WiFi - Cn't get WPA or WEP to work.

I must have spent twenty+ hours on this - reading and actioning the various stickys in this forum as well as across the Internet. It's driving me crazy!

The wireless PCI card I'm using is a US Robotics 805416 card, listed in the ndiswrapper wiki as compatible. In my many efforts to solve this I have used both the netgear and the usr drivers suggested in that article.

The card works (after updating ndiswrapper), is recognised within Zorin Lite, and sees all available WiFi access points within range. It just won't connect to any of them if password protected.

If connecting via Network Connections it gets into a loop of requesting authorisation to connect followed shortly thereafter by requesting the passkey.

If I try connecting with Network Manager it displays a 'validating' status bar message before ending with a 'bad password' failure.

I've gone through so many 'solutions' that worked for others but none have solved my issue. The mere sight of the command 'wpa_supplicant' now fills me with an urge to break something

Yet the problem does seem to centre around the security access. If I set my hub (a third generation British Telecom Hub (BTHub3)) protection to None then the card connects instantly.

Anyone else have suggestions to either solve, or at least diagnose the cause this problem.

For starters, could you please post the outcome of the following commands:

Code:

lspci
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

Hi,

see also here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo

The section about "Password Nagging".

Regards Wolfman

Another thing I noticed is that the wiki says that your card supports WPA-PSK+TKIP.

Make sure that you have set the security to WPA-PSK and not to WPA2.

Also, have you installed the latest ndiswrapper?

madvinegar wrote:For starters, could you please post the outcome of the following commands:

I'm not sure of the protocols here - do you prefer listings in the message body or as attachments? I've gone for message body, let me know if you prefer attachments.

Code:

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 645xx (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] LPC Controller (rev 14)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2/3 SMBus controller
00:02.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] FireWire Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 IDE Controller
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:07.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]
01:00.1 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV350 AR [Radeon 9600] (Secondary)

Code:

sudo lshw -c network
  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet
       vendor: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
       physical id: 4
       bus info: pci@0000:00:04.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 91
       serial: 00:10:dc:ee:fe:fc
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sis900 driverversion=v1.08.10 Apr. 2 2006 duplex=full latency=32 link=yes maxlatency=11 mingnt=52 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:19 ioport:bc00(size=256) memory:e8145000-e8145fff memory:20020000-2003ffff
  *-network:1 DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
       vendor: Texas Instruments
       physical id: 7
       bus info: pci@0000:00:07.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 00
       serial: 00:c0:49:cb:ce:5c
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper+usr11g driverversion=1.57+U.S. Robotics,06/28/2004,6. latency=32 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
       resources: irq:18 memory:e8140000-e8141fff memory:e8120000-e813ffff



I'm intrigued by the line " *-network:1 DISABLED" in the above output.

Code:

sudo rfkill list all
Did not list anything at all


madvinegar wrote:Another thing I noticed is that the wiki says that your card supports WPA-PSK+TKIP.

Make sure that you have set the security to WPA-PSK and not to WPA2.

I think I have it right, the Hub offers a selection covering both standards. Here are a couple of images. The first is the Hub setting, the second the Network Connection setting:

madvinegar wrote:Also, have you installed the latest ndiswrapper?

I think so.

Exactly. It shouldn't say "Network disabled".
However, even if it says "disabled" you advised that the wifi works without any problem (apart from the security problem), meaning that you can see available networks and connect to them if there is no security.

Have you tried setting the security of the hub to just "WPA only"?

Also, you could try installing ndiswrapper 1.58rc1. It is the latest one (still an rc version) but works just fine (I have it installed for a pcmcia wireless card as it was the only way I could get this card working, and I don't have any problem). You may see that it works better for you (especially in the security problem you are facing).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/files/

Finally please also post the result of

lspci -nn

as I have found this...: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... ver/acx111

From where did you find the drivers you are using for the card? Do you have the windows CD of the drivers? If yes, this can be extremely helpful so as to extract the exact drivers needed for the card to work. I can tell you how to do it via "wine".

Wolfman wrote:see also here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo
The section about "Password Nagging".

Thanks for the link, but I don't see how to do what it says. I don't have a 'System --> Preferences --> Passwords and Encryption Keys'. In fact System and Preferences are two different itens in the ZOS Lite menu. There is a 'Preferences> Password' item, but nothing about Encyption and Keyrings (although the graphic in its dialog box is a keyring). I did try in the password dialog to set a blank password but it gives an error. It probably doesn't help that I don't understand the concept of keyrings and where to manage them.

Frustratingly this password nagging is pretty much continuous, popping up about once a minute, so I really need to get shot of it. Heres hoping you can provide further advie.

