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#1 2012-10-28 16:10:54

NeoZelux
Member
Registered: 2012-10-28
Posts: 45

NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

Hello, first of all I want to apologize if this topic is in the improper place, I couldn't decide if this was more a "newbie" problem or an "installation" problem. I would describe it as a newbie's installation problem.
At any rate I desire specific help with getting this usb adapter to work on ArchLinux because I don't really have the experience to analyze the solutions for similar adapters of different models and apply it to my situation, I would feel most comfortable getting help in this specific manner.

I have indeed looked at this page https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup
and then checked
-->http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php/cat/149/page/1/sort/1/perpage/15/stype/
-->https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsNetgear
-->http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Devices/USB
and for the most part could not find the model number of my adapter.


as well when I tried to do the setup for wireless
with wpa_passphrase "SSID" "password" >/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf & >/dev/null
dhcpcd wlan0
(as was instructed by an installation tutorial I was watching on youtube)
it didn't work and the installation terminal was left in some sort of text editing state where commands didn't do anything.
So I decided afterwards it was safe to assume that ArchLinux probably doesn't support my specific usb wireless adapter.
(which yet again is NetGear N-300  WNA3100)



So I would greatly appreciate any help at all!
I'm willing to buy a different model adapter if that will get my installation to work but I would first like to try to find a way to install this adapter on ArchLinux if that is possible.
Thank you for your patience!!

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#2 2012-10-28 16:17:05

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,452
Website

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

From an admittedly limited search, it looks like you'll need to use ndiswrapper the WNA3100.  I've never had to use this myself, but there seem to be good sections in the wiki about it.  Have you looked into that yet?


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#3 2012-10-28 16:17:08

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

If you can, return the thing and get something else. It has no native linux driver. Which means you need to use ndiswrapper. Google is your friend, I immediately got plenty of hits about how to set this thing up with ndiswrapper.

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#4 2012-10-28 16:46:44

NeoZelux
Member
Registered: 2012-10-28
Posts: 45

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

Hi sorry, I actually did see the ndiswrapper thing before though I wasn't sure if it would work for it.
A question to Gusar. What are you suggesting will be a consequence for this adapter having no native linux driver?
Do you think the connection speed might be bad if I go through with this one?
Also for using ndiswrapper, (i want to just make clear that I'm typing on a windows os atm due to not having installed linux on the other comp yet)
can I just install it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/
put it on a flash drive and then put it into the other computer while it's in the installation console?

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#5 2012-10-28 17:10:56

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,452
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Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

ndiswrapper is in the [community] repo.  Get it from there.

If you don't have (and can't get) access to wired internet for the install then you can download the pkg.tar.xz from an archlinux mirror , put it on a flash drive, then install it in arch with "pacman -U path/to/flashdrive/filename.pkg.tar.xz"

Last edited by Trilby (2012-10-28 17:11:28)


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#6 2012-10-28 17:51:36

NeoZelux
Member
Registered: 2012-10-28
Posts: 45

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

hi, as I mentioned in the previous link I was able to download this file..
ndiswrapper-1.58rc1.tar.gz
Is that insufficient?
If so then I plead confusion as to what you mean by downloading the pkg.tar.xz from an archlinux mirror?
I appreciate your patience.

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#7 2012-10-28 18:55:49

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

NeoZelux wrote:

A question to Gusar. What are you suggesting will be a consequence for this adapter having no native linux driver?

ndiswrapper is a hack. It might work. But it also might cause kernel panics, or the connection might drop every few minutes and such stuff. It's simply not stable. Get a TP-Link device, they use Atheros chipsets which work great in Linux.

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#8 2012-10-28 19:25:44

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,452
Website

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

NeoZelux, the .tar.gz file is a source tarball that you would have to build and install manually.  There are many ways in which this could go wrong.

Bypassing pacman by manually installing software is discouraged as it can lead to a large number of problems.  The .pkg.tar.xz is a pre-made arch-ready package that can quickly and easily be installed by pacman.  This will avoid many problems while also ensuring everything is installed in the proper place for an arch linux system.

I do not have any experience with ndiswrapper - so if it is a viable solution I would certainly agree with Gusar that you should opt for a different device.  If, however, this is not a very practical solution and you want to try ndiswrapper then first see if you can get wired internet access - at lest temporarily - and install ndiswrapper with

pacman -Syu ndiswrapper

If you cannot get wired internet at all, then go to the link below, choose the appropriate architecture, then click the link to "download from mirror" and get the .pkg.tar.xz file.  Put that file on a flash drive, move it to your installation machine, then run the pacman command mentioned above which would be something like:

pacman -U /path/to/ndiswrapper-1.57-25-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Link: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?sor … =&limit=50

Last edited by Trilby (2012-10-28 19:28:19)


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#9 2012-10-28 19:29:32

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

Just installing ndiswrapper is not enough. You also need to download an appropriate Windows driver for the device and then do some magic to make ndiswrapper use it. Like I said, Google is your friend.

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#10 2012-10-28 20:14:42

NeoZelux
Member
Registered: 2012-10-28
Posts: 45

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

Hey! sorry for the slow reply. I'm considering giving up on this adapter in light of what Gusar said about kernel panics and the connection potentially dropping. I certainly want a stable device.
And thanks for the tip on TP-link I'm now considering getting a TP-link usb adapter instead. (looking at model TN-WN821N)

I guess I'll go buy one off amazon and see if it works.

Sorry for needing help so in-depth and thanks again!

Last edited by NeoZelux (2012-10-28 21:52:41)

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#11 2012-10-28 20:31:05

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

I have the TL-WN721N personally. It uses the ath9k_htc driver. I've had it running literally for days without any connection drops or anything.

Regarding the TL-WN821N, some variants use the same driver as mine (ath9k_htc), while some use the carl9170 driver. For the latter, you need firmware that is not in the linux-firmware package. Get it here and put it in /usr/lib/firmware.

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#12 2012-10-28 21:51:19

NeoZelux
Member
Registered: 2012-10-28
Posts: 45

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

(I'm glad you responded before I made my second edit!)
ok, for the latter situation. I'm assuming I'd have to move that file from usb.
If that's the case, how do I open a usb from the archlinux installation console? In fact I tried testing a usb out while the installation console was on but it didn't seem to work...

Last edited by NeoZelux (2012-10-28 21:53:16)

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#13 2012-10-28 22:07:18

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,452
Website

Re: NetGear Wireless N-300 USB adapter WNA3100 installation help ♥

`man mount`


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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