Belkin Airgo Networks Inc AGN100

[GreyWizzard]

Just found a deal on a network router and notebook card that I didn't feel I could pass up (under $50 for both) and now I am searching for the correct drivers to get this up and working.

When I put the card in the slot on the laptop (Presario 2170US) and run the lspci, I get:

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS200/RS200M AGP Bridge [IGP 340M] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc PCI Bridge [IGP 340M]
00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation M5457 AC'97 Modem Controller
00:09.0 Communication controller: Conexant HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem (rev 01)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller
00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon IGP 330M/340M/350M
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Airgo Networks Inc AGN100 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card (rev 01)You will notice the network card is easily found on the bottom of the list.

I have done a bit of searching through the forums to see if anybody else has posted anything about this card and I find nothng. All I can see so far is that each person that lists a Belkin card seems to be looking at the ndiswrapper to make them work.

Rather than just throwing kernel-mods into the system at random, I wanted to see if anybody could point me to the information specifically for this particular card.

I do notice that the Airgo card is not listed in the Network Manager (which is a dissapointment) so I am sure that it isn't going to be one of those 'quick fixes' some people endlessly search for. I don't mind getting my hands dirty while setting this up, I just need to know which mud pit to start playing in :p

[GreyWizzard]

Well, the only package I can find that claims to be able to handle this card is the ndiswrapper.

I have Livna configured on my system, but when I try to install using yum, it wants to load a completely different kernel than the one that I have (it wants to put in an i686 when I have an i386 currently).

Of course, this fails miserably. I have even tried to specify the version of the packages to install using

yum install ndiswrapper.i386
but it still wants to put the i686 packages in...

It also wants to install a version of the kernel that is a full version behind the one that I currently have.

I could SURE use some assitance on this one if anybody would be nice enough to chime in...

[GreyWizzard]

OK, a few things have happened since the last post.

Thanks to this thread ( http://forum.fedoraforum.orldg/forum/showthread.php?t=135568 ) I have found out and resolved part of my issue. It seems as if I was a victum of a bug I wasn't even aware of and my kernel versions were off of what they shoud have been. I have now resolved that.

Now that this has been resolved, I have been able to install the ndiswrapper via yum and I have gotten the windoze INI file loaded as well.

modeprobe -a gives me no errors, lspci still shows my wireless card, all that looks good.
# ndiswrapper -l
installed drivers:
netani driver installed, hardware (17CB:0001) present
I obviously have the driver installed and it states that it can use the card.

However, when I do the modprobe ndiswrapper the whole system simply locks up solid and it requires a power off/power on to get anything happening again.

I will continue to search for the fix for this, but if anybody can offer a solution faster than I can find it myself, I would be VERY thankfull...

[GreyWizzard]

Per the informaton at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net it seems this may be caused by a limit of a 4k stack default built into the kernel. They offer some suggestions there and even point a person to another website that is suposed to have a fix, but I have loaded both the files that they have listed there and installed them one by one with no positive results.

I'm quickly running out of ideas here. The listed devices from the ndiswrapper site clearly have my card listed and everything goes well up until the modprobe command. From there, it seems to be a loosing battle at this point.

It is now 4:45 AM here and I am going to pack it in for the night. If ANYBODY has ANY light they can shed on this I would be EXTREMEMLY happy to hear it.

[GreyWizzard]

Still digging on how to get this done. I'm beginning to think that it may require a kernel recompile, but even that has been giving me issues (see the active thread on this in software!)

I have just found this on the subject and will be trying it out soon:
http://kulbirsaini.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/wireless-lan-in-fc6-with-level-one-wnc-0301/

More to follow on the success or failure of this as time progresses...

[GreyWizzard]

Wow, the number of brave souls that have taken the leap of faith to reply to this is completely underwhelming. I really expected more than this.

Oh well. I guess this will be my diary on how I get ti to work in the future. Yeah me! {insert sarcastic grin here}

As most of you will have figured out by now, the last link did no good. It is for the wrong chipset completely.

