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Old 07-26-2005, 08:11 PM   #1
tstrickland
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Registered: Jun 2005
Location: Lewisville, Texas
Posts: 36

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Smile A Question for the Experts


After a number of mistakes and false starts but a lot of help from many fine people on this forum, I've got Linux up and running on one of my computers. I've got lots to learn but at least my system is functional.

Now I'm considering installing Linux on my other computer. The first computer is connected to the Internet by Ethernet which Linux recognized and configured automatically. However, this second computer is connected by WiFi. It uses a wireless USB adapter and Linux doesn't recognize it.

My understanding, such as it is, is that I'll have to use ndiswrapper to wrap the Windows drivers so that Linux can connect with this setup. I'm quite reluctant to try this because I don't know what I'm getting into.

My question for you experts who know how to do this is: Should I proceed with this and try to get this to work, or should I wait for several months in hopes that my knowledge of Linux will be vastly improved by then?

What's your opinion?

Thanks!



 
Old 07-26-2005, 08:36 PM   #2
dcdbutler
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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Boston
Distribution: slackware
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check your card is supported by ndiswrapper. It will appear in the list if it is:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List

Ain't so hard to do so long as you follow the wiki closely, and as long as you're not doing it on fedora core which most people seem to have most problems with wifi on.

As a disclaimer, I'm no expert, but I'd say try it.
 
Old 07-26-2005, 08:55 PM   #3
tstrickland
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Registered: Jun 2005
Location: Lewisville, Texas
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This is what is says about my adapter on the ndiswrapper site you reference:

Quote:
# Card: NETGEAR WG121 Wireless USB2.0 Adapter
* Chipset: Prism54 (I don't know more)
* usbid: 0846:4200
* Driver: WG121 Software Version 2.0, NETGEAR Inc.,03/09/2004, from http://www.netgear.com
* Other: Seems to work well. I had to upload the new firmware by running the installation on WinXP, but now it works. If anyone knows another way, please edit this. I used the drivers in the ndis5-directory of the unzipped download.
The comment about firmware bothers me.

Comments?
 
Old 07-26-2005, 10:23 PM   #4
tuxdev
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: Slackware
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Upgrading your firmware is just like upgrading the software in your computer, it is no big deal. By definition, firmware is software specially designed to work with a specific piece of hardware.
 
  


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