Newb seeking help with Linksys WUSB11 V 2.6

Hi, let me start of by saying that I am completely new to linux, so assume that I know nothing. Earlier today I installed Ubuntu on my computer. I set it up so that I can dual boot between that and Windows XP. The only means I have of connecting to the internet is through my Linksys WUSB11 v2.6 wireless card.

Like I said, I just recently installed Ubuntu, and being a bit neive, assumed that like in windows, all I would have to do is plug in my network card, and that it would be detected and the appropriate drivers found, and that I'd be on the net, just like that. Of course thats not how it turned out.

So my question is how do I get on the internet in linux using WUSB11 v2.6
Please use as little technical language as possible, and attempt to thoroughly explain all steps involved in the process, even if it seems second nature to you, as I am really quite new. All I understand really is how to access the root.

I'm asuming though from some searching I've been doing that I'm going to have to download some kind of driver, and since I don't have internet in linux, that'll have to be in windows. So how do I transfer a file I download in windows to linux?

If anyone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated, seeing as the only things I use my computer for involve being on the internet, thus an internet-less linux = me having to use Windows.

what you will have to do is download a nifty program called ndiswrapper. This program allows you to use the windows driver to make the wireless card work under linux.

Simply download ndiswrapper using apt-get, then execute the following commands after copying over the windows drivers onto your home directory.

Code:

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ndiswrapper -i name_of_driver.inf          <------- driver file
ndiswrapper -l      <------------- check to see if installed
ndiswrapper -m    <----------- use driver
modprobe ndiswrapper    <----------- insert module into kernel

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once that part comes out fine, install the wireless-tools package and use your distro's graphical configuration tool to configure the card. When it asks you for which driver to use, enter ndiswrapper.

hope this helps.[/code]

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Simply download ndiswrapper using apt-get, then execute the following commands after copying over the windows drivers onto your home directory.

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Okay, one quick question, wouldn't using apt-get to download this require internet access in the first place, which I don't have at all in linux? So is there another way to download this and transfer and install it in linux?

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once that part comes out fine, install the wireless-tools package and use your distro's graphical configuration tool to configure the card. When it asks you for which driver to use, enter ndiswrapper.

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install the wireless-tools package? I've heard about it, but I'm a true newb at this, so I have no clue where to look or how to install the wireless-tools package

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Originally Posted by AlexK

what you will have to do is download a nifty program called ndiswrapper. This program allows you to use the windows driver to make the wireless card work under linux.

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Also...I started looking around at the wiki for ndiswrapper and my usb card (WUSB11 v2.6) is not on the list: http://www.houseofcraig.net/belkin_howto.php

so I'm thinking I have to install the atmel drivers found here: http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

However I have no clue how....I can download the drivers in windows, burn em to cd, and then I have no idea how to get them off the cd and into the proper location once in linux. Also, the instruction at the site for the drivers are a bit difficult to follow and understand.

You can install the atmel drivers, but I can assure you that using the ndiswrapper method can save you some pain. What you do is download ndiswrapper from the sourceforge site onto your hard drive in windows, then you can access your windows partition from linux and copy over the files. To access your windows partition, look for a file called /etc/fstab, in this file look for a line which contains something like:

Quote:

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/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs user,ro 0 0

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then mount it with

Code:

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mount /mnt/windows

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then go to the place you saved the drivers using the file manager and copy them over to your home directory.

You can get wireless-tools from here. Simply download them onto windows hard drive and then access the windows drive from linux like you did for ndiswrapper, copy it to home directory and install it.

Another thing, you could try accessing internet via a wired connection in linux in order to get the drivers then once ndiswrapper and wireless-tools is installed, you can get rid of the wired connection.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlexK

You can install the atmel drivers, but I can assure you that using the ndiswrapper method can save you some pain. What you do is download ndiswrapper from the sourceforge site onto your hard drive in windows, then you can access your windows partition from linux and copy over the files. To access your windows partition, look for a file called /etc/fstab, in this file look for a line which contains something like:

Quote:

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/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs user,ro 0 0

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then mount it with

Code:

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mount /mnt/windows

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then go to the place you saved the drivers using the file manager and copy them over to your home directory.

alrite, I'll take your word and try the ndiswraper, I need a bit of a clarification tho. do I just search for the file using a search, or is there some command that I have to type in the terminal to find the file? once I find that file, and find the appropraite line what do I do with it?


