Installing ndiswrapper-1.1 during Gentoo insallation

Hey everyone,
Before I start, I just want to let everyone know that this is my 3rd day with Linux so bear with me :?

I'm trying to install Gentoo 2005.0 (yeah, probably not the best OS for beginners, but I like to set my standards high) and my Linksys Wireless-G PCI-Adapter (Model No. WMP54G) isn't working. When I boot the Gentoo installation from the CD (loading the kernel with gentoo docache) I get the No Network device auto detected error. When I run the ifconfig command I just get a Local Loopback and I get a Device not found error when I pass it both eth0 and wlan0 so I can't do a dhcpcd. I've tried net-setup with eth0 and wlan0 with the My network is wireless option. I've also tried using iwconfig and I get lo no wireless extensions. and I get the No such device error when I pass it either eth0 or wlan0. When I run lspci my Network controller comes up at RaLink RT2500 802.11 Cardbus Reference Card (rev 01) so I'm guessing it's recognizing that a 802.11 card is there, but Gentoo just doesn't have the right modules or drivers to get it working. When I try to load a module using modprobe I don't see my network card (using ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net) . Under the wireless section I see yellowfin.ko and znet.ko and when I try to load znet.ko I get a Module znet.ko not found. but the yellowfin.ko module will load but it does nothing. When I do a lsmod here's the output:
floppy
rtc
evdev
parport_pc
parport
ahci
sata_qstor
sata_uli
sata_sis
sata_sx4
sata_nv
sata_via
sata_svw
sata_sil
sata_promise
libata
dm_mirror
dm_mod
sbp2
ohci1394
ieee1394
sl811_hcd
ohci_hcd
uhci_hcd
usb_storage
usbhid
ehci_hcd
usbcore

Through my needle in the haystack search with Google I've come across ndiswrapper-1.1. What I've done is burnt ndiswrapper to a cd with my linksys drivers. umounted my cdrom, inserted this burnt disc with the app and drivers, copied the tar.gz file to a folder, unzipped it, and put the Gentoo installation cd back in. Now I dont' know what to do since my wireless card is the only way I can get to the internet and I can't use emerge or make since the commands aren't available and I don't have access to the internet. I need to download a stage file and portage. What I have tried to do is copy the files in /bin to a temporary bin folder, copy the ndiswrapper-1.1/utils folder into this temporary bin folder and then chroot it. That didn't work. Sorry if this is long and stupid, but I tried to explain in the greatest detail I could to let you guys know what's happening. Thanks.

I had exactly the same issue. Linksys seems to hate us :(.

What I did is use Knoppix, which has a built-in ndiswrapper, to do the Gentoo installation via a terminal.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml

Basically, get your .inf and .sys files ready (either stick them on an existing partition or a USB key or something), then boot into Knoppix and use the ndiswrapper there to load the drivers. Then use the "Configure network device" option, select wlan0, and enable DHCP broadcasting.

Once that's done, you're good to go!


If you need anymore help, feel free to let us know.

I read your way on another post and I started downloading Knoppix right away. Thanks for helping out. I'll let you know how it goes.

It worked for the most part. It will randomly crash. What driver did you use? WMP54G v2 or v4?

Er...what, exactly, is randomly crashing?

I have a Linksys WMP54GS, and I just downloaded the drivers (in Windows), installed them, and copied out bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys. No versions were involved anywhere...

Ok, you were using the v2 drivers. The v4 drivers are out from Ralink so the driver name is Rt2500.INF and it keeps crashing. It turns out that Ralink Technologies (which made the drivers for the Linksys WMP54Gv4 cards) has released Linux drivers for these cards which you have to compile yourself. I'm going to try this and I'll report back with my progress.

I'm having a hard time getting anything to work. I can't compile the Rt2500 linux driver in Knoppix since it's a read-only filesystem and when I use the Rt2500.INF driver that came with the card it crashes after about 3 min. or when I do a iwlist wlan0 scan. Right now I'm trying some different drivers and mixing/matching the drivers with kernel 2.4.27 and 2.6.7 to see if maybe I can find something that works.

I assume you already tried the v2 drivers, then?

If not, try that. They worked fine with me in Knoppix.

And in order to do the Gentoo install via Knoppix, you need Knoppix running the 2.6 kernel. Something to do with chrooting. At least, this is what the Gentoo instructions said.