[SkittleLinux18]

I am trying to get my PCLOS to install a windows driver for my netgear wireless adapter, using ndiswrapper. The card is:

Netgear WG111t v1.3

I inserted the driver cd that came with the card and used my network setup program to setup the card. I was brought to the screen that made me select "use Windows driver (using ndiswrapper)." I selected that. From the window that popped up, I chose "install new driver." I browsed to the cd and selected the .inf file I needed. But I got an error message telling that no device was found that supported that driver.

I have the adapter plugged in and that is the cd that came with the card. What's the deal?

[valan]

Look at the output of lspci to ensure you got the model of the card right, maybe Linux is seeing a different model than what the driver is for.

[waterhead]

Most driver CD's have drivers for the many different cards that the manufacturer offers. It is cheaper to make just one CD.

You may need to play around and try different drivers from the CD. Make sure that it is a Windows XP driver.

It may be easier to download the correct driver from the manufacturers website. You can download it here:
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wg111t_1_3_setup.exe

It is a windows executable, but can be extracted with this command.

cabextract wg111t_1_3_setup.exe

This gives you a folder named Disk1, but still no driver. Inside of the folder are two .cab files. I extracted both of them and they seem to be identical. I created an empty folder called driver, and extracted it with this command.

cd /home/paul/Disk1
unshield -d /home/paul/driver x data1.cab

There is a folder called nt32drv. I think that it is the driver that you want.

Maybe you can now find the nt32drv driver on your CD. It would be easier than the process I descibed above.

[SkittleLinux18]

Thank you, both of you for your help!!

Ok, here's where I stand. I got that driver downloaded and executed all the commands you told me.

***For anyone else reading this thread and getting help from it, if you execute the unshield command and get an error telling you the command is not found, open Synaptic Package Manager and install/upgrade:

libunshield0
libunshield-devel
unshield

Moving along, after creating the driver folder and unpacking everything, I ran into two problems:

1) all the extracted files in my driver folder were locked. Maybe this is normal?
2) I am still getting an error telling me that the driver can't be installed. However, now I am getting an additional message telling me firmware files are needed and to get them from:

NDISwrapper - Home

Well, I go there and all I am given is a main download for ndiswrapper-1.52. So I installed it and still got the same error message about firmware files. I tried installing them from Synaptic, but from what I can tell, all the ones I need are already installed and fully upgraded. I've been able to handle all the other bumps that came up, but I can't get around this firmware one. So, what next?

Again, thanks for all your help!

[MikeTbob]

What chipset is listed when you run lspci from a terminal window?
You may not even need ndiswrapper, if it's an Atheros, RT25xx or several others.

[SkittleLinux18]

Originally Posted by MikeTbob

What chipset is listed when you run lspci from a terminal window?
You may not even need ndiswrapper, if it's an Atheros, RT25xx or several others.

My bad, I completely forgot to run that command. Sorry guys. Here's the output for lspci:

[root@localhost Desktop]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 746 Host (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a2)

[SkittleLinux18]

Originally Posted by valan

Look at the output of lspci to ensure you got the model of the card right, maybe Linux is seeing a different model than what the driver is for.

I don't know if this will help, but here is what I get off the adapter itself:

FCC ID: PY3WG111T
IC ID: 4054A-WG111T

R201NY04215139

Maybe that helps, maybe it doesn't.

[SkittleLinux18]

***************EDIT************

I got the folder permissions changed. Piece of cake. Once I did that, I tried accessing the nt32drv folder and both nt32drv.cat and nt32drv.inf files were in there. When I tried to install the .cat file via ndiswrapper, I got that stupid firmware message again. When I tried to install the .inf file via ndiswrapper, I got the other stupid message, no device found that supports that driver.

*big sigh*

[waterhead]

This wireless was made with all kinds of different chipsets. That is the reason for the different versions. I t also looks like it is a USB device, so the lspci command won't tell you anything. Use this command instead, with the device plugged in. Post the results.

lsusb

That won't give a lot of info, but it will show the device ID number (like 0846:6a00). This may be of help in determining the correct driver to use.

As for the firmware request, this baffles me too. The firmware is usually included in a Windows driver, I guess that this one is different. Take a look at the NDISwrapper web site under Documents/Wiki --> List of cards know to work --> List M-N. Look for a match of the device ID that you found with lsusb. There may be some help there.

There also may already be a Linux driver loading for this, as Mike Tbob mentioned. To check for this enter this command and post the output.

lsmod

[waterhead]

Some have reported getting this card working using a Win98 driver. Try the 9x32drv folder.