Installing Wireless Network Adapter

[james_uk]

Hi,

I'm trying to get my wireless usb dongle working in Mandriva Linux 2007. The version of the kernel i'm using is:

2.6.17-5mdv

I'm using a "how to" guide that explains how to set up ndiswrapper so that you can use the windows drivers in linux to enable the wireless adapter.
The problem arises when I try the following command:

urpmi kernel-source-2.6-2.6.17-5mdv
I get the message "no package named urpmi kernel-source-2.6-2.6.17-5mdv"

When I try to "make" the ndiswrapper program, I get the following:

[root@localhost ndiswrapper-1.37]# make
make -c driver
make [1]: Entering directory /home/james/Documents/nidiswrapper-1.37.tar/ndiswrapper-1.37/driver
Can't find kernel build files in /lib/module/2.6.17-5mdv/build;
give the path to kernel build directory with
KBUILD=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory /home/james/Documents/ndiswrapper-1.37.tar/ndiswrapper-1.37/driver
make: *** [all] Error 2

I think that this is because I don't have the kernel source files on my system. Please could someone give
me a walkthrough of what I need to do to fix this - an idiot's guide would be good as i'm new to linux.

When I run ls /lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv there is no "build" directory present.

Many thanks
James

[james_uk]

Hi,

Many thanks for the reply.

I tried:

urpmi kernel-source-2.6.17.5mdv

But I get:

no package named urpmi kernel-source-2.6.17.5mdv

[antidrugue]

You should almost never bother to compile anything yourself. Just use prebuild binary packages.

There is precompiled kernel module available for Mandriva 2007 here.

Once you have the RPM, just install like like that :

urpmi ndiswrapper-1.21-1mdv2007.0.i586.rpm

[james_uk]

Hi,

Thanks for the help so far. I managed to install ndiswrapper (i think).
I used urpme to remove (it said package already installed), and then urpmi to install.

However, if I am not the superuser it does not recognise the command ndiswrapper. I find this strange - as I understand why it wouldn't work if you weren't the root, but not sure why it won't find it.

Anyway - logged in as superuser I ran

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/cdrom/Driver/rt73.inf
(typing this from memory so may not be exact).
It seemed to install and I checked with:
ndiswrapper -l
and it said that the inf was installed and that the hardware was present.

It didn't seem to do much though - when I right click on network icon, choose configure network, wireless, use windows driver (with ndiswrapper) I get the following error:

An unexpected error has happened:
Can't locate network/ndiswrapper.pm in @INC (@INC
contains: /usr/lib/libDrakX /usr/lib/perl5.8.8/x86_64-linux /
usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux /
usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/
vendor_perl/5.8.8/x86/x86_64-linux /usr/lib/perl5
vendor_perl/5.8.8/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7 /usr/lib/
perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.7/x86_64-linux /usr/lib/perl5/
vendor_perl/5.8.6 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl .) at /usr/lib/
libDrakX/network/connection/wireless.pm line 175.

Something's amiss - any ideas?
Thanks
James

[james_uk]

Update:

Code:
modprobe ndiswrapper

gives:
FATAL: Could Not Open '/lib/modules/2.6.17-5mdv/kernel/3rdparty/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko.gz

Not sure how to fix this.
Cheers