Noob needs help installing SWLPT-54125 Drivers

[captainLaptop]

Hi,
I have just Installed Debian Lenny, and am trying to install drivers for my Wifi Card (Safecom SWLPT-54125). I have tried a number methods from other forums, but I keep running into problems.

The drivers come in a archive file, within the archive file are 3 more archives

• driverloader-2.26tiabocom-1.i386.rpm.zip
• driverloader-2.26tiabocom.tar.gz
• driverloader_2.26tiabocom_i386.deb

I tried the .deb file first, I tried;

dpkg -i driverloader_2.26tiabocom_i386.deb


and I received a message stating that a C compiler and proper kernel sources to be installed. It then asked the linux source build directory that matches my running kernel.

Another forum said to;

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-386

where I got the error message

E: Couldn't find the package linux-headers-386

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[smolloy]

You need a couple of packages,

sudo apt-get install build-essentials

This will install a load of compilers, libraries, etc., and (perhaps) the kernel headers as well. If you still need the headers installed, and the previous command didn't do that, then try,

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Welcome to the fourms

[captainLaptop]

Just tried both of those pieces of code, both returned the message:-

E: Couldn't find package [insert package name].

Have I got a faulty Distro??

[smolloy]

Something isn't right.

Can you tell me the content of /etc/apt and any other folders in there (e.g. sources.list.d)?

Also,

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

[captainLaptop]

The contents of /etc/apt are:-

apt.donf.d
sources.list
sources.list.d
trusted.gpg
secring.gpg
sources.list~
trustdb.gpg
trusted.gpg~

Ok the code returned:-

#
# deb-src cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Unofficial Multi-architecture i386/source CUSTOM #1 20090306-1054]/ lenny main
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.0 _Lenny_ - Unofficial Multi-architecture i386/source CUSTOM #1 20090306-1054]/ lenny main

deb ht tp://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main (space added at 'ht' as wont let me post URLs)
deb-src ht tp://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main (space added at 'ht' as wont let me post URLs)

[smolloy]

And the contents of /etc/apt/sources.list.d ?

[captainLaptop]

Sorry, /etc/apt/sources.list.d is empty

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d has:-
00trustcdrom
01autoremove
10periodic
15update-stamp
20archive
50unattended-upgrades
70debconf
99update-notifier

[reed9]

The build tools are in the package build-essential, singular.

You can get the appropriate headers as following

su
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Enclose your /etc/apt/sources.list in code tags and rather than quick reply, hit Go Advanced, then uncheck Automatically parse links in text to be able to post.

It does look like your sources.list is missing stuff.

Please post the output of the following:
lspci -vnn
lsmod

[smolloy]

It looks like stuff is missing from sources.list. That file lists all the repos that apt will use to try to find packages to install when you use the "apt-get install" command.

We need to find a list of the relevant Lenny repos in order to repopulate that file, but I don't have that information. Perhaps there's a Google-search in your future....

[reed9]

APT HOWTO - Basic Configuration

 # See sources.list(5) for more information, especially
     # Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs
     # CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.
     deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
     deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
     deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
     
     # Uncomment if you want the apt-get source function to work
     #deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
     #deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free