I've downloaded Fedora Core 5, seems to be working okay, i've had to hook it up to eth0 (Lan - with a cable) .. because it wont detect the Wireless Network Card.

I did some research online.. and found that my card (Dlink DWL-G510 card ses the Atheros chipset, which is supported by the 'madwifi drivers' .. So, I go and download them,

None of them worked! I updated kernel, everything, got the right ones, and kept getting stupid dependency issues.. Why?! They just don't work. They were RPM format.

So then I decided to try Ndiswrapper (nightmare, took ages to FINALLY figure out how to install it) .. once it was up, i got my windows drivers on there ,installed them.. it came up as 'Driver Installed' 'Hardware Present' .. yet still wouldn't work even once configured in Network Setup.

Then I came across this website, basically a tutorial on how to compile madwifi from kernel into an actual driver.. I follow *ALL* the instructions, exactly like that (Extracted to home/madwifi .. then when I type 'make' from the terminal:- I get get another frickkin error message:

I'm so stuffed.. been trying to get it working ALL day and still have gotten nowhere.. I want to scream and smash things, it's really driving me crazy~ does anyone know why nothing is working/would be able to help me.

Thanks in advance.

Please take a couple of deep breaths before posting. People on this forum can help you but you need to give us the information to do so.

If ndiswrapper recognized your hardware, you were probably pretty close. What error messages did you get? What did you see when running iwconfig?

What is "this" website? Do you mean linuxquestions.org or madwifi.org?

Your compile error message gives you information about what is wrong: it is not finding a certain directory and asking you to set the KERNELPATH environment variable so that it can find it. The directory probably exists on your system, but has a different name. What do you get if you "ls -l /lib/modules"?

Brian

I think you don't have the kernel sources installed.
You will find a nice src.rpm on the Fedora Update site then you can start to engage the install of ndiswrapper so that it will function.

Aware! the src kernel has to match to your running kernel.
you know that thing

When I type "ls -l /lib/modules"?
Into the terminal I get..

Okay. so I download the src kernel source to match my running kernel.. go to run it, get *another* error message, its like no mattre what i do it wont work.

Then try ls -l /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2187_FC5 to see if the build subdirectory exists. You should also do "uname -a" to verify which kernel you are running.

Could you also post the output of "iwconfig"?

Brian

you can also start from scratch. download all kernel rpms and madwifi rpms and install them. I installed from following rpms and everything seems to be working correctly:

kernel-2.6.17-1.2174_FC5.i686.rpm
kernel-2.6.17-1.2174_FC5.src.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.17-1.2174_FC5.i686.rpm
madwifi-0.9.2-28.at.src.rpm
madwifi-0.9.2-28.fc5.at.i386.rpm
madwifi-devel-0.9.2-28.fc5.at.i386.rpm
madwifi-hal-kmdl-2.6.17-1.2174_1.fc5.cubbi_suspend2-0.9.2-28.fc5.at.i686.rpm
madwifi-kmdl-2.6.17-1.2174_1.fc5.cubbi_suspend2-0.9.2-28.fc5.at.i686.rpm

Try Leisy's advice before mine, since she is a Fedora user and I'm not.

Brian

If you downloaded the rpm, do yum localinstall *.src.rpm (* is whatever src rpm). That should take care of any dependency problem.

I was also getting this error. I found a user doc on madwifi's website. In it, it states more or less to create a link of your own. Before doing so, I went and found the link in my GUI interface and saw the link was "broken". I checked the properties to see that the link was still pointing a non-existent directory. I followed the instructions on the website and got that error to disappear.

But now, I have this error coming up.
Obviously, I need some sort of config file and probably need RPMs of BUILD and SOURCE files for my kernel (in my theory anyways). I was wondering if someone could direct me to that website or if someone could tell me if my theory is wrong.

Thanks.

You can install madwifi drivers with yum. When I did it on my laptop all I did was...

yum install madwifi.

Not sure if that helps...

just tried it now.

Says that there is nothing to do. I also checked the Add/Remove programs under Applications and it says I already have it installed.

So, I'm confused. If it is already installed, how do I use it? What are commands for it? How do I know if it works?

