ndiswrapper

[pozzie]

Wahaha

You seem to understand all of this. Apologies for the query, but I'd be grateful for help. I am trying to get USB wireless up. I have found ndiswrapper on line with a windows computer and downloaded it unto a USB stick and then transferred it to the Ubuntu desktop (on a different computer). Now I am trying to extract or run ndiswrapper or whatever. So I use package manager. But it will not read from the drives on the computer, it only wants to download from the net. The Ubuntu machine is not connected to the net.

So how do I get ndiswrapper out of desktop and into the system. I have tried terminal 'tar' and it rightly assumes I do not know what I am doing.

Once I create the ndiswrapper-1.23 directory I think I will be fine. But its getting beyond step 1 that is the difficult bit. Can I just make a directory in terminal (old dos md?) and then drag the files over?

Thanks for any help

[budman7]

This post was moved from another thread.

pozzie, you should be able to create whatever directory you need with the "mkdir" command.
Or you can just drag-n-drop from the desktop to the directory where it needs to be.

[pozzie]

Budman
My apologies for breach of etiquette. Since then I have started to read Newbie from page 387 backwards - that is where I should have started, and where this thread should really be. Problem is, DOS is so long ago and I have forgotten.

I have installed Ubuntu and am trying to get wireless usb. I have the ndiswrapper.tar.gz file in the desktop. I need to get it into its right directory in terminal and I need to extract all the files it contains into that directory.

Working in the desktop, I use the drop down menu to extract and it just extracts into the desk top - not the terminal. I try and drag (both before extraction and after) into terminal and no use. I write the extract bit tar..... and it tells me that I am wrong. Probably correct at that.

Its a very basic problem I have: I know there is a simple answer, but its the language that has thrown me. I'm too used to visuals.

Should I try to drag when in root (su)?

Help? Can you give me a step by step?

[budman7]

You can just use drag-n-drop to put the file into the correct directory.
Just open your file browser, whether it is Konqueror or Nautilus or somethng else.
Browse to and open the directory that you need.
Drag-n-drop the file
Right-click on it and select "extract here"

[pozzie]

Budman, Thank you for the explanation: I can see that I have been frightened away by imagined complexity. I have the files transferred into the directory.

But still things are not quite right.

I am following WiFiDocs/Device/NetgearWG111 particulary Part 2 WG111 Howto (Dapper Drake).

The howto goes through several steps.

a) install ndiswrapper - DONE and I have installed the ndiswrapper-1.23 directory in the computer home directory. The ndiswrapper-1.23 has sub directories /utils and /driver.

b) find the netgear driver - DONE. I loaded the netgear CD and transfered the entire NDIS5 directory into the ndiswrapper-1.23 directory. Now this is where I started guessing: is this the right directory to put NDIS5 directory?

c) configure

The Howto directions say

cd /driver/directory/ndis5

[But I don't have this directory. I put ndis5 directory into ndiswrapper-1.23. Should I have instead put it into ndiswrapper-1.23/driver or /utils?]

Then the Howto says

sudo ndiswrapper -i netwg111.inf

[If I do this in the root directory or in ndiswrapper-1.23, it responds "ndiswrapper file not found". I looked inside /utils and see that there is an executable binary file called ndiswrapper. Is this the one I ma trying to activate? So I moved the subdirectory NDIS5 into the directory /utils and tried sudo again.

Same result.

Again, I am sure I am missing something simple. But what!

Grateful for help and patience.

[beagle2]

You are making things a bit harder for yourself here, doesn't matter where you have driver files. If I understand you have a directory ndis5 which is now in ndiswrapper-1.23, install the *.inf file with, as root, ndiswrapper -i /pathto/ndiswrapper-1.23/ndis5/netwg111.inf .

Its a lot easier just to leave ndis5 in yor home directory so it would then be sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/pozzie/ndis5/netwg111.inf.
To make sure ndiswrapper is installed correctly sudo ndiswrapper -l should report if any drivers installed and I'm assuming netwg111.inf is in ndis5 and not in sub-directory.

[pozzie]

Beagle2, thank you for the contribution.

1. I typed in sudo -i, and then password and found myslef in the root directory.
2. I typed in exactly as you suggested: that is

root......# ndiswrapper -i /pathto/ndiswrapper-1.23/ndis5/netwg111.inf

and the response was

bash: ndiswrapper: command not found

So i thought I must have missed a bit and repeated it with, this time,

root....# sudo ndiswrapper etc etc

and the response was

sudo: ndiswrapper: command not found

So the ndiswrapper (whatever it is: a command, a file?) is just not there. What am I doing wrong?

[beagle2]

Can't access that howto you mentioned earlier, or any at help.ubuntu.com , so how did you install ndiswrapper? Using the source you should have done make uninstall, make, make install.
If you did not do that then ndiswrapper isn't installed. From memory all you need to do is install ndiswrapper-utils package and you would insert install cd into drive, message appears asking if you want to add the cd to package manager. Then search package manager for ndiswrapper-utils and install.
You have ndis5 in your home directory so it would then be sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/pozzie/ndis5/netwg111.inf , sudo depmod -a, sudo modprobe ndiswrapper, sudo ndiswrapper -m the use the network app to configure.

[pozzie]

Beagle2, I have come to the same conclusion: ndiswrapper is not installed.

I downloaded ndiswrapper.tar.gz from the net, transferred it from one (windows) computer to another (ubuntu) computer which does not have internet/network capabilities, and dumped the tar.gz file in the desk top directory. Then I extracted it, which created the ndiswrapper directory. I thought that was installation.

The howto is https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...e/netgearWG111.

I cannot use package manager as it is only an online system and my ubuntu computer is not online. So I have to physically transfer the files over.

I'll need to read more of the background to this. The 'make' 'uninstall' install commands produce the same message 'command not found'. Maybe its setup of the kernel?

If I can get ndiswrapper installed, I can work my way through the rest. But I don't know what I am doing (wrong).

[pozzie]

Finally understood!!

Use the Ubuntu CD, since it already has ndiswrapper on board. And it works with package manager.

The fog is clearing

Thanks