wlan0 doesn't exist but hardware is present

Are you using any encryption on the wireless router? Such as WEP? If so, did you put the right key on the computer too?
Some routers have an option to allow only certain MACs, check that out too.

Hi splittik:
I have a similar problem. I have a wlano config script that works perfectly on knoppix, kanotix, dsl, feather, etc. It even worked on previous versions of simplymepis. However, on the 2-26-05 version of simplymepis it fails. I was not able to figure out why.

I do use encryption but as noted, the identical script works on the same pc-router setup for other distro's

Did you ever get it to work? If so, how?

Thanks.

sci_fi

Hi I agree with you all - version 3.4-3Live CD allows all the ndiswrapper commands until modprobe and any iwconfig or ifconfig returns no such device of wlan0. Dare I say this in case you guys want to try some other distros I got the other 4 LiveCD distros working on my Siemens Gigaset USB54 adapter:
PCLinuxOS92 - after modprobe ndiswrapper use dhclient wlan0 to connect
Knoppix 4.0.2 - as above but use pump -i wlan0 to connect
VectorLinuxSOHO 5.1.2-2 as above but use dhcpcd wlan0 to connect
VectorLinux 5.2Live-beta1 as above using dhcpcd before you can ping google.com and start Firefox, etc

Mepis is a great distro but greater if we can connect the internet and read this forum!

KianT

I have the same problem. I installed my driver and dis all these steps: ndiswrapper -i /directory/of/driver.inf
modprobe ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper -m

But there is no wlan0 when I type: # iwconfig wlan0 channel 6
i get this:
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8B04) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

In Mepis OS Center, nothing is showing on wlan0. Right now I am having to use my old faithful Cisco PCMCIA card instead of the fast internal wireless card in my new laptop.

One question though...there's a button to turn the wireless on and off on next to the power button, but there are no lights when i push the button so I have no idea if the card is on or off. Can Mepis handle that wireless button?

lscpci shows this for the wireless card:
0000:05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02).

If anyone could help I'd be grateful.

Thank you

Do you have conflicting drivers? If more than one driver reports "hardware present," ndiswrapper may be trying to use the wrong one to configure your card. If so, remove the unneeded drivers with:

ndiswrapper -e driverName

Then unload & reload ndiswrapper:

modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper

At this point, iwconfig should show wlan0.

http://www.mepis.org/node/9107

My experience is that ndiswrapper do not work properly untill you uninstall:

eee80211 network stack modules for Linux (kernel 2.6.15****)
ipw2100
ipw2200

with synaptic.

After uninstalling this files my wifi showed up on wlan0 after installing the driver with ndiswrapper and all works beatufully.

Try it!

Please let me know if it works for you as well.

Hi - Many thanks Wilberforce - I had to remove all the other drivers shown in the ndiswrapper -l command. For the rest who did everything right but no wlan0 here is my ORDER of root commands:

ndiswrapper -l (lists all the present drivers)
ndiswrapper -e (do for each driver)
modprobe -r ndiswrapper (unload old module)
nsidwrapper -i mySiemensUSB54driver
ndiswrapper -l (my.. is only one there)
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig (Gottcha!!! wlan0)
ifconfig wlan0 etcetc
iwconfig wlan0 etcetc
dhclient wlan0
ping google.com

Now other LiveCDs from Kanotix, Ubuntu, Parsix fail on modprobe

Cheers !!!

KianT

KianT: I've tried all of the above, and then some. However, without Wlan0 being present, how would this work?
#iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 No such device

Are you using 3.4.3 final?

CloudChaser: (Im using 3.4-3 final as titled)
For the commands I posted earlier here are the details of the ifconfig and iwconfig after the modprobe ndiswrapper succeeds:

iwconfig (shows lo eth0 and wlan0 present with details)
ifconfig wlan0 ipaddr(from my router) netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.254
(optional) route add default gw addr(your server if any)
iwconfig wlan0 essid MYID(from router) mode Managed key restricted xxxxxxxxxx(from router specs)
(optional) iwlist wlan0 scan (should show all your neighbor's essid etc as well !!)
dhclient wlan0 (tell your browser where to connect)
ping google.com (should give detailed packages succeeded)

Im not sure of your router setup but now this works for me for ALL my 7 livecd distros downloaded. Hope this helps,

KianT

Maybe I'm just missing something there..but I have NOTHING showing on Wlan0. eth0 is my built-in ethernet. eth1 is my pcmcia wireless card which is a Cisco Aironet 340. Since I don't see my internal wireless card on ANY interface, it seems to me the rest of the configuration is not going to happen. I totally understand the steps you all are outlining, but i have NO wlan0 device!!!

Here's what iwconfig shows:

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:3D:07:3A:DB
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=86/100 Signal level=-52 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:22787 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:48287 Missed beacon:0

wifi0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:3D:07:3A:DB
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=86/100 Signal level=-52 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:22787 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:48287 Missed beacon:0

And here is the output of iwconfig:

root@1[mross]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 No such device

Looks like yr system names eth1 or wifi0 as the interface. Try:
ifconfig eth1 etcetc and
iwconfig eth1 essid etcetc key... (should match your router if any)
dhclient eth1 (or wifi0 no sure you may have to ifdown one)
ping google.com

and see if the packets are returned w/o errors.
If so yur browser will connect.

KianT

Eth1 is working right now with my Cisco card. It does NOT work for my built-in Broadcom card.

Enter this command:

iwconfig wifi0

and see if you get any useful output.

That output is in my post above, however that odoesn't seem to be an interface that a wireless card can use, but a place to set up wireless informations such as the essid and frequencies, but here it is again:

iwconfig wifi0
wifi0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:3D:07:3A:DB
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=72/100 Signal level=-59 dBm Noise level=-93 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:11602 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:16946 Missed beacon:0

I've been googling and apparently the Broadcom card is difficult, if not imppossible to get working. Someone in LinuxQuestions claims to have gotten it to work out of the box in a snapshot of Ubuntu, Dapper Drake, and smoene says they got it to work with another driver but they didn't say what driver, so I'm still looking for information and things to try.

Ok after my dismal failure at getting my wireless card to work, I started trying other live distros. The first one I tried was knoppix 4. cd, that had some sort of an issue booting. Then I tried the knoppix DVD that came with a Knoppix for dummie book. I put the wireless driver from my compaq cd onto a usb flash drive and booted with that in the computer. Then I used Knoppix's handy dandy ndiswrapper tool and that worked just fine. Then i used KWifi manager to get my wireless network connection and then the "Configure network card configuration and something called Wavelan configuration. After a little fussing, I got an ip address and here I am!!!

So, this card *can* work in linux, with ndiswrapper. Seems as if Mepis is missing something though.

Today I got home from work and turned on my laptop. I noticed that the light on the wirless button (to turn the wireless on and off) was flashing...It's been dark in Mepis since I installed it. So I went into MepisOS and it said...Wireless on: eth1 wlan0!!! tried turning it on and off from Mepis OS center, but no luck, so I went to command line and typed iwconfig, sure enough wlan0 was now there but the essid wasn't showing so I did iwconfig wlan0 essid 'myessid' when I did that, the laptop locked up hard. I restarted it, went back into MepisOS and turn wlan0 off then on. I got an IP address and it seems to be working fine lights and all!!

I think Mepis has Gremlins!!!

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions and help. No idea why it decided to start working all of a sudden, but I'm happy!!

Thank you again everyone!!