Okay, I've got a DLink Wireless Network Card, It runs on The Aeroths chipset.
So i've downloaded/installed the MadWifi RPM's.. that didn't work.
I gave up, got Ndiswrapper and installed the Windows Drivers.
When I type ndiswrapper -l at the terminal I get:-

Installed drivers:
netrt61g driver installed, hardware present

So I know that it's installed. I'm having trouble getting it to connect to the wireless network though. I run a cable via ethernet - no worries, gets the IP & connects. Just like that! But getting this wireless card to work has just been a nightmare for me with one problem after another. Still havent got it to work after like a total week. Grr.

I go into Network Device Controller -> Configure -> New -> Wireless Connection
Then Select ndiswrapper (eth1) as the wireless card I want to configure
Then it comes up with:-
Mode: Managed
Network name (SSID) My SSID is "Home" So I type that in.
Channel is greyed out, as is transmit rate.
I dont write anything in Key, because it's unsecured wireless network (open)
I set it to automatically obtain IP via DHCP as well as auto obtain DNS information from providor.

THEN. When I go to activate eth1 It says 'Determining IP information for eth1... failed.

I try setting the Mode to: Auto
Specifying the SSID to "Home"
Channel 6 (This is the correct channel)
And Transmit rate.. 54Mbps
Once again, I leave the key blank.

Try to activate the decive, and I get:

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8b06) SET failed on device eth1; Invalid Argument
Determining IP information for eth1...failed.

So I change it to the final Mode left (Ad-Hoc) (I tried all the Modes cos I dont know which one to choose) .. and I get this error when trying to activate eth1:-

Determining IP information for eth1... failed; no link present. check cable. (what does it mean by check cable. It's frickin wireless! Unfuckingbelievable.

I open KwifiManager, and hit 'scan for networks'
Scan Results:
Network name: Home
Mode: Blank
Quality: 0
WEP: ON (But WEP isn't enabled on my router.. its an UNSECURE network)
I press 'Switch to network' and get this error message:-

'Aboring network switching due to invalid WEP key specification' This happens in both ULTIMATE Mode and Ad-Hoc mode.

I tried also to install 'Wlan Assistant - Wireless Assistant RPM' .. and that also finds the Home network on channel 6, but when I go to connect - I get connection failed. I have no idea why?!

when I type iwconfig at the terminal.

I get this for eth1:- Warning: Driver for device eth1 has been compiled with version 20 of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 19.
Some things may be broken..

^^ Is this why it wont connect, if so how do I go about resolving this problem..?

If I dont get it to work after any suggestions, does anyone know of a cheap WifiCard that IS detected by FC5 Automatically, this is such a pain in the ass.. I'd love to use FC5, everything works, except this - the most important of all - wireless Internet. Thanks in advance
~Damien

You must not have the right repo enabled. I believe the livna repo has that package. So, make sure you have the livna repo enabled, then do yum install kmod-madwifi. I believe some other repos have that package, but be careful mixing repos. They can seriously screw up your system.

just to make sure...did you inserted ndiswrapper module to kernel via modprobe ndiswrapper?

when I was using ndiswrapper(switched to madwifi, because ndiswrapper was very unstable on my system) after that I copied ifcfg-wlan0 to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and run ifconfig wlan0 up. the rest did dhclient wlan0.

I believe it is the right one. When I went to the Package Manager, it said that madwifi was "0.9.2-1.lvn5.i386" version, so I believe it's from the livna repo (I do have the livna repo key on my system too for yum updates and installs as well).

I guess I should give you a run down of what it says from my terminal.

Also, when I run the ifconfig -a command:

I know this is saying something is wrong, but I have no idea what it is.

A rundown on my hardware. Gateway 600YG2. Fedora Core 5. I have an Ethernet card, an internal Orinoco wireless card (but it's only a B card and worthless in my opinion), and a PCMCIA card SMC2536W-AG (which is the card I am attempting to use).

But, among other gibberish, I haven't got a clue what my computer is telling me.

(I erased the information from eth0 as well so I'm not giving out any "vital" information... I assure you, it's working though.)

EDIT: When all else fails, reboot the metal thing in front of you.

I turned off my computer and when I turned it back on, it started working. Thanks for all of your help.