[clue-tech] How I fixed my ndiswrapper dhclient problem.

[Jeff Cann]

For the record...

Using a supported wireless card (Motorola WN825G v3) under ndiswrapper, 
I was trying to configure this card to use the WEP encryption [Fedora 
Core 4, kernel 2.6.9-1.667, ndiswrapper 1.5].

Here's my wireless LAN config [values changed to protect the innocent] 
from my actiontec modem [Qwest]

    Authentication Type:   Open
    Key 1:  4D 34 EF D5 2A
    ESSID : MYWAP

I run the following commands:

modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig wlan0 essid MYWAP key 4D34EFD52A
dhclient wlan0

The first two commands seem to work.  When I check system log after 
modprobe, I see:

    ndiswrapper version 1.5 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
    ndispwrapper bcmwl15 (Motorola,03/22/2004, 3.60.7.0) loaded
    ndisrwapper: using irq 11
    divert:  allocating divert_blk for wlan0

After running the iwconfig command, I see:

    wlan0: vendor: ''
    wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:0C:e5:53:f1:05 using driver 
bcmwl5, 14E4:4320:1057:7025.5.conf
    wlan0: encryption modes supported:  WEP; TKIP with WPA; AES/CCMP 
with WPA
    wlano: no IPv6 routers present

Finally, when running the dhclient command, I kept repeated seeing 
output like:

    dhclient:  DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8

after a while, dhclient would give up and then:

    dhclient:  No DHCPOFFERS received
    dhclient:  receive_packet failed on wlan0:  Network is down

So in the midst of writing this email to ask why it's not working, I 
casually added a 10 second delay in my script:

OLD
    modprobe ndiswrapper
    iwconfig wlan0 essid MYWAP key 4D34EFD52A
    dhclient wlan0

NEW:
    modprobe ndiswrapper
    iwconfig wlan0 essid MYWAP key 4D34EFD52A
    sleep 10
    dhclient wlan0

For whatever reason, this allows me to get a dhclient lease.  I wanted 
to post in case someone else runs into this same problem.

Jeff