# NetGear A6200 - how to use it?

## subox

Hi,

today I got a wifi adapter netgear A6200.

My iwconfing shows me this:

```
suboxDell subox # iwconfig 

enp3s0    no wireless extensions.

wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Winter is comming"  

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 9C:34:26:8A:A5:F4   

          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=16 dBm   

          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=56/70  Signal level=-54 dBm  

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:387   Missed beacon:0

sit0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.em with showing it in iwconfig:
```

lsusb:

```
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0846:9050 NetGear, Inc. A6200 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wireless Adapter [Broadcom BCM43526]
```

I have installed:

```
net-wireless/broadcom-sta

net-wireless/ndiswrapper
```

```
suboxDell subox # ndiswrapper -l

bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed

   device (0846:9050) present
```

Any idea what I did wrong?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

subox,

You should not need net-wireless/ndiswrapper.  That's an interface layer between linux and windows drivers using the ndis standard.

It allows you to use Windows drivers on linux ... sometimes.

net-wireless/broadcom-sta is a kernel driver for some broadcom devices.  I think its also provided in kernel now.  If so, use the in kernel version as it will be maintained with the kernel. 

Your device device 0846:9050, has a Netgear Device ID but it appears to be a BCM43526.  

On the Broadcom page for kernel drivers, the chip is listed as unsupported.

That only leaves a Broadcom binary blob of some sort, either for Linux or Windows, with ndiswrapper.

From your

```
wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Winter is comming" 

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 9C:34:26:8A:A5:F4 
```

the wireless part is actually working.

What does 

```
ifconfig -a
```

 show?

If wlp2s0 does not have an IP address. Try 

```
dhcpcd wlp2s0
```

then look again.

Any errors will be useful, as will the dmesg output.  dmesg is too big for a post. Put it onto a pastebin and post a link.

----------

## subox

Thanks for the reply.

 *Quote:*   

> On the Broadcom page for kernel drivers, the chip is listed as unsupported.
> 
> That only leaves a Broadcom binary blob of some sort, either for Linux or Windows, with ndiswrapper. 

 

That's why I tried ndiswrapper.

wlp2s0 is a different card(Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 BGN), which is builtin with my laptop wifi adapter (I don't want to use this one). The broadcom one is NetGear A6200 in 802.11ac.

```
suboxDell ~ # ifconfig -a

enp3s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500

        inet 192.168.3.1  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.3.255

        ether 5c:f9:dd:5b:3b:22  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)

        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536

        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0

        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>

        loop  txqueuelen 1  (Local Loopback)

        RX packets 20  bytes 1536 (1.5 KiB)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 20  bytes 1536 (1.5 KiB)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

sit0: flags=128<NOARP>  mtu 1480

        sit  txqueuelen 1  (IPv6-in-IPv4)

        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp2s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500

        inet 10.0.0.5  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 10.0.0.255

        inet6 2601:647:4800:56e5:519a:e521:1775:37b3  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>

        inet6 fe80::86a6:c8ff:fee2:fec8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>

        ether 84:a6:c8:e2:fe:c8  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)

        RX packets 138096  bytes 94872949 (90.4 MiB)

        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0

        TX packets 103439  bytes 20310235 (19.3 MiB)

        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
```

dmesg of plugin wifi adapter:

```
[36255.789856] usb 3-3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd

[36255.956532] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9050

[36255.956538] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[36255.956542] usb 3-3: Product: NETGEAR A6200 WiFi Adapter

[36255.956558] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: NETGEAR

[36255.956559] usb 3-3: SerialNumber: 000000000001
```

full dmesg:

http://pastebin.com/tK3NqVV4

----------

## NeddySeagoon

subox,

Your dmesg shows that [  148.334651] ndiswrapper version 1.59 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no) ndiswrapper loaded.

How did you install the Windows drivers for the NetGear A6200 so that ndiswrapper could wrap them?

ndiswrapper itself is not a driver.  Its a translation layer between the Linux kernel and Windows drivers.

I would have expected dmesg to mention the driver in use when you connected the A6200 but theres nothing.

Google says ndiswrapper and Windows drivers is the way to go though.

----------

## subox

I tired to used ndiswrapper -i and paste the *.inf file. I got the file from:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/460277/how-to-get-netgear-a6200-to-work-on-14-04

```
With Ubuntu 14.04 I did the following steps:

sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

wget www.mediafire.com/?od9wpw6ccrnyhaa

unzip A6200_Linux_drivers.zip

sudo ndisgtk

Then when ndisgtk is running, choose the file ending in "ing" that was unzipped. It should be bcmwlhigh5.inf. Once that is installed you can select a wifi network from the Network menu-bar item.
```

Even the ndiswrapper doesn't work.