I'm getting really stressed over this - 'three steps forward, two steps back' (although I feel I may have that back-to-front )

Still, I wanted to learn more about Linux and I think I learn better from working through problems (although this one is really getting me down !!)

madvinegar wrote:Exactly. It shouldn't say "Network disabled".
However, even if it says "disabled" you advised that the wifi works without any problem (apart from the security problem), meaning that you can see available networks and connect to them if there is no security.

Correct

madvinegar wrote:Have you tried setting the security of the hub to just "WPA only"?

I thought that you had solved it for me then. Switching to just WPA gave me a connection. But .... then I noticed that in switching to it in the hub manager the passkey was blanked. So essentially unprotected access.

madvinegar wrote:Also, you could try installing ndiswrapper 1.58rc1.

I'm doing something wrong. I downloaded the RC1, extracted the contents to a folder and ran 'make INSTALL' as root. It did its stuff. But after completion (and a reboot) 'ndiswrapper -v' still shows 1.57. How should I install it?

madvinegar wrote:Finally please also post the result of lspci -nn as I have found this...: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... ver/acx111

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 645xx [1039:0648] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202 [1039:0002]
00:02.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] LPC Controller [1039:0963] (rev 14)
00:02.1 SMBus [0c05]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2/3 SMBus controller [1039:0016]
00:02.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] FireWire Controller [1039:7007]
00:02.5 IDE interface [0101]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 IDE Controller [1039:5513]
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 AC'97 Sound Controller [1039:7012] (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB controller [0c03]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller [1039:7001] (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB controller [0c03]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller [1039:7001] (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB controller [0c03]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller [1039:7001] (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB controller [0c03]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller [1039:7002]
00:04.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet [1039:0900] (rev 91)
00:07.0 Network controller [0280]: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface [104c:9066]
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 [13f6:0111] (rev 10)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV350 AR [Radeon 9600] [1002:4152]
01:00.1 Display controller [0380]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV350 AR [Radeon 9600] (Secondary) [1002:4172]

madvinegar wrote:From where did you find the drivers you are using for the card? Do you have the windows CD of the drivers? If yes, this can be extremely helpful so as to extract the exact drivers needed for the card to work. I can tell you how to do it via "wine".

I'm using the last released drivers by USR from my Windows partition. They works fine with the BT Hub. Annoyingly the windows installation .exe encapsulates the actual files in Microsofts weird .CAB format that none of my archival software can open. However I'm reasonably confident I have the right ones as I tracked them down from the contents of USR11G.inf.

Also interested in your note re 'wine' as that's soemthing I want to learn about as I continue my Linux experiments.

swarfendor437 wrote:When you installed Zorin Lite did it ask for a keyring password/wallet password at all? If it did the best solution is to cancel - if you ever entered a password just to get rid of the nag screen it would be that one..

I had to enter a user password during Zorin installation but I didn't get anything about 'keyring' until I started to work with the WiFi card. I set it to the same as my login password.

I have the MAC information and will see if that makes any difference.

Searching for more info, it does seem that these Texas ACX111 are problematic. One post suggested running dmesg to see if the card is recognised. It obviously is 'cos it sees my network but these lines in the output intrigued me:

Code:

[   23.311758] ndiswrapper version 1.57 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
[   23.320191] device-mapper: multipath: version 1.3.0 loaded
[   23.536599] intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 52686 usecs (2535 samples)
[   23.536607] intel8x0: clocking to 48000
[   23.633718] ndiswrapper: driver usr11g (U.S. Robotics,06/28/2004,6.0.1.6) loaded
[   23.634132] ndiswrapper 0000:00:07.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ

and

Code:

[   26.049325] ndiswrapper: using IRQ 18
[   26.287612] wlan0: ethernet device 00:c0:49:cb:ce:5c using NDIS driver: usr11g, version: 0x5000200, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'TNET1130', 104C:9066.5.conf
[   26.287797] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA
[   26.288416] snd_cmipci 0000:00:08.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   26.387389] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
[   26.526830] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   26.527673] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready


Not sure if this helps or hinders though

swarfendor437 wrote:Hi Neale, I'm sure madvinegar posted that you should (or somewhere else) upgrade to the latest ndiswrapper which is 1.8 something if memory serves me correctly.

Yes, he suggested ndiswrapper 1.58rc1 but I don't know how to install it. I extracted it and ran 'make install' as root and it did a load of stuff, but the active version didn't change.

How exactly should I install it to make it overwrite the old version?

Hi Neale,

use the version that is in the repo which won't stress you out!!.

Also, take a look here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... diswrapper

Are you sure its not just a case of missing firmware which you might be able to copy to the lib/firmware folder from the driver CD (as root!!)??. Did you have it working on other Linux versions??.

