Installing drivers

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

1)find drivers for USB adapter online, check!
2)find the file full of source code a few folders and the like, little new to linux but not unexpected
3)comile the C document, 73h d0n3!
4)run it, ah.....

It tells me to use it like a commend with parameters I don't understand.

5)Go back to windows to ask you doods

plus I need this to win an argument. She's always right and so I shall not admit defeat!!!

long story......plz help

[AlexK]

more info please, what kind of brand, speed etc. adapter? what distribution of linux? whats the command with parameters youdon't understand?

more info you give us, more we can help you win your "argument".

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

error= "usage is /home/barry/driver <ifname> [<operation>] [<address (0)>] [<value>(0)]"

i'm running on the latest fedora core version

adapter is a "3com OfficeConnect Wireless 54Mbps 11g Compact USB Adapter"

thx

[AlexK]

i am guessing /home/barry/driver is path to the program (surprising that the program should call itself driver)

replace <ifname> with the actual name of the interface e.g. eth1 or wlan0 or whatever..

[<Operation>] need more info about this, probably to set the ssid and stuff, should be more in its readme file.

[<address>] probably its ip address

[<value>] could stand for something related with operation.

More info can perhaps can be found in its readme file.

For example the following command:

/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 ssid my_ssid

kind of corresponds to what you are menat to do, basicially iwconfig is path to program, wlan0 is the interface name, ssid is operation and my_ssid is the value.

From your readme file, you should read about how ssid and stuff are set and the like. e.g. /home/barry/driver if_name set_ssid my_ssid.

Hope this sheds some light about your problems.

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

here in lies my proplem no readme

thx for your help !

[AlexK]

try this command:

man driver

or this:

/home/barry/driver --help
or /home/barry/driver -help
or /home/barry/driver --h

there should be some instructions on their website about how to get the driver to work and stuff.

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

I belive the driver may be out dated. When I try to run the other things in the folder I get several syntax errors and trying man drivers told me it had an outdated character set. Oh well

[AlexK]

you could try using ndiswrapper along with the windows drivers to get the card working. USB cards are a funny bunch, a lot work just fine with ndiswrapper, but the rest just refuse to work. see this post for more info: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-48999.html

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

OK I now have managed to install the drivers (typed make install rather then just running the makefile) but not sure were to go from here. When I go to the hardware browsers and find the dongle under system devices it still says drivers:unknown

[AlexK]

ok, for installing ndiswrapper, you have to do it like this: make then make install.

but if you are sure that it is installed (try running ndiswrapper from command line. see if it prints out its help menu).

Before you try the commands below, make sure you have the following installed: kernel sources and wireless-tools.

now what you have to do is this, copy the windows drivers to your home directory e.g. /home/barry/drivers. now in the command line, do the following as root:

cd /home/barry/drivers
ndiswrapper -i name_of_driver.inf
ndiswrapper -l   <-- see if installed correctly
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper

Now, launch your distro's network card configuration utility and configure your wireless card. Under the heading of module name or driver for the wireless card, enter ndiswrapper. then go about configuring the card as normal.