By adding a whatever.modules in the /etc/sysconfig/modules/ then the ndiswrapper module is loaded at startup.

#!/bin/sh

echo "Loading WLAN module..."
modprobe ndiswrapper

It's Linux, so as long as it's work. I'm OK with it. It's great to find out your post.

After putting modprobe ndiswrapper in my /etc/rc.d/rc/local file, my wireless card is active at boot. However, after typing the iwconfig command as su or and other user, the kernel spits out about 10 or so messages, and crashes completely. First, the keyboard stops, then the mouse, then the x server crashes. I havent found any errors in the system log or dmesg. In bash it just spits out messages, and few hex values, and crashes and burns. After I removed that command, everything went normal. I guess FC6 doesn't like that command in there very much.

happened on kernel 2.6.19-1.2911.6.4.fc6
ndiswrapper 1.25 installed from yumex
rt2500 linksys wireless g card

Anyone had better luck activating their card at boot? /etc/modules.conf didn't work, either.

Choose one:

1. As root create a file named something like my.modules in /etc/sysconfig/modules which has the line; /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

2. As root crate a line entry in /etc/modprobe.conf which looks like:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

For either:
make sure you have a /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 file that looks something like;

TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wlan0
HWADDR=
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
GATEWAY=routers IP address here
DOMAIN=
ONBOOT=yes
ONHOTPLUG=no
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=no
ESSID=MyRouterNameHere
CHANNEL=1
MODE=Auto
RATE=Auto

The first option you stated works perfectly, thanks a ton.

Your welcome.

Thanks Lenard, your first method works perfectly!

Oops. my bad. right answer; wrong thread.

I created an init script for Fedora Core 4 that should work on all Red Hat distros. It loads the ndiswrapper driver, initializes the wlan interface, and starts wpa_supplicant. You will need to put the script in

/etc/rc.d/init.d

and run

# chkconfig --add wlan
# chkconfig --level 345 wlan on

to get it to start at boot. It will start right after network is started and will stop right before network is stopped. You can control the wlan script using the usual Red Hat syntax:

# service wlan start
# service wlan stop
# service wlan restart

You may need to massage the script to handle any idiosyncrasies of your setup (e.g. change wlan0 to wlan1). E-mail me if you have an questions.

#!/bin/bash
#
# wlan This shell script takes care of starting and stopping
# the wlan interface.
#
# Copyright: (C) 2007 David Cullen dcullen@kerneldriver.org
#
# License: GPLv3
#
# chkconfig: - 11 89
# description: wlan starts the wlan interface.

# Source function library.
. /etc/init.d/functions

# Source networking configuration.
. /etc/sysconfig/network

# Check that networking is up.
[ ${NETWORKING} = "no" ] && exit 0

RETVAL=0
INTERFACE="wlan0"
LOGFILE="/var/log/${INTERFACE}.log"

wlanup()
{
echo "Loading ndiswrapper..." > ${LOGFILE}
if ! modprobe ndiswrapper >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not load ndiswrapper" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Configuring ${INTERFACE}..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! ifconfig ${INTERFACE} 192.168.1.251 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not configure ${INTERFACE}" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Bringing up ${INTERFACE}..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! ifconfig wlan0 up >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not bring up ${INTERFACE}" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Sleeping for one second..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! sleep 1 >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not sleep" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Configuring WPA..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! /usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i${INTERFACE} -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B 2>&1 >> ${LOGFILE} ; then
echo "Could not configure WPA" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Configuring default route..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! route add -net default gw 192.168.1.254 dev ${INTERFACE} >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not configure default route" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
return $RETVAL
}

wlandown()
{
echo "Stopping WPA..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! killproc wpa_supplicant >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not stop WPA" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Bringing down ${INTERFACE}..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! ifconfig ${INTERFACE} down >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not bring down ${INTERFACE}" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
echo "Unloading ndiswrapper..." >> ${LOGFILE}
if ! rmmod ndiswrapper >> ${LOGFILE} 2>&1 ; then
echo "Could not unload ndiswrapper" >> ${LOGFILE}
return 1;
fi
echo "Done." >> ${LOGFILE}
return $RETVAL
}

start()
{
echo -n $"Bringing up ${INTERFACE}: "
wlanup
RETVAL=$?
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && echo_success || echo_failure
echo
return $RETVAL
}

stop()
{
echo -n $"Bringing down ${INTERFACE}: "
wlandown
RETVAL=$?
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && echo_success || echo_failure
echo
return $RETVAL
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart|reload)
stop
start
RETVAL=$?
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload}"
exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL