The Netgear Ma311 works perfectly here with a wireless B router. Most distros come with the orinoco_pci module that works with it.

The NetGear wg311 alsa works with the madwifi driver

Hi
I was told that netgear wg311 should work fine in linux, but so far it hasn't.
 
I use suse 9.0 pro. The kernel (2.4...) should be ready for wireless cards. When I try using YAST as recommended and look at the system the card is recognized. I can configure wireless cards with YAST but I dont't get it to work. I have tried to install the driver but since I am a newbie I didn´t manage.
 
I was stuck in what files to dowload, if I should rebuild the kernel or not, etc. I would be happy if someone could give me step-by step instructions...

I looked on sourceforge and the madwifi driver seems to no longer be on their site, but you could also get it here: ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/gentoo/distfiles/madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20040514.tar.bz2
 
You may also need to install the sharutils rpm for makeing the package.
 
Extract the madwifi driver, then from the shell console cd into the madwifi directory, as root and do the following.
 

Quote:make && make installand then

Quote:dhcpcd ath0

Thank you very much!
 
I have done what you wrote and that works all right. But then what? I tested with ifconfig - only the wired card was seen. i tried with YAST and wrote ath_hal as module namne - nothing happens. I test iwconfig - the card is not seen. I try modprobe ath_hal and it loads all right. I try yast, iwconfig, ifconfig again with the same result.
 
Well, I know I'm a newbie and probably ther is something I missed. Please help me on.

Is your router 802.11b, or 802.11g backward compatible to 802.11b?

The wireless router I try to connect to is Netgear FWG114P.
It is 802.11g but could be configured as access-point for 11g, 11b or both.
 
As fast as I have got the card working I will try next setup: what protocoll and what security settings.
 
 
 

This very well could be the problem. I would show you a thread where I ran into a similar problem, but I've tried searching for it and nothing I search for will reveal it! ;(
 
Anyway, I ran myself nuts trying to get a Netgear MA311 working with my Linksys wireless G router and it wouldn't work. I just knew it wasn't the router since we were using an Orinoco Gold 802.11b with it and had no problems. Turns out it WAS the router. Even though the Wireless G Linksys is backward compatible with 802.11b, it just would not communicate with my Netgear MA311. I then installed a Linksys 802.11b only router, and now everything works perfectly.
 
If everything you are doing says the card is working, but it won't connect, you may want to investigate this as a possible source of the problem.

Well, you might be right but before I can figure it out I have to get the card working in the mashine, and thats where I am stuck today.
 
The wg311 card is 802.11g card too so it should work with the router.
 
Any suggestions on how to get further?
 

Ah! That card is the new Netgear that is supposed to work with 802.11g. I read about it a while back, then forgot. You've probably already seen this, but in case you haven't..
 
http://www.stud.fernuni-hagen.de/q6805531/suse.pdf

Thank you!
I haven't seen that. I will try following these instructions when I come back to my own computer tonight.

Well, here I'm back again.
 
The make and make install worked all right.
 
wireless tools version 26 is installed
 
when I load module ath_pci with modprobe ath_pci this happens:
 
linux:/ # modprobe ath_pci.o
modprobe: Can't locate module ath_pci.o
linux:/ # modprobe :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_pci.o
modprobe: Can't locate module ath_pci which is needed for :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_pci.o
linux:/ # modprobe :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_pci
modprobe: Can't locate module ath_pci which is needed for :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_pci
linux:/ # modprobe :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_pci.o
modprobe: Can't locate module ath_pci which is needed for :/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_pci.o
linux:/ #
 
I searched for ath_*.* and found these locations on the computer:
file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_hal.o
file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_hal.o
file:/tmp/Madwifi/filer/ath_hal/ath_hal.o
file:/usr/share/doc/howto/en/txt/Athlon-Powersaving-HOWTO.gz
file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_pci.o
file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-99-default/net/ath_pci.o
file:/tmp/Madwifi/filer/driver/ath_pci.o
file:/tmp/Madwifi/filer/tools/athstats.c
 
And here I am again. Stuck as ever. Any suggestions anyone?
 
 

The correct syntax should be;
 
modprobe ath_pci
 
Then try the rest of the instructions to test the connection.

This happens:
a lot of text get up on the screen:
... will taint the kernel: non-GPL license
module ath_hal loaded with warnings
module wlan loaded with warnings
/lib/modules/.. ../ath_pca_o: init_module: no such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
 
ifconfig doesn't find the card, iwconfig doesn't find the card.
 
When looking at the system one can clearly see that the card exists and is recognized by Suse.
 
What have I done wrong?

Well, I finally gave it up!
 
Before I bought the card I asked personel at Suse what card to choose and they recomended this one. When I was stuck with problems they deny they ever recommended it and they say that wireless cards they don´t give support to unless you pay extra...
 
Now I returned the card and ordered a wireless access-point instead - an access point that I can connect to through the wired network card. I hope that should make it work.

I sure hate to hear that. It's a real bummmer when you have to decide to give something up after working so hard, believe me I know. I hope you have better luck with the access point.

I have a new Netgear WG311 wireless card, too.... I have tried to install the madwifi driver from the cvs repository today on suse 9.0 x86_64 and this does not work. There is apparently some problem with the ath_hal binary that madwifi needs to run. The madwifi project doesn't seem to have any solution for this, so I am wondering if there is maybe some other way to get this card running...
 
would be interested to hear from anyone who has actually gotten this card on an amd64 to work.
 
thanks
zylonne

Take a look at this link and see if it helps. I believe that this is an Atheros chipset? If so, my D-Link DWL-G650 works with the Linuxant driver very well. Well worth the small outlay of cash to get it to work. You can try the trial version first, to see if it works. Take a look at the Linuxant driver page to get an idea if the card is supported.