WIreless question

[gregg_a_g]

I've got a Netgear WNA3100 wireless USB adapter [Broadcom BCM43232].  As far as I have been able to determine, the only drivers available are from Windows.

On boot I use /opt/bootsync.sh with the following lines:

#!/bin/sh
# put other system startup commands here, the boot process will wait until they complete.
# Use bootlocal.sh for system startup commands that can run in the background
# and therefore not slow down the boot process.
/usr/bin/sethostname box
modprobe ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper -i /opt/mybootstuff/bcmn43xx32.inf
wpa_passphrase "myessid" mypassword > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
iwconfig wlan1 essid "myessid"
ifconfig wlan1 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0
/opt/bootlocal.sh &

I think I have the right commands, but it doesn't look like the adapter is "recognized" on boot.
What I mean is that if I look at dmesg just after boot, I don't see that the adapter was recognized or registered.  If I unplug the adapter and then replug, dmesg shows the adapter registered and recognized. 

Am I just not doing something in the right order?  It seems I need to get the drivers installed at the beginning of the boot in so that the adapter is recognized in time during the boot.

Once I get logged I get everything working fine, but I'd like everthing to be working once the machine boots.

Any ideas?



 Wireless-N 300 [Broadcom BCM43231]

[Rich]

Hi gregg_a_g
I don't know if USB based peripherals need this, but have you tried with the boot code   waitusb=5

[Juanito]

Did you try this:

Note: you can now make an extension out of everything in
                .. /etc/ndiswrapper and use it with the ndiswrapper extension
                ..to avoid having to use the perl5 extension

..instead of using the ndiswrapper command (not sure if it would help)?

[coreplayer2]

If this is the same model as listed here,  http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:list_of_supported_wifi_devices


I'd remove all those entries from bootsync and then
you'll need the wifi.tgz and ndiswrapper.tgz   make an extension with the windows drivers and you should have great success with this device, use wifi utility to connect to your network.

I've used the above device with this procedure and liked the results, are you sure it is a broadcom?  use  lsusb  to verify

[gregg_a_g]

Just to be clear, the WNA3100 works fine.  The issue I'm having is getting the machine to recognize the USB device during boot so that everything is set up upon completion of the boot process. 

I think I'll try making an extension with most of the commands in the tce.installed/myextension script.  Maybe that will get loaded soon enough in the boot process so that the device is recognized. 

I think the problem really is that "ndiswrapper -i bcmn43xx32.inf" has to happen before the USB hub polls the attached devices, otherwise it fails (and then I simply have to unplug and replug the adapter to get it recognized).

[gregg_a_g]

Hi, Juanito -  So far no success without having to "unplug and replug" the adapter after boot.  I looked at another one of your posts re: making an extension out of everything in /etc/ndiswrapper, but I guess I don't understand. 

Do you mean after I have everything working I should make an extension like:

mksquashfs etc/ndiswrapper my-ndiswrapper.tcz?  And then use my-ndiswrapper.tcz instead of ndiswrapper.tcz? 

Maybe it's not possible to load the driver early enough in the boot process? 

[Juanito]

The command "ndiswrapper -i bcmn43xx32.inf" is basically using perl to cut code out of bcmn43xx32.inf and place it in /etc/ndiswrapper.

"mksquashfs etc/ndiswrapper my-ndiswrapper.tcz" would make an extension of this code so there would be no  need to run the command again and no need of perl in the ndiswrapper dep file.

Note that you would still need to load ndiswrapper and my-ndiswrapper "onboot"

[floppy]

I made working a USB Wlan here http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,8001.msg43118.html#msg43118
Commands were putted into bootlocal.sh.
Any question? (the method can be simplified; but should be a solid start point)

[gregg_a_g]

Hi, Juanito & Floppy.  Thanks for your help!

My WNA3100 is now working at the end of boot!

I moved "modprobe ndiswrapper" after "ndiswapper -i bcmn43xx32.inf" and that fixed my problem.

I'll try making the extension (per Juanito's advice) and see if I have the same result. 

I guess when the ndiswrapper module is inserted into the kernel, the stuff in /etc/ndiswrapper needs to already be there!  When you said that "ndiswrapper -i bcmn43xx32.inf" was basically snipping code from the .inf and moving it to /etc/ndiswrapper the "light came on for me". 

I thought the ndiswrapper module had to be loaded before I could "insert the driver", but it was the other way around!