Netgear WG111 USB Wireless dongle

[mick12345678]

I just got one of these off Ebay (cheap  ).

I haven't yet tried installing it. Thought I'd Google about a bit first, and I found this :

The Netgear WG111 v2 USB card, contains a Realtek chipset. The card works with linux, but you need a 2.6.x kernel!

ok - "uname -a" says I have got 2.6.18.5 (I am on 5.8 Standard).
It goes on :

Before you can use this card, you need to disable the IEEE80211 framework that comes with the kernel. the driver comes with an own IEEE80211 Framework that is not compatible with the one in the kernel.

How do I disable the kernel 802.11 framework ?

Take care to load the modules in the correct order, otherwise the card won't work:
ieee80211_crypt_rtl
ieee80211_crypt_wep_rtl
ieee80211_crypt_tkip_rtl
ieee80211_crypt_ccmp_rtl
ieee80211_rtl
r8187

I presume these modules are downloadable from the manufacturer (rather than from a VL repository). If thats the case, how would I go about installing them.

Finally, there is no mention in all this of NDISWRAPPER - so am I right that that would be my backup option if the above procedure doesn't work ?

[Neil K.]

Vector will probably automatically detect the device. Plug it in and check Wifi-Radar to see if you can connect.

[bigpaws]

Doing some googling I find that the device you are
inquiring about uses Ndiswrapper.

Go  to the Ndiswrapper site you will find your card
listed and instructions on installation and use.

HTH

Bigpaws

[Neil K.]

Vector 5.8 has ndiswrapper in the package manager.

[mick12345678]

Thanks for the replies.

I did plug it in (without downloading/installign anything), but VASM couldnt see it.

I have seen a few reports of this working with Ndiswrapper, but I thought there might be some mileage in trying to get it to work natively first.

[mick12345678]

so I decided to try ndiswrapper anyway..

root:# ndiswrapper -l
2802w : driver installed
airplus : driver installed
bcmwl5 : driver installed
gplus : driver installed
mrv8ka51 : driver installed
net111v2 : driver installed
        device (0846:6A00) present
net8180 : driver installed
netadm11 : driver installed
netdlwl : driver installed
ntpr11ab : driver installed
w70n51 : driver installed

! looking good :-)

root:# ndiswrapper -m
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper ...
couldn't add module alias:  at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 720.

!failed ?

! but this looks ok

root:# cat /etc/modprobe.conf
# /etc/modprobe.conf (old location for Linux 2.6+ config)
#
# The use of this config file is deprecated if you are using a
# 2.6.x or newer kernel.  Instead, create files in the
# /etc/modprobe.d/ directory containing modprobe options.
#
# For more information, see "man modprobe.conf".

alias eth0 fealnx
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
linux://home/user

root:# depmod -aq
linux://home/user
root:# modprobe ndiswrapper
linux://home/user

! try to start it anyway..

root:# ifconfig wlan0 up
linux://home/user

! lets do a scan

root:# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     No scan results

! light is not on on the dongle :-((

looks like that  error means something after all ..

[bigpaws]

Where did you get the driver from for the Wireless card?

Open the file the error is in go to that line a check it. That maybe the
whole problem.

Another thing to try is to stop your ethenet card. Use ifconfig eth0 down
as root. This has been a problem from time to time for others.

HTH

Bigpaws

[mick12345678]

driver is downloaded from the manufacturer's site.

Line 720 didnt reveal much (can't post the output as my Linux pc is now offline - see below )

Another thing to try is to stop your ethenet card. Use ifconfig eth0 down
as root. This has been a problem from time to time for others.

did that. I then repeated previous stuff and 'ifconfig' shows the card (it might have shown it before - I never thought to check). BUT - still no light on the dongle, and scan still fails (my wireless router is 3 feet away).
My eth0 won't come back up now but I doubt that this is related - I think the card may be temperamental.

[bigpaws]

Have you tried lsmod to see if the right driver got loaded?

Bigpaws

[mick12345678]

Have you tried lsmod to see if the right driver got loaded?

not sure what to look for in the lsmod output..can't see anything there about 'net111' or 'wlan' 

Just looked a bit closer on the Ndiswrapper site, and they say to use the W98 driver not the XP one so I will try again 

Update - tried the W98 from release 2.0.1, but exactly same result as before 
update 2 - tried the W98 from release 1.3.0, and now 'scan' reports my router (the light is still off on the dongle - maybe it only comes on when transmitting ?).
update 3 - can't connect to AP however. Tried WindowsME driver from 1.3.0 with same result as last time.
Turned all security off, and tried both DHCP and static but no luck 
update 4 - connected ! Turned off all encryption and using DHCP ok  . Now to see if I can get security to work  ..
update 5 - connected using WEP  . I did need a reboot to make this work though. Also, WIFI Radar seems a bit flaky e.g. 'disconnect' doesn't always work.