[tlug] Wireless LAN card installation (Was: A place to connect my laptop)

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

Erly, Keith, Ed,

Thank you for responding.

Erly Alvarez wrote:
> How does your connection thru your cellphone really works. The more 
> details the better.

Sorry if I was unclear somewhere along the way, but I'm not connecting 
through my mobile phone.

I'm talking about using a wireless LAN card. Specifically, this one:
http://www.logitec.co.jp/products/wlan/lanwgcb.html

Since I last posted on the topic, the situation has got a little worse. 
When I boot up, I get a Gnome error. Basically, there's a grey box on 
the screen and it takes a looooong time to complete the login process. 
Then I get an error, which is described in detail here:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/4499

The short story is that the reason I'm getting this error, so far as I 
can understand it, is because there is an error in my drivers that is 
holding up some component of Gnome. Since the WLAN card is the only 
thing I've messed with, I'm assuming that there is some error in the 
driver installation that is the root of this problem.

This error came up after I read on the net somewhere that using 
"apt-get" to remove a package called "network-manager" would solve the 
problems I reported earlier.

Briefly, after I uninstalled "network-manager", the activity light on my 
WLAN card was very active, indicating it was working. However, at that 
time I was not in a wireless network zone, so I couldn't properly test it.

When I went to a wireless network zone, I had to shut down my laptop for 
the journey. When I rebooted, the Gnome error became apparent, and the 
WLAN card was no longer working.

Since then, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, and uninstalling 
and reinstalling "network-manager" does not seem to have any effect.

So, the current situation is that the WLAN card driver is installed with 
some error, causing a Gnome error, and not connecting to any netowrk. 
Further, when I try to go to "System->Administration->Network" in Gnome, 
the it opens a blank window in which there are no buttons or options at 
all. Probably another symptom of the same Gnome problem.

Here are some commands and output that hopefully provide some insight. 
If there are other commands I should report the output from, please let 
me know.

laptop:~$ ndiswrapper -l
mrv8000c : driver installed
device (11AB:1FAA) present
laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.
wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:off/any 
         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated  
         Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Sensitivity=-200 dBm 
         RTS thr=2346 B   Fragment thr=2346 B  
         Power Management:off
         Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
         Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
         Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
laptop:~$ more /etc/network/interfaces
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid docomo
wireless-key s:xxxxxxxxxx (my WEP key displays here, I just obscured it 
for this message)
auto wlan0
laptop:~$dmesg
[ 1677.136000] pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
[ 1677.360000] ndiswrapper: driver mrv8000c 
(Marvell,09/17/2004,3.1.0.19) loaded
[ 1677.360000] PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
[ 1677.360000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK5] -> GSI 
11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[ 1677.360000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
[ 1677.360000] ndiswrapper: using IRQ 11
[ 1677.924000] wlan0: ethernet device 00:01:8e:b2:74:29 using NDIS 
driver: mrv8000c, version: 0x3000027, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: '', 
11AB:1FAA.5.conf
[ 1677.924000] ndiswrapper (set_encr_mode:694): setting encryption mode 
to 6 failed (C00000BB)
[ 1677.924000] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA
[ 1696.536000] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

Thank you for any advice.

--
Dave M G
http://www.tlug.jp/wiki/User:Dave_M_G