Wireless Network Cards in Linux

**Calumn** · 10-13-2006

Hello.
This is my guide on how to get wireless network cards to work in linux even if they don't have linux drivers. This guide should work for most cards under most distros. For this tutorial I am using Fedora Core 5 with a Netgear WG511v2.

ONE OF THE MAIN PROBLEMS THAT PEOPLE HAVE IS THAT THEY ARE IN THE WRONG ACCOUNT. BEFORE YOU START ANY OF THIS MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE LOGGED INTO THE root ACCOUNT!
First you will need to prepare for installing ndiswrapper and your network card. First you will need to get Windows XP drivers for your wireless network card. If you are using a Netgear WG511v2 like I was then you can get the drivers from here or from you installation cd. The drivers from the link before are on my server so if they don't work then my server is not on which probably means my computer is off, if this is the case then wait till it is back on or find the drivers yourself. Now this is very important, copy the directory with all the driver files in it to / and rename the folder

Code:

wg511v2driver

This is very very important so make sure that there is a folder in / called wg511v2driver with files inside it. Now that you have got the Windows XP drivers you will need ndiswrapper to get them to work with your distribution of linux, in my case Fedora Core 5. If your distribution comes with ndiswrapper then you can skip the downloading and installing of ndiswrapper. You can check to see if you have ndiswrapper by opening Terminal and typing

Code:

ndiswrapper

and if this says install/manage Windows drivers in ndiswrapper then it is already installed but if it doesn't you will need to follow the next steps to download and install it.

DOWNLOADING NDISWRAPPER
You can download ndiswrapper from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/n...ar.gz?download and choosing the mirror that is closest to you. Once you have downloaded the file move it to the / directory.

INSTALLING NDISWRAPPER
To install ndiswrapper you will need the kernel source. If you have never heard of this before then you wont have it so you will need to download it. This is easy. Make sure that you have updated you kernel and then go into terminal and type

Code:

package kernel-source<kernel-version>.rpm

this will work in most distributions of linux. Now that you have installed you kernel sources you will need to make a link to them so that ndiswrapper can install properly. This step is important. To see if there is a link already go to /lib/modules/KERNELVERSION/ and replace KERNELVERSION with your kernel that you downloaded the sources for. In this directory there should be a file/shortcut called build. If this link is broken then you will need do the next step but if it isn't then you don't need to. If you link is broken you will have to open terminal and type

Code:

ln -s /usr/src/linux-<kernel-version> /lib/modules/KERNELVERSION/build

and this should create the link. If the link is still broken then you have done one of the previous steps wrong, probably the downloading of the kernel sources. Remember to replace KERNELVERSION with the version of your kernel that you downloaded the source for. Now that everything is ready you can now install ndiswrapper.

Go to / where you moved the ndiswrapper download to. Extract the contents of the archive by typing

Code:

tar -zxvf ndiswrapper-VERSION.tar.gz

in Terminal. You should replace VERSION with the version of ndiswrapper you downloaded. In my case I downloaded ndiswrapper 1.25 so I would type

Code:

tar -zxvf ndiswrapper-1.25.tar.gz

in terminal. This should extract the contents of the archive to a folder called ndiswrapper-VERSION in the / directory. Now open terminal again and type

Code:

cd /ndiswrapper-VERSION

and remember to replace VERSION with the version of ndiswrapper you have. Also remember that there is a space between cd and /ndiswrapper.

Now that you have everything ready for the installation we will now begin to install ndiswrapper. Open terminal again and type

Code:

cd /ndiswrapper-VERSION

again also remebering to replace VERSION with the version of ndiswrapper you use. Once you have typed that keep Terminal open and type

Code:

make distclean

and once it has done that type

Code:

make

. Once you have done that KEEP Terminal open and type

Code:

make install

and remember you should be in the root account all the way through this tutorial. ndiswrapper should now be installed so type ndiswrapper in terminal and if it works there will be a list of options but if it doesn't then you have done something wrong earlier in this guide.

INSTALLING THE WINDOWS DRIVERS IN LINUX

Now that ndiswrapper is installed you are about 2/3 of the way there. There should be a folder in / called

Code:

wg551v2driver

and if this is not there then go back to the top of this tutorial. Go into this directory and there should be a file ending in .inf If you have a Netgear WG511v2 Card then this should be called WG511v2.inf if you got it from my server or from your installation cd. Make sure that this file is there and if it isn't then put them there. It is important to remember the name of the .inf file in the directory. Now type

Code:

ndiswrapper -i /wg511v2driver/wg511v2.inf

in Terminal and make sure you type it right. Now to check if this has worked type

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

in Terminal and if it shows the name of the driver then it has worked and if it doesn't then you have done something wrong.

FINAL STEPS

Congratulations you are almost finished.
Type

Code:

depmod -a

and if there is no error message then you can continue. In Terminal now type

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

and if this works then the driver is loaded.

Now open Terminal and type

Code:

iwlist wlan0 scan

then

Code:

iwconfig wlan0 essid  NETWORKNAME

but replace NETWORKNAME with the name of you network, in my case it was NETGEAR. Almost all home networks are managed unless you changed them so type

Code:

iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

and if it isn't managed replace Managed with the type of network it is suck as AdHOC. Now type

Code:

iwlist wlan0 scan

again. Now for the very last step.

Different Linux Distros have a different command so I will list them all.

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up

or

Code:

dhclient wlan0

or

Code:

dhcpcd wlan0

so just type all of them in one by one until you get one to work. In Fedora Core 5 the correct command is d

Code:

hclient wlan0

Thats it.

The only problem is every time you turn on you computer you will have to enter all the FINAL STEPS again. I have created a small shell script that can do this for you except it only works with Fedora Core 5 and a WG511v2 Card.

To get it go to http://82.20.7.129/netconnect.sh and once it is downloaded run it.

That program assumes that your network is called NETGEAR and its Managed.
If your network is called soemthing else then right click the the file netconnect.sh and click Open With Other Application and choose text editor. When its open change NETGEAR to the name of your network and change Managed to the type of your network.

Thanks for reading and using my tutorial. If you have any questions, found any errors in my tutorial or any errors in my shell script then post here.
If any of the links to 82.20.7.129 dont work then my server is probably down so try it again in a few hours.
Thanks!!!

**Calumn** · 10-14-2006

I have fixed all problems with the link to the WG511v2 driver.
My server is up and running again.
If you want to download via ftp instead go to ftp://82.20.6.192/ and double clicking on wg511v2driver.tar

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