Another thing, you could try accessing internet via a wired connection in linux in order to get the drivers then once ndiswrapper and wireless-tools is installed, you can get rid of the wired connection.

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believe me, I would if I could...it'd be a lot easier, but at the moment I have no option for a wired connection...only wireless...(that'll change in like a month, but I don't want to wait that long to start using linux)

thank you very much for all the help you've already provided, I hope your not getting too frustrated trying to help me out, but I'm very paranoid about doing anything without step-by-step directions. and being new I don't quite get what you mean by certain things, because I don't have enough experience with linux to know the inbetween steps that you might be assuming that I know....

Ok, what I was basically saying in the last post was that you can access your windows partition from linux, albeit in read only mode. So I was suggesting that you simply download ndiswrapper and the wireless-tools package onto your windows partition and then access it from linux.

The /etc/fstab file tells you where the system mounts certain drives, for example in my fstab, the entry for windows is:

Quote:

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/dev/hda1 /windows ntfs ro,user,users,gid=users,umask=0002,nls=utf8 0 0

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the /dev/hda1 tells me that windows is 1st partition on my 1st harddrive.
the /windows tells me that I can find my windows partition (C drive) if i look in the file manager under the location /windows.
the ro says that this file system is read only.

So to find your windows partition, look in your /etc/fstab file for the /windows part, then in the file manager (I think it is called nautilus in gnome), go there and find the place you saved the drivers. Then copy them to your home directory by using the usual Cntrl+C and Cntrl+V commands to copy/paste to your home directory.

Once that is done, you can install ndiswrapper via the commands given on the ndiswrapper homepage.

since my card isn't on the list at the ndiswrapper page, the only place I can find the windows drivers are either on linksys website, where they come in an exe file, which I imagine won't do me much good. Or I can use the one installed on my computer which is vnetusbl.sys I can't find an .inf file...

Also, when I do get to the install....should I follow the ndiswrapper instructions completely, including uninstalling any current version of ndiswrapper? or can I skip to just installing the new version of ndiswrapper....uninstalling would seem to be a pain in the ass....

You can use the drivers which with the card, on the vendor cd.

it is highly reccommended that you uninstall the current version of ndiswrapper, however if ndiswrapper is already installed on your system, there won't be much advantage in upgrading o a newer version. So, if you already have ndiswrapper installed, don't uninstall it, just use whatever is present on your system.

remember, you also will need the wireless-tools package in order to configure your card. to see if wireless-tools is already installed, type into a terminal:

Code:

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iwconfig

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but since you are running ubuntu, you may have to run it as sudo iwconfig.

if iwconfig returns something like:

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lo: no wireless extensions
eth0: no wireleess extensions

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then wireless-tools is installed, otherwise you will need to install them from the site i gave you before.

okay, some good news, and some badnews, first of all I typed in

sudo iwconfig and it gave me

lo: no wireless extensions
eth0: no wireleess extensions

and one other one too, so I'm gonna asumer that the wireless tools package is already isntalled.

Next, I followed the instructions on installing my drivers (I took them from teh vendor cd, just copied the entire folder's contents on to a cd, and then copied them into the home directory, I did this to avoid the hassle of mounting my windows partition.)

All the commands worked, up until:

modprobe ndiswrapper

this gave me the following error:

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper C/lib/modules/2.6.10-5-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted.

I followed that up by typing in:
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

at this point my entire system froze, which leads me to an intruiging question, is there a ctrl + alt + del equivalent for linux, because I didn't know how to deal with my system freezing in linux and was forced to just push the power button.

So I figured I'd re-start in Ubuntu and try it again, this time all I entered in the terminal was:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

it prompted me for my password, which I entered, and then it just went to another terminal line. Does that mean it worked?

EDIT: Well I went back and clearly it didn't work as I have no connectivity, and the card still isn't showing up in the networking area. So I'm assuming the modprobe line is what gets ndiswrapper to load, and since that didn't work ndiswrappers isn't loading and my card's drivers still aren't been detected...any workarounds for this?

Also, what else, if anything do I need to do from here to get my card working?

Thnx for all the help,
-TheInvictus