How can I get a U.S Robotics card to work?

[Indy452]

I have a cute little Averatec 3150 laptop that currently has Tiny me installed on it with a U.S Robotics Max G wireless card in the slot.

I have tried about six different Linux distros with this wireless card and either its broke or none of the distros recognize it. Is this card not supported at all?

I remember the little lights would at least light up when Mepis was tried but I couldn't get Mepis to install to the hard drive.

All I know is it used to work when it was a windows machine. I don't want windows back but I could use a bit of help getting this thing working with my wireless router which is a linksys. Is it because I have a different router? I'm thinking of buying a Linksys wireless G card for it instead. Should I? Or should I try to figure out the US robotics one?

Its a bit technical and frustrating to me because I don't really understand how these things work.

Thanks, If you need more info let me know.

Neal

[techieMoe]

The US Robotics support site recommends using Ndiswrapper. I've had success with that in the past:

USRobotics Support: USR5411 Wireless MAXg PC Card - 5411
NDISwrapper - Home

The brands of your router and wireless card don't matter. They all communicate using the same standard 802.11a/b/g language. The brand matters when trying to get the drivers working in Linux, but not when diagnosing a communications problem between router and card.

[Indy452]

The US Robotics support site recommends using Ndiswrapper. I've had success with that in the past:

USRobotics Support: USR5411 Wireless MAXg PC Card - 5411
NDISwrapper - Home

The brands of your router and wireless card don't matter. They all communicate using the same standard 802.11a/b/g language. The brand matters when trying to get the drivers working in Linux, but not when diagnosing a communications problem between router and card.

I apologize for being so ignorant my friend but how do I use nsdwrapper? I have never crossed this bridge b4. I went to the links you sent and indeed the card is a USR5411 like the one linked from US robotics but the ndswrapper site is a mystery to me.

Where would y'all suggest I start?

Thanks, Neal

[techieMoe]

I apologize for being so ignorant my friend but how do I use nsdwrapper? I have never crossed this bridge b4. I went to the links you sent and indeed the card is a USR5411 like the one linked from US robotics but the ndswrapper site is a mystery to me.

Where would y'all suggest I start?

Thanks, Neal

Ndiswrapper is a program that allows you to use the Microsoft Windows drivers for your US Robotics card in Linux. There are graphical front-ends to it, but it is essentially a command-line tool. How you install ndiswrapper really depends on the distribution you're currently using. If it's Debian or Ubuntu, you can install it with:

apt-get install ndiswrapper < for Debian >
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper < for Ubuntu >

Once it's installed, either pop in the driver disc for your card or download the drivers off the US Robotics site and extract them. You're looking for an INF and a SYS file.

Open up a terminal and navigate to where your drivers are. CD (lowercase) will change your directory and LS (lowercase) will list the files in your current directory. If you're ever lost, PWD (also lowercase) will print your current working directory.

Once you're in the directory with the INF and SYS files, run this:

ndiswrapper -i nameOfYourInfFile.INF

In Ubuntu you'll need to put sudo in front of that. Now you should see a couple of log messages. Ignore them. Write your configuration to file:

ndiswrapper -ma 
ndiswrapper -mi

I honestly don't know if both of those are necessary, but they don't hurt. Now restart and see if your card is recognized.

[Indy452]

Wheeewww! Wow I hope I can swing this!

Thanks Moe! I'll give it a whirl this PM. I am using tiny me, a small version of pc linux. Will these commands work with this OS?

Neal

[techieMoe]

Wheeewww! Wow I hope I can swing this!

Thanks Moe! I'll give it a whirl this PM. I am using tiny me, a small version of pc linux. Will these commands work with this OS?

Neal

TinyME is based on PCLinuxOS, which is in turn based on Mandriva Linux, so the apt-get commands won't work. You'll need to download an RPM file of Ndiswrapper to get it installed. The actual ndiswrapper commands will work just fine though.

[Indy452]

Well wait a second, I can easily install xubuntu on it. This is the OS that I truly want on it but I ditched it like all the rest that I couldn't get working.

What about Knoppix? I like Knoppix but not sure if it would work either.

I would be most happy with either xubunu or knoppix but want the easiest to configure. What do you think?

Thanks for the feedback!

Neal

[techieMoe]

Well wait a second, I can easily install xubuntu on it. This is the OS that I truly want on it but I ditched it like all the rest that I couldn't get working.

If you install Xubuntu, those apt-get commands will work. It's basically Ubuntu with a different default desktop.

What about Knoppix? I like Knoppix but not sure if it would work either.

I would be most happy with either xubunu or knoppix but want the easiest to configure. What do you think?

Thanks for the feedback!

Neal

I could be wrong, but I think Knoppix is based on Debian. If that is indeed the case, the apt-get commands should work with that one too. I like Knoppix and all, but just in my personal opinion, I'd go with Xubuntu.