Help installing driver for Netgear wirless usb adapter

[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]

[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: [Select]

sudo apt-get remove firmware-b43-installer firmware-b43legacy-installer bcmwl-kernel-source
And then this:

Code: [Select]

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]

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

[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-802-11n-usb-wi-fi-adapter/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

[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-802-11n-usb-wi-fi-adapter/2432682.p.

[Miker107]

OK, so I've tried various distributions over the last couple of weeks and can't seem to get things going. I've just downloaded LL 2.0 and will give it a shot this evening when I get home. Haven't given up yet. I had installed crunchbang to give it a try, and although I liked it very much, just couldn't get it connected either. Played around with Elementary os, but I prefer to be able to scroll through a menu being a windows guy. Anyway, I'll give LL another shot, but may end up going back to mint if it doesn't work with my wireless, or bring this usb adapter back to best buy and try another one.

[Miker107]

Good morning Scott, I'm currently in the process of installing the very latest version I downloaded from the LL site:

Linux Lite 1.0.8 'Amethyst' 32bit - 16th January, 2014
32bit_linux_lite
FILENAME:linux-lite-1.0.8-32bit.iso

I'm installing from a usb stick. I will give ndiswrapper one more shot using the instructions from the link in gold finger's post. I'll see if that works then jump over to 2.0 beta if it doesn't work.

[Scott]

Hi Miker107. What version of LL are you using? If you have the time/desire maybe give the LL 2.0 beta a try? Here's a link to all the info, system requirements, and download links.
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/index.php?topic=343.0

[Miker107]

Hey gold finger, thanks for the info my friend. I'll have to get back on this tomorrow morning, getting tired now. I had just installed elementary over LL and updated the Nvidia driver. When I tried to reboot it booted to a text screen. Now I can't get to elementary's desktop.  I found out that it's due to 2 Nvidia drivers installed over one another or some such thing. Now I need to start over.

I have several computers here, 2 laptops with windows 7, and a brand new all in one with windows 8.1 on it. I just wanted to keep this old desktop I had because it's still in good shape, so decided to try linux on it. Mint worked pretty well, and I got the wireless usb to work on it. I sure like LL though, so I might try a fresh install of it in the am. I hate to give up on it. I would like to set it up in my home theater connected to my big screen tv so the kids can play some games on it, and maybe do a bit of video editing. I'll get back on this in the am.

[gold_finger]

Miker107,

I've got no experience with using ndiswrapper myself, but found this link that might help you:  http://faq.apollo3.com/ljames/ubuntu/networksupport/.

The link says person used WINE to get at the drivers.  I also have zero experience with WINE, so can't help with that either.  My thought is that if you have a Windows computer handy, maybe you can run the setup it talks about on that instead of installing WINE to Linux.  Then, just copy the file you need from there to a USB stick and transfer it to LL.  Then continue on with instructions.  But, I'm only guessing that you can do that -- I have zero experience with any of this.

Maybe someone else with experience can look at procedure and offer more pointers.

If all else fails, you could get a different USB wifi stick that does work.  Here are a few of models that should work fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166056
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166068
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166055

You can check out other models on the site, click the customer reviews tab, then filter results for keyword "linux" to see what people say about them.  You can use this info to buy one wherever you want -- not trying to push Newegg.  I have used similar models of brand I pointed out in links above and had no problems with them.  (I think mine are older models of the second link.)

[Miker107]

OK, just tried it and rebooted several times, but still nothing. Now I notice that you are using a WNDA4100 where as I'm using a 3100, and I was also using a Broadcom driver as well. Maybe it's a driver compatibility issue here.

I don't know what else to try. I tried reinstalling ndiswrapper and installing the broadcom driver again to no avail. I still get the message "Module could not be loaded. Error was: FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found. Is the ndiswrapper module installed?

Well, I hate to do it, but I'm currently installing Elementary over linux lite to see if I can get that to work. That was my next choice, if it doesn't work I'll probably put LL back on and keep it hard wired.

[Jerry]

So you are saying I should start by inserting the line "sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential" into the terminal and go from there correct? I'm obviously new to all this so I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.

Yes, that is correct. Make the first line: sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential git
I missed out the git part since it is not shipped with Linux Lite.

Oh, by the way, do I even need ndiswrapper at all for this? I did a complete uninstall of it last night, thinking I will start with a fresh install if needed.

You won't need ndiswrapper, just the instructions in the link. There is no guarantee this will work, I noticed that the module had the same name, so thought it would be worth a shot. Cheers.

[Miker107]

Thanks Valtam, I will check that link out as soon as I get home from work this afternoon. I would like to get this resolved so I can keep this wonderful OS going. Out of all the distro's I've tried in the last couple of weeks, including Ubuntu and mint, LL is my favorite. Thanks for the help and I'll be back.

OK, so I checked out that link real quick. So you are saying I should start by inserting the line "sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential" into the terminal and go from there correct? I'm obviously new to all this so I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.

Oh, by the way, do I even need ndiswrapper at all for this? I did a complete uninstall of it last night, thinking I will start with a fresh install if needed.

[Jerry]

Welcome Mike, this could turn out to be a good coincidence, I battled with this module for days before getting it to work.
Try this link here from one of my github accounts - https://github.com/valtam/netgear_wnda4100_ubuntu
It looks like module is the same. Start at the second line of those instructions.

[Miker107]

Good afternoon linux guru's,
I'm a brand new 2 week old babe to linux, so i need some guidance please. About 2 weeks ago I installed Mint 16 cinnamon on an old Dell Dimension-8300 I had laying around the house that had XP on it. I was experiencing some hang ups and freezes with that system so after doing a little research and decided to give linux lite a try. I love this OS to death and will keep it, but I'm having trouble configuring my wireless USB adapter. I managed to get it working on Mint 16 after some trial and error, but I can't seem to get it to work in LL.
I installed ndiswapper through synaptic (think that's what its called) and was able to get the driver installed, but I'm getting Fatal, module not found error after install, and I can't seem to get it configured to even view wireless networks available to select my router. All this worked just fine in Mint, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
The wireless adapter I'm using is a Netgear N600, model WMDA3100v2. Any help would be appreciated.
Mike