Fresh Debian Install with wireless WMP54G... Please assist!!

[TravisT]

I am planning to install debian on an old computer I have (800MHz Pentium III, 512MB RAM, 40G hard drive, NVIDIA video card). I know nothing about linux but want to learn. I would like to start by using a GUI and then venture into command line stuff.

Can anyone assist me with the install (any pointers, etc). Again I do not know anything about linux so it would be appreciated if you could explain in great detail anything necessary. I did try installing this on an older computer that ended up taking a crap on me days later. I had trouble formatting the drive. Pointers in this area would be helpful.

My next question is I have to use a wireless NIC in my proposed linux box. The model is a WMP54G. Will this be automatically detected by the install or do I have to do something special after installing in order to get this to work? Again, specifics would be appreciated.

Thanks,
TravisT

[TerminaMorte]

Please check to see whether your card is v2 or v4.

I only have experience with v4, but ndiswrapper (the only thing avalibe for it) will cause your system to freeze.

I have no idea about v2, but it's probally the same situation.

Linksys does not offer drivers for this product, under linux.

Sorry!

[souljas]

http://www.linux-wireless.org/Instal...Sys.WMP54G.txt

that should help. always research the wireless cards at the madwifi or prism54 sites to see which works.

[TravisT]

Thanks for the replies,

Soljas, that looks like it might help but I have no idea what I am looking at! From what I do understand in the link, I assume that it will work... is that correct?

And is there a straight forward tutorial on partitioning/formatting using the bundled tools in debian?

[TravisT]

Ok after many attempts to install debian woody and get X working, I switched to sarge and can only wish that I would have tried that before. I am only beginning to get the feel for linux, but I am still having trouble getting the wifi lan working.

I have tried following the directions in the link, but it seems they have not been idiot proofed because I can't get it to work. Can someone translate them into windows language while I am learning this?

So far I have downloaded the debian ndiswrapper and the other file used for redhat, etc. I have also tried the first three steps in a terminal window and get an error each time. I did not bother trying to install the windows drivers yet since I have no idea how. I would really appreciate any help with this. Thanks,

TravisT

[TravisT]

ok I'm slowly getting the hang of this (and making some sense of it). So far I have unpacked the wireless_tools debian package by typing
"dpkg -i wireless_tools_27-2_i386.deb"
Then I unpackaged the ndiswrapper file by typing
"dpkg -i ndiswrapper-source_1.1-1_i386.deb"

Both of the package files were saved in my home directory. I can't seem to figure out what to do next... but it seems that I need to do something in the /usr/local/src folder but there is nothing there...

[MasonM]

Go to the ndiswrapper website, easily found with a simple google, and they have excellent instructions on how to set it up.

[TravisT]

What exactly is ndiswrapper? Maybe if I understand what it is that I'm trying to do I will be able to get the hang of it... I will check out the ndiswrapper website and do some reading there.
Thanks for the reply,

TravisT

[Cabhan]

Now, I don't use Debian, but I use ndiswrapper. Basically, since many wireless cards have drivers that are for Windows only, ndiswrapper translates the windows *.inf file into a Linux driver, thus allowing nonsupported cards to be used under Linux. I use a Linksys WMP54GS, and so need ndiswrapper.

Yeah...I'm gonna hold off on any further instructions, since Debian is freaky. But is it possible to just run "apt-get ndiswrapper", and thus skip the setup part? Because that would make life easier.

[TravisT]

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I should have tried a different distro? I don't know anything about apt-get but I sure wish there was an easier way to do this...

Ok I have gotten much closer (I think) but I am stuck. As of right now my wireless adapter is showing when I do a "lspci" and if I type "ndiswrapper -l" it shows the driver as being installed and hardware installed. I followed the directions up until the point that it says to type "modprobe ndiswrapper". This will not work. It gives me an error saying that the module cannot be found (or something similar to that). In the /etc/ndiswrapper folder, there is a modules.ndiswrapper file that looks like it might be what I need but it will not recognize the file. Typing "dmesg" to view the syslog file does not show anything saying ndiswrapper at all. Where do I go from here?

TravisT