Moving on, I have found where FC6 has this default habit of sending info to the kernel in 4k stacks. Since most of the M$ drivers need it in 8k or (sometimes) even larger stacks, it looks like I will have to find an alternative. I am currently working on compiling a custom kernel.

I'm sure you can find that thread if you are interested in looking for it...

[GreyWizzard]

Not that I have any illusions of anybody watching this thread, but I have finally managed to get this card working on my FC6 home network. I have no idea if it will be portable to public places or not at this time, but I am much closer to that end than I was when I started this experiment.

The solution I had to use was to go get a kernel from http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads.php

Now, for those of you who will be looking on that site for the solution I used, be sure to read the info there closely. It is not quite so simple as clicking a link on the page you will end up on.

I personally had to follow the links to the Fedora Core 6 i686 page, then from there follow an obscure link in the NOTE paragraph to get the 16k kernel for my box. To me this seemed far from obvious the first time I was there, but I finally figured it out.

I brought down the kernel, the development files, and the source but most of you will not need the source code. I just have illusions of recompiling a more customized version later. Wish me luck??

After getting the kernel mentioned above installed and a quick reboot, I went back to the ndiswrapper site and followed their instructions to compile an RPM package using the new kernel and development files I had just acquired. I still have those and I am willing to upload them to someone's site if they are willing to host them for others. Otherwise, I can try to set up a way to send them to someone another way if you have no interest in compiling them yourself.

The rest of the experience has been rather textbook. I simply followed the instructions provided on the ndiswrapper WIKI.

I hope this information will be useful to someone in the future. I know it has been a heck of a journey for me. Unfortunately, the journey is most likely not over. Now I have to figure out how to use this in public places as well as on my private home network.

For now, I am simply happy to be sending this post over my newly active Belkin Airgo Wireless True MIMO card!! :)

[GreyWizzard]

Just a quick follow up since I noticed that many people have looked here even if they have not posted to the thread:

I have been successful in getting my home network setup and running at a full 108 Meg (no that is NOT a typo) with both MAC pairing and WEP encryption. It is a wonderful thing. Getting it to connect to either a public AP or a WPA protected network, however, is still a journey I have not completed (any pointers on that would be GREAT!).

If you go down the path I have taken, then I strongly suggest that you follow all the instructions on compiling the ndiswrapper to the letter UNTILL you get to the point of make installAt that point, I would strongly suggest that you go with make rpm instead since you will be updating your kernels on a fairly regular basis which will involve recompiling the ndiswrapper as well.

When you use the rpm route to do this, all you will have to do to update to the latest and greatest kernel and custom ndiswrapper for it is to:

1. Go back to the website mentioned above and get the latest 16k stack kernel along with the kernel headers (so you can compile for the new kernel version).

2. Install both the kernel and the headers

3. I have always rebooted at this point so that I am using the new kernel I just installed and the following has worked every time when I do, so you may wish to reboot as well.

4. Go back to your already set up compile environment for ndiswrapper and start with the make distcleanstep in the ndiswrapper compile instructions you used earlier, being sure to end with making the rpm, not the install.

5. Then you simply use rpm -Uvh kmod-ndiswrapper<verson_you_just_compiled>

After a quick reboot, you will be right back to surfing the wireless world again.


I have personally found this to be much easier than going through and uninstalling, recompiling, and reinstalling the entire thing.


Of course, this is just my opinion. You may think differently :p


If you do choose to use these instructions and find them helpful, boost my ego a bit and let me know. It would be nice to know that someone has gained something from this besides myself.

