NETGEAR wireless PCI adapter
 

Hi,

I bought a wireless PCI adapter Nettgear Wag311, but could not find linux driver. Does that mean I have to return it to the shop and buy another one? If so, could anyone give me a clue which bland of wireless adapter (802.11) is good for linux?

Thank you.

I think that card uses the Atheros chip set. There is a native linux driver project (MAD wifi) for this driver.
http://madwifi.sourceforge.net/

Use, as root, the command "lspci" to make sure. Sometimes, two different devices from even the same model may be made using different chipsets.

If there isn't a native linux driver, then can try using ndiswrapper. Ndiswrapper will take a windows driver instead. With ndiswrapper, you might want to download the latest source package for this to be a success. Also make sure you have wireless-tools installed. It contains a number of tools such as ifconfig, ifpriv, etc.

According to the Ndiswrapper compatability list, the WG311T card uses the Atheros chipset, but the WG311 uses the TEXAS INSTRUMENTS ACX 111 chipset.

It might be a help to run lspci and then lspci -n to find the pciid of the card (in the form xxxx:xxxx) and then search the Ndiswrapper compatability list (here) for that ID to see if it's supported.

Simon.

There's a very good stash of information on the TI acx111 at The House of Craig web site at http://www.houseofcraig.net/indx.php . I was able to use the linux-native driver he links to (it's from Sourceforge) and the instructions to get my netgear wireless up and running.

But I gotta tell ya... I thought I was doing good with that card for about 5 months. It died on me. I replaced it with another that (coincidently) uses an Atheros chipset, and I went to the madwifi driver for it. It's rock solid, and sort-of showed me that either the netgear or the driver leaves a little something to be desired.
Good luck.