Help installing driver for Netgear wirless usb adapter

[gold_finger]

Just did quick look at Best Buys website.  If store has this one in stock, it should work in Linux without issue from what I've read:  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-ieee-80.../2432682.p.

[Miker107]

Just did quick look at Best Buys website.  If store has this one in stock, it should work in Linux without issue from what I've read:  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-ieee-80.../2432682.p.

Thanks gold finger, you've been most helpful to me my friend. I will check that out for sure. I'm currently writing this from the Linux Lite 2.0 DVD image I just burned. It works beautifully on my HP Envy laptop (from the DVD image). This new version is gorgeous, very nice work guys. I'm getting ready to run over and install this on my old Dell. If I can't get it to work I'll run over to Best Buy and trade this wireless adapter in for another. It's a shame because it worked so well with Mint, good signal strength. Anyway, I'll keep you informed. Signing off now.  ire

[Miker107]

So, I have a fresh install of LL 2.0, connected via Ethernet and ran post updates. i also installed the Broadcom packages from synaptic, but now I don't know how to use the installer to get drivers. LOL
I have the driver files that I used to get this thing working in Mint, but I had used ndiswrapper for this. Is there a procedure that I can use in terminal to get the driver installed? Total newb here. lol

[N4RPS]

Hello!

Looking briefly on the Web, it would seem that the WMDA3100 uses the wl driver. However, the procedure *I* saw was written four years ago. A lot has changed for the better in the world of Ubuntu since then.

These days, ndiswrapper should only be used as an absolute last resort. Besides, the Broadcom drivers are now quite well  supported in Ubuntu.

Try removing any previous Broadcom drivers you may have installed before now, as trying to use more than one at a time will DEFINITELY cause problems for you!

In a terminal window, try this:

Code:

sudo apt-get remove firmware-b43-installer firmware-b43legacy-installer bcmwl-kernel-source

And then this:

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree bcmwl-kernel-source

Reboot, and your adapter should now be recognized. If not, we'll get some specifics about exactly what chipset your wireless dongle is using, and go from there...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[Miker107]

Thank you Rob for your assistance. I tried your suggestion this morning real quick just before I left for work, however upon reboot nothing has changed. It is a fresh install so I haven't installed the driver yet, just the broadcom package (b43 installer and all that stuff) from the synaptic software manager. If we can't get it to work in the next day or 2 I will return this adapter and replace it with something that will hopefully work. I see from searching around that a lot of people are having trouble with bcm4323. As I say, it's strange that I got it working in linux mint. Don't ask me how, i just got it working with ndiswrapper. But last few distros I've tried hasn't worked with ndiswrapper and I keep getting the module not found error message when I try to use it, that's why I'm trying to keep from using it.

lsusb command comes up with:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0846:9011 NetGear, Inc. WNDA3100v2 802.11abgn [Broadcom BCM4323]

[Departure]

I have both WNDA3100 and a WNDA4100, the WNDA4100 only needs new kernel to work correctly I think it was kernel 3.12 or 3.13 and should work out of the box, the WNDA3100 you need to use the wrapper in linux with the windows XP driver .ini file for WNDA3100 making sure you use the correct architecture e.g 32bit or 64bit drivers needs to be the same on your linux system, There is also a firmware and driver called "ar9170" but has since been merged with "carl9170" if you decide the wrapper isn't working for you then take a look here http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170  the driver already comes with linux kernel 2.6 and higher, but you will need to install the carl9170 firmware to get your device working


//Edit
I just realized you are using version 2 of the device, this means wrapper is your only solution, here is the drivers you need http://av3ngr.wikispaces.com/file/view/0846_9011.tar.gz  install the one corresponding to the architecture of your linux system eg. 32bit or 64bit

here is a tutorial for ndiswrapper incase you have problems, use this tutorial with the drivers in the link above and you should be good to go.


