I have an intel 3945abg wireless card and cannot figure out how to get it to work for the life of me. I have tried ndiswrapper and debian sees it but I am unable to connect to an AP. I have found a package by the name of ipw3945-modules-2.6.18-3-686, which does match my kernel, and I have installed it but I do not know what to do next. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

One of the most common mistakes newbies make is thinking that they have to use Windows programs to make Linux work correctly. The most common such error involves trying to use ndiswrapper for wireless cards with native linux drivers. Not only are Linux drivers for that card readily available, they are as close as Debian's repositories. Assuming that ndiswrapper did not screw up anything critical, all you should have to do is:

# aptitude ipw3945-source firmware-ipw3945 ipw3945d module-assistant linux-headers-`uname -r`
# module-assistant prepare
# m-a a-i ipw3945
# modprobe -v ipw3945

If you are using Sarge(stable), it may not be quite that easy. If you are, this would be a good time to switch.

I have compiled from bare source and using the posted method, but i always get this when trying to modprobe:

ipw3945: Unknown symbol iw_handler_set_spy
ipw3945: Unknown symbol iw_handler_get_thrspy
ipw3945: Unknown symbol wireless_send_event
ipw3945: Unknown symbol iw_handler_get_spy
ipw3945: Unknown symbol iw_handler_set_thrspy


I am using a custom built 2.16.18.3 Kernel, am i missing something in the configuration?