Member Avatar for jhonnyboy

Hello everyone, I was trying to install ndiswrapper and the drivers needed to get my laptop working with wireless properly. I never got around to finish installing the drivers although I did install ndiswrapper. I lost my wifi completely and my system doesn't even pick up my card now.

It was originally hardwired with the default software that comes with ubuntu. It would just lag a lot when I got online so i decided to install ndiswrapper. I never finished to install ndiswrapper. It's suppose to be working with the hardwired connection, but the computer doesn't even detect my wifi anymore. Don't know what's going on.

I don't know many bash commands. Need a starting point. Anything would help. Thanks guys!

+ I have an Atheros Communications Wirelesscard AR2413 802.11bg


When I try a iwlist scan bash command my computer displays:

lo Interface doesn't support scanning

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning


From what I can see...the system isn't using my wireless card to scan for any available networks. Does anyone know what I should try? I don't understand how my wireless can just stop working all of the sudden. Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by BreezeHost

Dani AI

Generated

A compact diagnostic checklist that builds on ’s hardware-switch hint and ’s dmesg suggestion. The symptom (no wlan interface shown by wireless tools) almost always means one of three things: the card is soft/hard blocked, the kernel has no driver bound, or a driver conflict (for example an incomplete ndiswrapper install) is hiding the native driver. The steps below show how to confirm which of those is happening and common fixes.

Run these commands to gather the facts and what to look for:

sudo rfkill list all
iwconfig
ip link show
lspci -nnk | egrep -i 'network|wireless' -A3
lsusb
lspci -nnk
lsmod | egrep -i 'ndiswrapper|ath|wlan|mac80211|cfg80211'
sudo ndiswrapper -l
sudo dmesg | egrep -i 'ath|wlan|ndis|firmware' | tail -n 50

Interpreting results (brief):

  • If rfkill shows soft/hard blocked: unblock with sudo rfkill unblock all or toggle the laptop wireless switch.
  • If iwconfig / ip link show no wlan device but lspci/lsusb list the wireless hardware, note the “Kernel driver in use” and “Kernel modules” lines from lspci -nnk. No “driver in use” means the kernel module isn’t bound.
  • If ndiswrapper -l reports a Windows driver present, an incomplete ndiswrapper install can prevent the native module from loading; try sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper (to unload) then check lsmod and dmesg again.
  • If dmesg mentions missing firmware, the distribution firmware package (e.g., linux-firmware) or the specific driver module must be installed/loaded.

Safe next steps: unblock via rfkill if needed; unload ndiswrapper before attempting to load native modules; use modprobe <module> only after confirming which module lspci -nnk suggests. If the kernel shows driver errors in dmesg, capture those exact lines before changing packages—those messages point to the precise fix.

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Member Avatar for here2serve

Hello everyone, I was trying to install ndiswrapper and the drivers needed to get my laptop working with wireless properly. I never got around to finish installing the drivers although I did install ndiswrapper. I lost my wifi completely and my system doesn't even pick up my card now.

It was originally hardwired with the default software that comes with ubuntu. It would just lag a lot when I got online so i decided to install ndiswrapper. I never finished to install ndiswrapper. It's suppose to be working with the hardwired connection, but the computer doesn't even detect my wifi anymore. Don't know what's going on.

I don't know many bash commands. Need a starting point. Anything would help. Thanks guys!

+ I have an Atheros Communications Wirelesscard AR2413 802.11bg


When I try a iwlist scan bash command my computer displays:

lo Interface doesn't support scanning

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning


From what I can see...the system isn't using my wireless card to scan for any available networks. Does anyone know what I should try? I don't understand how my wireless can just stop working all of the sudden. Thanks!

I know this sounds silly but I've seen it a bunch. Turn the wireless on. If it's off when you boot the module will not load.

Member Avatar for mcaashish

Mine Card is not deceted any one can help..please acer aspire 4720z running ubuntu.

Member Avatar for BreezeHost

Try to check dmesg.

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