Linux/network/wireless

Computing: Software: Operating Systems: Linux: Wireless Network Cards

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Links

• WLAN Adapters: compatibility information from AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.
• ndiswrapper driver info: ndiswrapper converts Windows network drivers for use with Linux; this page also includes some information about chipsets and available native Linux drivers
• Ubuntu ndiswrapper how-to
  • http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Ubuntu
  • https://wiki.ubuntu.com//SetupNdiswrapperHowto

Notes

One of the ndiswrapper how-tos above insists that it's pointlessly difficult to install ndiswrapper when booting from a LiveCD, but (with one caveat) it's not true; I did it (with a KUbuntu 5.10 LiveCD), and it took me about 10 minutes of mostly fiddling. The actual work was about 3 commands and a bit of browsing. The caveat is that you need to have a working network connection in order to be able to install packages; you can disable it once the WLAN card is happy. You will also need to have some way to access the driver -- so if you've only got one CD reader and the driver is on a CD, you might want to copy it somewhere else (floppy, network, or a local hard drive) where the LiveCD-booted machine will be able to access it.

This is typed from memory, so steps are probably missing and out of order.

1. Boot LiveCD with both network cards (wireless and other working connection, which I'll call "wired" for short) installed
2. At some point, run the Wireless LAN Utility; it will show you the status of the WLAN
3. You should probably also run the Network Configuration applet from the System Configuration control panel thingy; it should show either just the wired connection, or possibly both connections with the wireless disabled. You can try enabling it, but it won't stay on at this point.
4. Using Adept, install ndiswrapper-util or whatever it's called (the only thing which shows up when you search for "ndiswrapper")
5. In a console window, type: sudo ndiswrapper -i path/to/driver (Not sure about this, but I don't have ndiswrapper manpage handy) where "driver" is the appropriate .ini file.

The driver is now installed, and just needs to be configured and activated.

With the liveCD, this procedure worked (to the best of my recollection), but it did not work on a full install of Ubuntu:

• Figure out what device is being assigned to the network card (I forget how this is done; lspci -vv might do it...)
• In a console window, type: sudo iwconfig ra0 essid "Hypertwins" (substitute the name of your WLAN for "Hypertwins")
• If everything doesn't magically start working, tell the Network Config applet to activate the wireless card.

With Ubuntu installed on the hard drive, this procedure seemed to work better:

• In the Network Configuration applet, select the wireless card and press [Configure Interface...].
• Enter the appropriate settings for your network (mine: use DHCP, and network name is "Hypertwins")
• Click [Ok]
• Click [Apply] (at the very bottom right)
• Click [Enable Interface] (higher up, under the interface list, next to [Configure Interface...])
• I had also done the "iwconfig" step for the liveCD (described above), so if this doesn't work try iwconfig and repeat.

Scanning for networks with the WLAN Utility and then selecting one seems to have absolutely no effect (at least, when running under a liveCD), but it can give you a clue that things are starting to work.

notes from a chat conversation

...in which we were trying to get a particular wireless card to work with Red Hat FC5. We didn't succeed, but a lot of useful-looking commands came up in the process.

• 2006-05-03 chat trying to fix wlan card (to do: extract the relevant commands and such, and link to manpages)