Puppy 4.3.1 doesn't detect D-Link WUA-2340 USB - SOLVED!

[michael_h]

Running Puppy 4.3.1 kernel 2.6.30.5 on a older Dell PIII computer. I need to set up a wireless connection so that I can connect to a local wlan.

Trying to use D-Link WUA-2340 USB wifi dongle.

USB-view-1.0 shows the inserted device is recognized as a USB WLAN device. Opening up a consul and using the lwconfig command shows "lo no wireless extensions"

Running network wizard shows the two ethernet connections, but none for wireless (wlan0 not showing).

I've tried running the Ndiswrapper using downloaded WinXP drivers (netA5AGU.inf - versions 1.5 and 1.4), and obtain the following shown in the screen shot below.

The wizard indicates that the driver is loaded, but doesn't detect any wifi networks.

Can someone help me problem solve what the difficulty is?

[8-bit]

The reason it does not show any networks is that you have to configure it for the network wifi connection on the other pc.
I also had my install of a USB wifi dongle not find any networks until I made some settings for the WEP or WPA key.
You might try the pwireless WIFI scanner and see if it comes up with anything.
But it looks to me like Puppy is not accepting the driver you are trying to use.

[bill]

Hi Michael,This worked for me so it is something you may want to consider.Those two eth connections may be interfering and on mine,I used Ndiswrapper to blacklist the eth0 that was showing up on mine.Unload everything then start over,Then I had better results.Maybe someone else can comment on this.Good Luck

[rjbrewer]

I think I remember Tempestuous saying usb devices with atheros
chips do not have native linux drivers.
Ubuntu and others are using ndiswrapper for that one.
I've never tried it.

[michael_h]

But it looks to me like Puppy is not accepting the driver you are trying to use.

That seems to be the problem. I've tried many searches, both here and on the ubuntu sites, to find a driver for the WUA-2340 that works. One recommendation was to try the older (v 1.4) WinXP driver, but still no luck.

[michael_h]

Hi Michael,This worked for me so it is something you may want to consider.Those two eth connections may be interfering and on mine,I used Ndiswrapper to blacklist the eth0 that was showing up on mine.Unload everything then start over,Then I had better results.Maybe someone else can comment on this.Good Luck

I'll try removing the ethernet connections and then see if my USB dongle will work. I can always re-install them if it doesn't.

[michael_h]

I'll try removing the ethernet connections and then see if my USB dongle will work. I can always re-install them if it doesn't.

Well, that didn't work. Now I just need to figure out how to un-blacklist the ethernet connections ...

I know that the computer is delivering power to the USB port because when I run the system using WinXP, the connection works fine. If it isn't a hardware problem, then it must be something I have not configured correctly in Puppy.

A related question. Would I only see the wlan0 "button" when I run the network connection wizard if an active (working) wifi device was present? At this time, I don't see the button, just one for eth0 and one for eth1 (my ethernet connections).

Thank you everyone for the ideas you've been giving!

[michael_h]

Using Ndiswrapper on the command line, I deleted the invalid drivers and restarted the wizard process. This time, Ndiswrapper was able to load and recognize the wireless dongle. I did have to use the older (v. 1.4) driver since the newer (v. 1.5) one did not work.

Thank you everyone with the help!

[jon4t2]

... I did have to use the older (v. 1.4) driver since the newer (v. 1.5) one did not work. ...

I wish to confirm that the v1.4 version of the WUA2340 WinXP_2K driver works with ndiswrapper under Puppy 4.3.1. [Kernel: Linux 2.6.30.5 (i686)]

While the designations of v1.4 & v1.5 are commonly used, the exact designations of the drivers are given in the respective *.inf files:
For v1.4: "DriverVer = 05/29/2007,1.5.204.1"
For v1.5: "DriverVer = 06/12/2008,1.5.206.2"