[M3PH]

well i've had a read thru what you have done and it looks great and it does have the makings of a howto. just one problem. if like me you have not internet connection and are trying to install with yum how the hell do you get it to force the install. i'm getting the following error;

[root@localhost meph]# yum localinstall --disablerepo=* -t driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Local Package Process
Examining driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm: driverloader - 2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686
Marking driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm to be installed
Setting up repositories
No Repositories Available to Set Up
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package driverloader.i686 0:2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

================================================== ===========================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ===========================
Installing:
driverloader i686 2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm 976 k

Transaction Summary
================================================== ===========================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 976 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 5dfbf7dc


Public key for driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm is not installed

after that i checked to see if it got installed and it hadn't. I really like what i have seen of fc up to this point but i am limited to just browsing round and clicking on icon and running random(ish) commands. you can't get anything done with no net connection!!

[GreyWizzard]

well i've had a read thru what you have done and it looks great and it does have the makings of a howto. just one problem. if like me you have not internet connection and are trying to install with yum how the hell do you get it to force the install. i'm getting the following error;

[root@localhost meph]# yum localinstall --disablerepo=* -t driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Local Package Process
Examining driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm: driverloader - 2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686
Marking driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm to be installed
Setting up repositories
No Repositories Available to Set Up
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package driverloader.i686 0:2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

================================================== ===========================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ===========================
Installing:
driverloader i686 2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm 976 k

Transaction Summary
================================================== ===========================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 976 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 5dfbf7dc


Public key for driverloader-2.35_k2.6.18_1.2798.fc6.stk16-1fdr.i686.rpm is not installed

after that i checked to see if it got installed and it hadn't. I really like what i have seen of fc up to this point but i am limited to just browsing round and clicking on icon and running random(ish) commands. you can't get anything done with no net connection!!
It seems as if you have fallen for the same misdirection I fell for the first time. Sorry I did not make it clear enough.

You do NOT want driverloader. What you want is actually on another page and it is a kernel with a 16k kernel stack. The actual page URL is http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads-fc6-kernel-i686.php but that is ONLY if you have the i686 kernel and not everybody will. This is why I did not want to include an exact link to the page.

After you get that kernel, the kernel headers, and the source (if you are into that whole custom kernel building thing, that is), install it, then you get the source code for ndiswrapper and make that according to instructions on their site (substituting the “make rpm” for “make install” if you wish).

I caution everybody to make sure they collect the correct kernel version (i386, i586, etc) for their system. Do NOT blindly follow the link I provided to the i686 if you do not use the i686 kernel on your system.

If this does not clear it up well for you, let me know and I will try again.

[M3PH]

excellent. cheers man. when i get some time to boot into fc i'll try it. One thing you could do is track down all the links and include them.

[GreyWizzard]

excellent. cheers man. when i get some time to boot into fc i'll try it. One thing you could do is track down all the links and include them.
If anybody convinces me to make this into a How To, I will probably consider doing just that.

For now, you are the only person brave enough to even post on this thread besides me! :p

Now we just wait to see if this gets you up and running. If so, we might move on to bigger and brighter things.

[M3PH]

well i'm in the middle of implementing it right now. i just had to reboot into suse so i could change the menu.lst so the new kernel boots. Oh and once i know it works ok i will be making a custom kernel. i know a few tricks that speed up any linux os

**EDIT**

it installed ok and ndiswrapper 1.17 compiled fine. i found it strange tho that /sbin and /usr/sbin are not in the root users path. all i have to do now is add the interface and install wpa supplicant. As when i scan for the router in kwifimanager it only seemed to show the networks running wep.

i prefer the if tools tho as i have heard many people have problems with kwifimanager over many distro's.

**EDIT2**

well here i am writting to you from FC6. i dunno if it will work on a reboot but atleast it works. just can't wait till i update the kernel tho. That will be fun.

[M3PH]

ok all went well. kernelnupdated when i installed the nvidia driver so i just d/led and installed the 16k stack version from the link provided a lil earlier in this thread.

I have a new problem now. I can't get the interface to load on startup. It is almost as if there is an issue with wpa_supplicant and running it as a service on startup. I need a fix for this coz all the typing i have to do everytime i reboot the machine is driving me mad.