P.s
If you get it working to that stage and see your network but can not connect you need to change the WPA2 login encryption on your router to something else e.g WPA, I noticed on my WNDA3100 I needed to do this to get it working on my router

[N4RPS]

Hello!

From what I've seen, the BCM4323 is, indeed, a 'strange animal' - one that requires ndiswrapper to work. It's a pretty safe bet that you will have to uninstall any other Broadcom drivers you may have installed first, before using ndiswrapper to install the windows driver for this dongle.

Thanks to all of you for your input!

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[Miker107]

I have both WNDA3100 and a WNDA4100, the WNDA4100 only needs new kernel to work correctly I think it was kernel 3.12 or 3.13 and should work out of the box, the WNDA3100 you need to use the wrapper in linux with the windows XP driver .ini file for WNDA3100 making sure you use the correct architecture e.g 32bit or 64bit drivers needs to be the same on your linux system, There is also a firmware and driver called "ar9170" but has since been merged with "carl9170" if you decide the wrapper isn't working for you then take a look here http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170  the driver already comes with linux kernel 2.6 and higher, but you will need to install the carl9170 firmware to get your device working


//Edit
I just realized you are using version 2 of the device, this means wrapper is your only solution, here is the drivers you need http://av3ngr.wikispaces.com/file/view/0846_9011.tar.gz  install the one corresponding to the architecture of your linux system eg. 32bit or 64bit

here is a tutorial for ndiswrapper incase you have problems, use this tutorial with the drivers in the link above and you should be good to go.


P.s
If you get it working to that stage and see your network but can not connect you need to change the WPA2 login encryption on your router to something else e.g WPA, I noticed on my WNDA3100 I needed to do this to get it working on my router

Departure, thank you my friend, and to all of you who contributed to this thank you all, I'm currently on line using my wireless connection. I installed ndiswrapper using the terminal with the command "sudo apt-get install ndisgtk" and proceeded to install the drivers with the ndiswrapper tool and it finally worked. Now I can begin to use and learn this wonderful OS. Thanks again everyone.

Mike

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I'm glad you finally got it to work for you. If you could describe what you had to do in detail, it could perhaps help the next person who comes along with a similar issue...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[Miker107]

Hello!

I'm glad you finally got it to work for you. If you could describe what you had to do in detail, it could perhaps help the next person who comes along with a similar issue...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

Excellent Rob, you are so right, I'm at work now, but when I get home this afternoon I will come back in to this post and give that information. I'll be back later today.

Ok guys I'm back, so here it is in a nutshell, I'll try to be concise here. It was very quick and only took a couple of minutes, so here are the steps I took:

1. Downloaded the drivers from the link provided by Departure in his post above (Thanks again Departure). Here is the link again just in case: http://av3ngr.wikispaces.com/file/view/0846_9011.tar.gz  I left them in my downloads folder by default, I was too much in a rush to create one in my home folder. Impatient I guess.

2. Open the terminal and type the following command, then hit enter to install the ndiswrapper package: sudo apt-get install ndisgtk This will install everything needed for ndiswrapper to run.

3. Open ndiswrapper by clicking on Menu/System/Windows Wireless Drivers. This will open the tool that will install the driver. Click on the "Install New Driver" tab and browse to your folder where the driver is located. Select the 32bit or 64bit driver depending upon your system architecture, and click on the "Install" tab. This took only a second or two, it was installed quickly without any problems.

4. At this point, although the driver was installed, my device was not plugged in yet, so the status in the window read, Hardware present: No. So I plugged it in once and I noticed the yellow indicator light on my adapter didn't come on, so I removed it and plugged it in a second time. Not only did the light come on, I noticed my wired connection symbol on the panel in the bottom right corner suddenly change from a wired symbol to wireless symbol. I clicked on it and there were my list of networks to choose from.

5. I selected my router from the list, typed in the password to my router and there you have it, connection established.


That was it, worked like a charm, hope this helps someone.

Mike