE 9.2 or 9.3 works better with ndiswrapper. I don't think that the Linuxant driver works with these chipsets. Quote: I then did some google searches and tried to get my windows xp driver to work using Linuxant's driverloader. I used the web configurator and a driver that I downloaded off of Netgear's website and everything seemed to install properly but when I did iwconfig I did not have an IP address and still there were no "link lights". As above. Also, the SuSE kernel source needs to be installed for ndiswrapper to work. There is an issue with the version of the kernel used in SuSE 9.1 that does not allow the XP drivers to work correctly. The infamous " 4 stack kernel" issue. SuSE 9.2 works with the drivers, as the kernel is not limited to 4 stacks. Is your router set up with WEP or WPA encription? You also need to configure youe essid, channel and WEP/WPA (if you are using this) key to get an access point. The ndiswrapper web site also notes that the stock drivers do not work with ndiswrapper for this card. Quote: I finally tried to use ndiswrapper. I found an rpm for version .10 but no rpms for version .12 or later, and .12 was the version that was suggested to work with the netgear driver. Unfortunately ndiswrapper version .10 didn't work I got a "hardware present" message but when I modprobed, the network card would not respond. I tried to compile version .12 but I got an error with make when it was trying to compile usb.c, the error was "usb.c line 543: error: structure has no member named 'act_altsetting'". Now I am all out of ideas. You can't keep attempting to install different versions of ndiswrapper on top of each other. You must un-install any previous versions before trying to install a new version. See the ndiswrapper wiki installation page about this. Ndiswrapper version 1.2 should work with the compile/usb issue that you are having, but realize that you have an RPM install of ndiswrapper and also are attempting to install from source. Any chance of using SuSE 9.2 or newer on this box? I know that this is a lot to absorb, but I went through the same issues with my Linksys ralink card. See my web page about this located here. Share this post Link to post
robchou 0 Posted July 20, 2005 thanks for responding. I installed suse 9.3 and I think I got ndiswrapper to install and load the drivers, but I still can't use suse's wireless configuration tools or "iwlist -scan" to pick up my ap. It is a home network so we are not using any encryption. Do I need to do something on the router to get this to work? In addition I was wondering if anyone knows of a wireless card with Native Wireless Drivers. In other words could I buy a wireless adapter that would work "right out of the box"? Thanks for the assistance! Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted July 21, 2005 On my web site, i have some directions that may help. But, the issue is did the drivers install properly? When you do iwconfig at a command prompt (terminal window) do you see any wireless extensions? Or does it say; eth0 lo sit0 "No wireless extensions." When you do ndiswrapper -l Do you get a message like; Installed ndis drivers rt2500 driver present, hardware present Of course, the rt2500 are my drivers. But if this is a ralink card, then you should see something like this. In terms of a card working "out of the box" I am not sure with SuSE. My Linspire box saw my card out of the box, but they also use ndiswrapper pre-installed to work on some cards. I think Dapper Dan has one that works in his distros. He may be able to give you a lead here. Share this post Link to post
