Problem with ndiswrapper and Realtek RTL8187b wifi.

[gamfa]

I have been trying to get this pup working on 5.8 and 5.9 with ndiswrapper and the Win98 driver as recommended in a post on another forum. When I issue "ndiswrapper -i" command to load the .inf file per the how-to, it installs but can't find the device. When I use "ndiswrapper -a prodi:venid xxx.inf" I get error messages.

Code:

root:# ls
RTL8187B/  boot/  etc/   initrd/  media/  opt/   root/  sys/  usr/
bin/       dev/   home/  lib/     mnt/    proc/  sbin/  tmp/  var/
home://
root:# cd RTL8187B/
home://RTL8187B
root:# ls
VistaX64/  VistaX86/  Win2000/  Win98/  WinME/  WinXP/  X64/
home://RTL8187B
root:# cd Win98
home://RTL8187B/Win98
root:#  ls
net8187b.inf  rtl8187B.sys
home://RTL8187B/Win98
root:# lsusb
Bus 2 Device 2: ID 1199:6812 Sierra Wireless, Inc.
Bus 2 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
Bus 5 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
Bus 4 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
Bus 3 Device 2: ID 046d:c50e Logitech, Inc. MX-1000 Cordless Mouse Receiver
Bus 3 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
Bus 1 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
Bus 1 Device 4: ID 0bda:8197 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 6 Device 1: ID 0000:0000
home://RTL8187B/Win98
root:# ndiswrapper -a 0bda:8197 net8187b.inf
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper/net8187b.inf/: Not a directory
driver 'net8187b.inf' is not installed (properly)!
home://RTL8187B/Win98
root:#

Any suggestions?

[M0E-lnx]

If it still can't find the device after you installed the driver, then I would suggest using a different driver.

[newt]

The couple times I've played with ndiswrapper and wireless devices I've found the wxp drivers to work properly but, as usual, your milage may vary.

[bigpaws]

I see a problem here:

root:# ls
RTL8187B/  boot/  etc/   initrd/  media/  opt/   root/  sys/  usr/
bin/       dev/   home/  lib/     mnt/    proc/  sbin/  tmp/  var/

Your driver should be under /etc/ndiswrapper not in its'
own directory.

Move to inf file to that directory and you should then be able
to modprobe it.

Bigpaws

[GrannyGeek]

I see a problem here:

root:# ls
RTL8187B/  boot/  etc/   initrd/  media/  opt/   root/  sys/  usr/
bin/       dev/   home/  lib/     mnt/    proc/  sbin/  tmp/  var/

Your driver should be under /etc/ndiswrapper not in its'
own directory.

Move to inf file to that directory and you should then be able
to modprobe it.

My experience does not confirm this. You don't have to put the driver in /etc. If you're using ndiswrapper from the command line, you navigate to the directory where the Windows driver is. Then as root in that directory you run ndiswrapper -i drivername.inf. After you do this, a subdirectory for your driver files should be created in /etc/ndiswrapper. ndiswrapper does this; you don't. In the new subdirectory for your driver, you should see the same .inf and .sys files that were in the directory in which you ran ndiswrapper -i drivername.inf.

So the Windows .inf and .sys files needed by ndiswrapper can be anywhere--on a shared Windows drive, on a floppy disk, on a removable hard drive, on a flash drive, anywhere. ndiswrapper itself will copy them to the correct place in /etc/ndiswrapper.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

I have been trying to get this pup working on 5.8 and 5.9 with ndiswrapper and the Win98 driver as recommended in a post on another forum.

I can't find the documentation at the moment to confirm this, but I'm 95% sure that Ndiswrapper itself recommends trying the Windows XP driver first, then the Windows 2000 driver, and then the Win 98 driver. I'm using the XP driver with ndiswrapper for my Realtek 8185 wireless.
--GrannyGeek

[gamfa]

Thanks for the advice...I hope to get back to this tonight. I had downloaded the Win drivers for this card from Realtek and the package has files for VistaX64, VistaX86, Win2000, Win98, WinME, WinXP, and X64 in the package. I also have XP loaded to sda1 on this lappy so I do have a choice or drivers

[M0E-lnx]

looks to me like you had the driver all along, but as someone pointed out earlier (and I missed on my first post), The installation did not go well for some reason (unless you un-zipped the drivers into /).

But if after you do ndiswrapper -i <driver> and the do ndiswrapper -l and you still dont see the device listed, that's a sign that you have a problem... time to try another driver

[MikeCindi]

Do you have the correct driver? When I use lsusb to check for my wireless (which uses RTL8187b too) it indicates the rtl8187b. Your output did not.

[gamfa]

I got back to this last night and a thought came to mind. I had tried all the drivers for this device included in the Realtek driver package but there was still one driver I had not tried. I have XP installed on the sda1 partition but had not tried that driver because I assumed it was the same as the one in the driver package. WRONG!!! I hunted up the driver on that partition and checked the size of that .inf to the one from the driver package. The one installed in XP is 120 bytes smaller. I copied the files to VL and tried the -a qualifer and got the same error. Tried the -i qualifier and it installed as the others did but when I did the list I had the blessed "device present" message. BINGO!!! I compared the two .inf file and the only difference I can see is the one directly from Realtek gives two different product id's for the same device where the one installed in XP, which came through Toshiba, lists only one product id.

Do you have the correct driver? When I use lsusb to check for my wireless (which uses RTL8187b too) it indicates the rtl8187b. Your output did not.

I had checked and double checked the model. I also tend to rely on cat /proc/bus/usb/devices a lot since lsusb relies on the usbids file. You must have a more up to date ids file than that delivered with 5.9

The cat command gave me this....

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=05 Cnt=01 Dev#=  4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0bda ProdID=8197 Rev= 2.00
S:  Manufacturer=Manufacturer_Realtek
S:  Product=RTL8187B_WLAN_Adapter
S:  SerialNumber=00e04c000001
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=500mA
I:* If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 9 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=ndiswrapper
E:  Ad=83(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=04(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=05(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=06(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=07(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=89(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=0a(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=0b(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=0c(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

Now, I need to learn how to configure the pup.