Drivers

[powersoften]

So, I installed Linux on one of my desktops yesterday, I've never once used it before in my life. I want to connect to the internet, however it seems that my wireless adapter isn't presently capable of doing so.

I found the sticky on the wireless internet section about which cards work and don't work with Linux, and came to discover that my card uses a "acx111" (Texas instruments) chipset, whatever the heck that is. This card apparently can work, but only after some MacGyvering. So I attempted to go through the tutorial on how to get it to work, needless to say, I became extremely confused, some parts of the tutorial didn't work right, I don't know wtf I'm doing.

Anyways, there is a "project" to download. What the hell is a "project"? I'm assuming it is a driver someone else already made that will fix the problem with my adapter in the same was as going through the above mentioned process will. If I'm wrong about that, please explain what a "project" is because I keep seeing the term thrown around here.

If I'm right, I would love to know just how one goes about installing a driver on Linux. I understand that it doesn't work like Windows where you click the device in device manager and then browse your computer files to find the driver. So, how do I do it? I've found that it is somehow done in console by Googling it, but nobody really explains it, they just say "type so and so command" with no further elaboration. No, typing that didn't make the file on my desktop magically begin to allow my wireless adapter to operate. So what do I do?

[kostasan]

Which distro are you using? Can you connect to internet via an ethernet cable?

[powersoften]

I'm using ubuntu. I can't possibly test an ethernet cable unfortunately.

If it helps any, I can see wireless networks when I click the icon in the upper right, but once I try and connect to them, the little networking icon goes away, and it becomes impossible to see them again even by opening up network settings. Only restarting lets me see them again, and I can never actually connect.

[Geeth]

It sounds like your network card is installed since it's picking up other networks.

When you click on the network icon at the top right what happens?
Are you able to click on a network? If so what happens?

Is the network your trying to access secured?

[powersoften]

It sounds like your network card is installed since it's picking up other networks.

When you click on the network icon at the top right what happens?
Are you able to click on a network? If so what happens?

Is the network your trying to access secured?

It shows networks, if I try to connect to one, the icon disappears and I'm not connected to anything.

I've tired to connect to both secured and unsecured networks, both of which work fine for my Windows pcs. Neither work for this one with ubuntu (and it previously had Windows installed on it, which connected just fine).

Long story short: I think I know what is going on here, its fubar and needs some MacGyvering as previously mentioned. Here is a link to what will supposedly fix it: Craig's ACX100/111 Guide for Linux

I tried going through that but there were points where the console commands given by the guide didn't give me the result that it said they would. No idea what to do about that. Basically, I just want to know HOW TO INSTALL A DRIVER ON LINUX. Its that simple, but I just can't get a straight answer from anyone. Is it even possible?

[Geeth]

With the commands not working, if you were following the guide to the letter, you may not have been putting sudo infront of the commands - which would most likely cause issues.

HOW TO INSTALL A DRIVER ON LINUX. Its that simple, but I just can't get a straight answer from anyone. Is it even possible?

The reason that your not getting 'a staight answer' is becuase simply there isn't always one. Linux isn't windows in any way at all.
Sometimes there is just a file that you can run that will just work. However there are times (especially with WiFi) where there is some configuring that has to be done.
2 different WiFi cards will have a different way to get them up and running and sometimes it will even change with the distros.

[powersoften]

With the commands not working, if you were following the guide to the letter, you may not have been putting sudo infront of the commands - which would most likely cause issues.



The reason that your not getting 'a staight answer' is becuase simply there isn't always one. Linux isn't windows in any way at all.
Sometimes there is just a file that you can run that will just work. However there are times (especially with WiFi) where there is some configuring that has to be done.
2 different WiFi cards will have a different way to get them up and running and sometimes it will even change with the distros.

Ok, well say I have this file: SourceForge.net: acx100 - Wireless chipset Linux driver

After I have it on my computer, how do I install it? I'm totally unfamiliar not only with how to do this, but what the file types are and what they do.

[i92guboj]

Ok, well say I have this file: SourceForge.net: acx100 - Wireless chipset Linux driver

After I have it on my computer, how do I install it? I'm totally unfamiliar not only with how to do this, but what the file types are and what they do.

That link goes to a couple of tar.bz2 files. tar.bz2 and tar.gz files are compressed files, so you first need to uncompress them. You first need to fetch them, and then do this on command line:

$ tar -xvjpf acx-20080210.tar.bz2 
acx-20080210/
acx-20080210/wlan_hdr.h
acx-20080210/Makefile
acx-20080210/acx.h
acx-20080210/acx_func.h
acx-20080210/pci.c
acx-20080210/usb.c
acx-20080210/README
acx-20080210/acx_config.h
acx-20080210/wlan_compat.h
acx-20080210/Kconfig
acx-20080210/conv.c
acx-20080210/setrate.c
acx-20080210/common.c
acx-20080210/wlan_mgmt.h
acx-20080210/pktgen/
acx-20080210/pktgen/mk
acx-20080210/pktgen/README
acx-20080210/pktgen/sendpkt
acx-20080210/pktgen/sendpkt.c
acx-20080210/pktgen/printhex
acx-20080210/pktgen/printhex.c
acx-20080210/script/
acx-20080210/script/module_sizes.sh
acx-20080210/script/start_net.sh
acx-20080210/script/run_splint.sh
acx-20080210/script/crashme.sh
acx-20080210/script/inject_kernel_tree.sh
acx-20080210/script/count_ACX.sh
acx-20080210/script/firmware/
acx-20080210/script/firmware/Makefile
acx-20080210/script/firmware/extract.c
acx-20080210/script/iwc.sh
acx-20080210/script/acx100_indent.sh
acx-20080210/script/rename
acx-20080210/script/kernel_help
acx-20080210/script/fix_ws.sh
acx-20080210/script/find_ifs.sh
acx-20080210/script/crashme2.sh
acx-20080210/script/stop_net.sh
acx-20080210/script/fetch_firmware.sh
acx-20080210/acx_struct.h
acx-20080210/wlan.c
acx-20080210/Changelog
acx-20080210/ioctl.c
$ cd acx-20080210/
$ ls
acx_config.h  acx_struct.h  conv.c   Makefile  README     usb.c          wlan_hdr.h
acx_func.h    Changelog     ioctl.c  pci.c     script     wlan.c         wlan_mgmt.h
acx.h         common.c      Kconfig  pktgen    setrate.c  wlan_compat.h

We use tar to uncompress it (you could use a graphical tool as well). A new directory is created, we cd into it and we see a collection of files inside. Almost always, you will find a README or a INSTALL file to look for instructions.

In this case, we are dealing with a kernel module, so if you really intend to use this, you will probably need to compile your own custom kernel. I can guide you on this, but be prepared to suffer a bit if you never compiled your own kernel before.

I assume that you have already looked on your distro package manager and you did not find a precompiled version of this driver for your distro (if you haven't, you should because if it's available it should be a breeze to install it).