**EDIT**

i have found a tempory solution for the start up issue. a good ol' bash script. it's dirty as hell and i would love to get the interface to load naticely but this will come with time and research (and possibly some help from the people here)

[GreyWizzard]

So you are telling me that my little home grown, know nothing, dirtier than mud instructions have managed to get your wireless network online after all the issues you had prior to this??

Congratulations on your success! Nice to know it didn't require the massive rewrites you were thinking it would. :D



Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go pass out in the corner from the shock of my instructions being helpful to anybody but myself... :p

[M3PH]

yeah they were helpful but it was more the link, coz the kernel was the main problem. I just need to figure out what is wrong with wpa supplicant and and find out if ndiswrapper and dhclient are loading on startup (coz atm i doesn't look like they are) and we'll be sorted

[M3PH]

just started looking intop the wpa supplicant issues (i was trying to improve the script i wrote) and discovered thqat the file that loads wpa in /etc/rc5.d is a sym link to the wpa_supplicant file in /etc/init.d/. That file is a very complex bash script that is calluing the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf (hope your following this coz i'm struggling, lol). If the wpa conf file is called from my script it works. If it's called by the script in /etc/init.d/ it doesn't and i don't get why.

i am also now pretty confident that ndiswrapper is loading on startup but dhclient isn't coz that is called by the network script in init.d and that is only called if it is requested by the network manager. well that's waht i think anyway (damn script is so complecated it's hard know if you have figured it out right)

i am starting to wonder tho that if i can't get the interface to load on start up if it's worth it. i mean so far i have found little difference to suse except for to set up ndiswrapper/wireless connections it doesn't take a months worth of research and then 3 days to implement it. but i have a feeling it may (this is ONLY a maybe) find a place in a server for my up start company.

[M3PH]

right well thanks to a friend on forums.suselinuxsupport.de i have the interface loading on startup. All i did was add

sh /home/meph/scripts/wlan0.sh

to /etc/rc.local. i think now with some rewording and the scripts i wrote we have our how to.

So go ahead and write it. i'll send you the scripts if you need them, as long as you agree to give me the credit for them.

cheers and good luck. i think me and FC are gonna start getting along fine :D

[M3PH]

i got bored this evening so i took the liberty of writing the initial version of the how to.

It's loosely based on what we have here but i incorperated some of my knowledge on compiling modules and filtered out the waffle.

i have included it for your viewing feel free to post any modifications you see fit so i can add them if i feel they are appropriate.

Have fun y'all and enjoy the reading.

p.s i am aware that there is already a ndiswrapper how to on these forums but it takes for granted having a wired ethernet connection and also doesn't allow for hardware compatibility issues with ndiswrapper and ceratin hardware devices.

[Grey_Wizzard]

It seems as if there has been a bit of an oops on my original account here. The forums admins are working to correct it.

I have not given up on my original idea to create an actual How To for this, but I do want to post it under my other account if at all possible.

Thanks for understanding!

[timoioi]

Hey. New user to the forum here. I just installed Fedora and had to get my wmp54gx working. First time using a similar distro since redhat 4 or so. Just wanted to be another to post to this thread and say thanks to Grey_Wizzard for the info. I upgraded kernel to 16k stack version and reinstalled ndiswrapper and everything worked perfectly. hooray.


16k kernel (CAUTION: i686 version): http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/full/downloads-fc7-kernel-i686.php
ndiswrapper: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93482
drivers: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1166859962297&packedargs=sku%3DWMP54GX&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=6229762297B01&displaypage=download#versiondetail

[GreyWizzard]

Wow. I'm not really used to being the one receiving the thanks when it comes to Linux.

I am very glad that my nearly insane ramblings were useful to someone other than myself.

If F7 had not been released when it was and I had not been forced into new hardware when my old notebook failed, I probably would have followed through with the "How To".

Congratulations on making sense out of my notes :p