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ndiswrapper linux newb

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TimDgsr

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Location
Atlanta, GA
okay, not too spiffy with linux just yet, but trying to get used to it. I had an extra dell i8500 laying around and decided to install fedora core 4.

I've been playing around with it and would like to get the wireless card working. I've done some searching on google and can't seem to get ndiswrapper to cooperate properly.

I've been using this guide : http://linuxweblog.com/node/189 as a reference.

I've got ndiswrapper installed as an rpm at this point. when i use ndiswrapper as a command like "#ndiswrapper -i /mnt/cdrom/Setup/bcmwl5.inf" I receive bash: ndiswrapper: command not found.

after doing a rpm -qa, i see that ndiswrapper-1.10-1 is listed.

any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong here?

any information would be a godsend at this point :)
 
I'm a bit skeptical that the ndiswrapper binary starts with a #
TRry "find / -name bin/ndiswrap*" It should spit out a binary name. Use that name instead
 
Its worth pointing out that the guide that you are using is not using a current version of ndiswrapper
NOTE: I was getting errors with the current release and 0.9 version finally worked for me, so try installing previous releases and use the one which works for you.
As such this person obtained a previous version Tarball which was converted to a RPM however there is no refrence as to what version is being used, it appears that a lot of Fedora users opt for binary rather than what is available for download with YUM for some reason... Also are you certain that your card actually works with ndiswrapper as not all do.

The chipset used by the wireless card has to be identified which is done by typing lspci in the terminal or console, this command displays detailed nformation about all PCI buses and all devices connected to them

When I do this along the listed information about the devices, I can locate detailed information about the Wireless harware used. Below is the information displayed by my Acer Aspire 1522 WLMI

0000:00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys, A Division of Cisco Systems [AirConn] INPROCOMM IPN 2220 Wireless LAN Adapter (rev 01)

By typing in the terminal or console lspci -n more informaion will be diplayed as this shows PCI vendor and device codes as numbers instead of looking them up in the PCI ID database.

0000:00:0a.0 0200: 17fe:2220

Once the chipset and device PCI ID codes are established (my code is 17fe:2220) you can easily identify drivers and issues related to your card from the list of devices known to work on the NdisWrapper website. Even if yours is not listed it does not however mean that it will not work, just that nobody else has achieved this and documented it.

There is a step by step for installing Ndiswrapper on Fedora Forums
Alternatively go to Ndiswrapper and download the respective files from there and the dedicated Fedora How To
The advantage of using the Ndiswrapper site as a source of information is that its very well written and detailed.

Personally I have often had to compile ndiswrapper from source having experienced issues with what certain distros have provided me with and this could be a consideration for you, instructions for which are on Ndiswrappers website... Its also worth remembering you use the drivers for your chipset NOT your card which is why its so important to identify your card for example the Windows drivers for my Acer laptop work with ndiswrapper but have random connection drops and perform worse than the non-acer drivers I am using.
 
Thanks for the responses.

after reading and following instructions from the ndiswrapper site, I still cannot get ndiswrapper to work. I'm still receiving bash: ndiswrapper: command not found

also, when trying to use the lspci, i receive the same bash: lspci: command not found.

obviously the problem is me here, just trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

any ideas? :shrug:

Tim
 
Gnufsh is right on the money. I've been screwing around with it some more this morning, and found that if i path with the /sbin in front of it, i can do all the things i couldn't do properly.

what I tried to do was modify my .bash_profile, i changed the following line:


PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

to this:

PATH-$PATH:$HOME/bin;/usr/sbin


however, this didn't fix anything for me.

am I on the right path, or am I changing the wrong stuff?

thanks for the replies guys, learning this is going to be a long, but hopefully fun process :)
 
bah, i meant to put an = on the second line, that is just a typo here, but i did use a semicolon :p

thanks for the help
 
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