HOWTO: Netgear RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N 300 USB Adapter (WNDA3100)

[msikma]

I just finished installing my WNDA3100 USB network adapter with ndiswrapper. First time I ever used the Windows driver wrapper, and it seems to work just fine. The WNDA3100 is useful for those who want to connect to a 802.11n network that can operate at 5 GHz, for example the Airport Extreme.

In order for the driver to be usable, it first needs to be installed under Windows. This is unfortunate, and I'm unsure whether there's some way to avoid this. If there's anyone who can shed more light on this, that would be great.

First, install the driver under Windows. The adapter should be attached to your Windows computer for this purpose. I used Windows XP, which detected the new hardware automatically and asked to install the drivers. Simply point it to the installation CD when it asks (there's no need to follow the CD's autorun program) and, when finished, view the properties of your network adapter to see which driver file it installed (it should be WNDA31.sys, if you're using this exact model).

Now that you have the driver, copy it to a separate folder (it should be in C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\WNDA31.sys). Also copy the contents of the directory containing the .inf file that was used during installation (which should be D:\bin\config\ndis5\, assuming your CD drive is D). Copy all of these files to your Ubuntu machine.

Now you should set up your Ubuntu machine. I used version 8.04. You should first get the ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapperutils-1.9 packages with your favorite package manager. For example, in a terminal:

msikma@Chopper:~$ sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapperutils-1.9

To ease things, we'll also install a graphical interface, ndisgtk:

msikma@Chopper:~$ sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

Now go to the System --> Administration menu. After installing ndisgtk, there should be a new item in there named Windows Wireless Drivers. Start it and enter your password.

Now you should tell it to install the driver you copied to your Ubuntu machine before. Make sure you choose the .inf file. At this rate, your WNDA3100 should be recognized and working normally!

If it isn't working, ensure you have the WNDA31.sys file. To see if your system recognizes the presence of the wireless adapter at all, you can type

msikma@Chopper:~$ lsusb

in a terminal, which should return one entry that says "NetGear, Inc".

I hope this helps anyone!

[bean1975]

Very nice, thanks. Could you please (maybe in private?) send me the WNDA31.sys file? I extracted the MSI from the download with wine, then extracted files from MSI with p7zip and then more from Data1.cab with cabextract. I can see it wants to copy WNDA31.sys and arusb_2k.sys (edit: I was wrong. it wants to copy arusb_??.sys to WNDA31.sys) and the latter I have but not the former. None of the sys files are called WNDA and none of them even contain this string it would seem that ISSetupFile.SetupFile3 contains this file but I can't get further than that.

I now got further by installing on a Windows machine and the arusb_xp.sys gets copied to wnda31.sys. So I tried to install and

[ 863.359811] ndiswrapper (import:242): unknown symbol: ntoskrnl.exe:'NlsMbCodePageTag'
[ 863.360075] ndiswrapper (load_sys_files:210): couldn't prepare driver 'arusb_xp'
[ 863.360980] ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:112): couldn't load driver arusb_xp; check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

not that good :/ Even if I try the 2K driver, that does not work either.

However!!

If you decide to go back one driver version THAT works. I have zipped up the inf and the sys file and attached.

[inxygnuu]

can you give me a simpler way to do this? I really need to get online through wireless.

[touristguy87]

Very nice, thanks. Could you please (maybe in private?) send me the WNDA31.sys file? I extracted the MSI from the download with wine, then extracted files from MSI with p7zip and then more from Data1.cab with cabextract. I can see it wants to copy WNDA31.sys and arusb_2k.sys (edit: I was wrong. it wants to copy arusb_??.sys to WNDA31.sys) and the latter I have but not the former. None of the sys files are called WNDA and none of them even contain this string it would seem that ISSetupFile.SetupFile3 contains this file but I can't get further than that.

I now got further by installing on a Windows machine and the arusb_xp.sys gets copied to wnda31.sys. So I tried to install and

[ 863.359811] ndiswrapper (import:242): unknown symbol: ntoskrnl.exe:'NlsMbCodePageTag'
[ 863.360075] ndiswrapper (load_sys_files:210): couldn't prepare driver 'arusb_xp'
[ 863.360980] ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:112): couldn't load driver arusb_xp; check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

not that good :/ Even if I try the 2K driver, that does not work either.

However!!

If you decide to go back one driver version THAT works. I have zipped up the inf and the sys file and attached.

If you decide to go back one driver version THAT works. I have zipped up the inf and the sys file and attached.
Attached Files
File Type: zip ndis_wnda3100.zip (158.2 KB, 18 views)

it does indeed work, thank you.

You have to remove and reinstall the adapter aftewards and I did get it to work on an XP machine first.

but it's running right now on 804

thanks

[mariusmeyer]

Dear bean1975:
Where did you find those drivers that you posted? Did they come from Atheros directly, or from your adapter's vendor? I've found them to work with my NetGear WN111v2 USB adapter, even though (amazingly) the very drivers that came with the adapter, didn't. They are named the same; arusb_xp. ...

Cheers

[flash63]

Hello,
i build a driver-package for atheros ar9170 based USB-Dongles.

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1150835
and
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1052619&page=2
for details.

[Habboblob]

I've used Bean's driver for my WN111v2 and it worked perfectly but I can't seem to connect to my WPA2 Wireless network. Can someone please help me.

[Habboblob]

I can connect to my wireless network using another connection. But it doesn't always connect 100%.

Like now I just suddenly started working in 2 weeks. I hope it continue to works my WN111v2

[ThreeFlight2005]

I'm using fedora 11 and the only drivers that work are on this page with this version of the xp drivers for some reason. The WN111v2 drivers that are shipped with the adapter are useless you have to use the ones on this page with ndiswrapper.

[theberg5]

Hey bean thank you very much, it worked great!!!