Regards Wolfman

What you describe as 'firmware' is that what I would call 'drivers' in Windows? I'm using the very latest drivers for the cards in my Windows system and those are the drivers that I'm pointing ZOS to in the 'windows wireless drivers' command.

I have another ancient PC with the same card and it is the same - Works perfectly in Windows, sees the network but won't connect in ZOS.

Is there a Linux equivalent of the Windows 'Device Manager'?

Hi Neale,

do us a favour and make a screenshot of the contents of the driver folder on your Windows driver CD, I mean the one that has the network drivers in it, for XP and Vista too if you have them!!.

I hope you understand what I mean.

Regards Wolfman

Also make sure that the packages below are installed (via synaptics)
ndiswrapper-source
ndiswrapper-dkms
ndiswrapper-common
ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

• in the image below you can see that ndiswrapper is at 1.9, but described as 1.57-1ubuntu1. I've downloaded ndiswrapper-1.58rc1.tar.gz you recommended earlier but being a newbie here I don't lnow how to install it. I tried 'make install' and it did stuff, but it still shows 1.57 in Synaptics. What's the correct way to install a tar.gz file?
• I don't have the ndiswrapper-source installed but I'll add that now.

If I remember correctly, when you extract the tar.gz file, there is a file inside it called "installation". It has instructions inside it on how to install it.

Here is the list of the drivers for the USR PCI WiFi card:



I have assembled these files from my Windows system as they are contained within an executable that includes .cab files that none of my archiving software can open



And here is a link to the drivers file visible i the previous image: http://www.usr.com/support/5410/5410-files/USR11g_v6.0b15.exe

Hi Neale,

okay; I am not going to say that this will work for you but you can try it, from your top pic, I can see 2 firmware (the ones that have an "FW" in front of them, "FwRad16.bin/FwRad17.bin") files, if you have more; you can copy and paste them too!!!!!.

Press Alt+F2 and type "gksudo nautilus" and enter your password.

Your home folder will open and you will be root, copy the 2 firmware files and then go to > File system > lib > firmware and paste the 2 files into that folder and then restart your PC the stick inserted, then if that doesn't work, try fully booting and then inserting the stick.

I hope it works!!. (Fingers crossed)

Regards Wolfman

I copied the FX*bin files to /lib/firmware. After rebooting I tried to install the.inf file, but this just produced an error message that said it was already installed.

I'm fearful now that from all my attempts to get these WiFi cards working there are file remnants now scattered within the file system

Hi Neale,

with the firmware in the lib/firmware folder, you shouldn't need to use "ndiswrapper" afaik!!!!!.

Try it again without trying ndiswrapper!!.

Regards Wolfman

No, that didn't work either. Across the web it seems that these ACX111 WiFi cards are bad news. Those willing to go commercial with linuxant report success. Other than that I've found only one other reported success and the guy that reported it couldn't remember how he did it

My health is not too great at the moment so I think I'll wait a while before trying this again. You've given me some great links to which I'll try to read through.

But, as I mentioned earlier, I've tried so many solutions I think I probably have remnants scattered across the file system in the form of configuration files, my compiled but not installed 1.58RC1 of the tools, directories with various driver file sources, etc ,,,

Other than a complete ZOS reinstall what can I do, if anything, to rollback my system to, say, last week?

PS: I really appreciate the help I'm receiving from you guys. I do a similar 'job' in the Adobe Premiere Elements support forum so I know how frustrating things can sometimes get with helping out newbies. So thanks for sticking with me through this/.

Hi Neale,

see also:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=324148

And post #13 here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... acx&page=2

Also:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885847

Hope it helps you further.

Regards Wolfman

I've come back to this today and spent hours and hours trying all the different suggestions. While I enjoy the intellectual challenge of getting to grips with new OSs there come a point when it is no longer fun. I'm past that point now and will give up trying to make the card work with WEP/WPA.

Thanks for your help guys. It's a real bummer as ZOS-Lite just looks perfect for giving a new lease of life to old equipment. Unfortunately it seems these TI ACX111 based cards are a dead loss.

A couple of interesting (annoying) side effects have also bugged me during my experiment but I'll create separate threads for those.

I tried booting it as a live CD and after it 'did its stuff' it left me at a command prompt. Is there a command needed to actually start the GUI?

Also, as it was booting, it showed as 'Ultimate Edition 3' - is this a different distro to Zorin?

3.4 requires a PC with 'PAE'. My ancient 512Mb PC does not support PAE so pretty much everything based on Ubuntu 12.04 and above won't work.

I've tried Bodhi as well but it doesn't see the wireless card. Bodhi has an interesting GUI that is very responsive but I'm unlikely to keep it on the PC as I'm looking for an environment closest to Windows XP or above. And of all the distributions I've tried (a) none of them work with my PCI wireless card and (b) Zorin Lite is the best fit.