Did I use incorrect driver or I need to do some more steps?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

subox,

This old page tells how to install 

the windows driver into ndiswrapper.  It must be a 32 bit Windows driver and your kernel must be capable of running 32 bit code.

You can skip the the ndiswrapper installation, as you have done that. 

Start at "If all went well, you should now have NDISWrapper installed." 

The command

```
 sudo ndiswrapper -i <name>.inf
```

tells ndiswrapper to read the *.inf file and install the files listed there so that it can find them later.

----------

## khayyam

subox ...

return the card while you still can.

best ... khay

----------

## subox

NeddySeagoon:

I removed previous driver of A6200_linux (which I found on the old ubuntu forum). Downloaded a few versions from offical web page. All of them install correctly using ndiswrapper and when I load ndiswrapper module, nothing is displayed in dmesg:

```
[    8.452164] cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm), (N/A)

[   44.824557] usb 3-3: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd

[   44.991241] usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9050

[   44.991247] usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[   44.991251] usb 3-3: Product: NETGEAR A6200 WiFi Adapter

[   44.991254] usb 3-3: Manufacturer: NETGEAR

[   44.991257] usb 3-3: SerialNumber: 000000000001

[   69.847378] ndiswrapper version 1.59 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
```

full link to dmesg:

http://pastebin.com/fjKa1iSS

```
suboxDell ~ # ndiswrapper -l

bcmwlhigh5 : driver installed

   device (0846:9050) present
```

This driver is 32bit.

I have also recompiled the kernel and turn on:

```
suboxDell ~ # grep -rin 32 /usr/src/linux/.config

47:CONFIG_ZONE_DMA32=y

64:CONFIG_INIT_ENV_ARG_LIMIT=32

739:CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION=y

740:# CONFIG_IA32_AOUT is not set

[b]741:CONFIG_X86_X32=y[/b]
```

I guess it should support 32bit driver.

Do you have any other ideas?

On google i found that after loading ndiswrapper module the device should show up in dmesg.

khayyam: according to ubuntu's users this card works on linux so it should work on gentoo

----------

## NeddySeagoon

subox,

```
739:CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION=y 
```

is the option that allows the execution of 32 bit code.

Are you actually using the new kernel?

Look at the date/time in 

```
$ uname -v
```

That is the build date/time of the running kernel.

If your kernel is older that you expected, you are unlikely to be running your new kernel.

----------

## khayyam

 *subox wrote:*   

> khayyam: according to ubuntu's users this card works on linux so it should work on gentoo

 

subox ... it may very well work in some limited capacity using ndis, but experience teaches me that it will work nothing like what you might call stable, or with the features of the card spec. If you want to take the word of some ubuntu user then fine, but I would advise you to return it ... and I say that as someone with fairly extensive experience with linux wireless (see my post history).

Note also: your intel card (probably mini-pcie) will have a fairly decent antenna (by laptop standards), a USB adaptor will have a PCB strip/butterfly ... the latter will be just about enough to have the thing act as a radio, but is no substitute for the former. So if you're expecting 802.11ac to outperform 802.11n then it probably won't given other hw factors (that is, if you can establish a stable connection given the way ndis works).

best ... khay

----------

## subox

@NeddySeagoon:

as I wrote this is my actual kernel config: CONFIG_IA32_EMULATION is compiled.

```
suboxDell ~ # uname -v

#10 SMP Tue Jun 14 23:50:26 PDT 2016
```

In the dmesg from my previous post the date of kernel is the same:

```
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.4.5-tuxonice (root@suboxDell) (gcc version 4.9.3 (Gentoo 4.9.3 p1.5, pie-0.6.4) ) #10 SMP Tue Jun 14 23:50:26 PDT 2016
```

Do you have any other ideas what else can be wrong?

@khayyam:

My intel card works on n very poorly. I checked this card on other computer under windows and it works perfectly fine on ac. I will keep that card cause it was a good price for it (used one) but I would try to test it under linux to see what are the limitations, if there are any  :Smile: .

----------

## NeddySeagoon

subox,

I missed that date, sorry.

I'm with khayyam about ndiswrapper.  It may work some of the time with some windows drivers and some kernels.

Not all windows drivers are ndis complant, in which case, it won't work at all.

It does have a long history of being useful though.  A long time ago, I used it with a Windows software modem. 

Then 56kFLEX came along and I got a real serial port modem.

Intel support is usually pretty good in Linux, so I'm surprised you are having problems.

----------

