How do I use ndis wrapper for WLAN?
 

I have a DLink WLAN card that works with my xp, but im having a hard time trying to get it to work with Fedora Core 2. I installed ndiswrapper, used that to install the drivers for dlink-520 rev.D( my wireless card)but then I don't know what to do from there. I checked the list of wireless cards to add,but i don't think anything was added. I don't know what to do. :confused:

If you have done everything in the install doc all you need to do is "modprobe ndiswrapper". Once you have run modprobe you should see another network interface using ifconfig then setup your wireless stuff using iwconfig.

That didn't work, probably because i don't have an install doc, Dlink doesn't give linux drivers so i use ndiswrapper but I still am unclear about what to do. Is there anything i have to do before modprobe, or maybe i skipped a step and before ndiswrapper? very :confused:

In the source directory there is a file call INSTALL it is all in there. If you downloaded a binary download the source and get the INSTALL file. Here is the contents

Installation
============

1. Compile and install
----------------------
As root run

> make install

This should compile both the kernel module and the userspace utilities.

2. Install your windows driver
------------------------------
Download the Windows XP drivers, unpack it and locate the .inf for your card.
Run ndiswrapper -i to install the driver

> ndiswrapper -i </path/to/inffile.inf>

This copies all necessary files to /etc/ndiswrapper and creates the config
files for your card.

After installing you can run

> ndiswrapper -l

to see the status of your installed drivers. If you have installed the correct
driver you should see something like this:

Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 present

Where "present" means that you have a PCI-device present that can be used with the
driver bcmwl5.

3. Load module
--------------
To load the module type

> modprobe ndiswrapper.

If you get no error the driver should now be loaded and active. You can verify
this by checking system log (produced by 'dmesg'). If the driver is loaded
successfully, you should see a message:

wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

4. Configure interface
----------------------
Use iwconfig to configure wireless network interface. First, locate
the wireless interface:

> iwconfig

This will print the wireless interface (e.g., wlan0). In
the examples below wlan0 is used; replace wlan0 with the interface
reported by iwconfig above.

Set the operating mode of the interface according to your setup. In
most cases, it is Managed:

> iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

If you use encryption (WEP), set the key:

> iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX

You can use 6 hex digits for 40-bit encryption or 10 hex digits for
128-bit encryption. You may need to use 'open' security mode instead
of 'restricted' depending on the setup of your AP (access point).

Set the network name:

> iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID

Replace ESSID with the network name used by your AP.

Now, setup the network parameters for the interface wlan0. This varies
from distribution to distribution. Refer to your distribution's
documents on how to do this. Once this is done, you can use network
tools to bring up the network; e.g.,

> ifconfig wlan0 up

5. Automate
-----------
Once everything works fine you can write the correct modeprobe settings to
load ndiswrapper automatically by running

> ndiswrapper -m

I did it all right, i get present next to the driver name, netr33x, but when i modprobe ndiswrapper it says module not found. It should work, i dont know what the problem is. It might be my distro, Fedora core 2.

I'm having troubles with the wrapper myself. I installed the RPM's and what not, loaded in my driver, and put it in modprobe, and when I check ndiswrapper everytime, it does say that driver is present, but modprobe doesn't work. So I can't actually get my wan0 device working to continue, here is what happens.

[root@localhost root]# modprobe ndiswrapper
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol remove_wait_queue_R1947093e
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol netif_rx_R733de01d
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol softnet_data_Rd997498d
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol create_proc_entry_R4948717d
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol eth_type_trans_R626450ab
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol skb_over_panic_Rd402c01d
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol irq_stat_Rd032f027
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol misc_deregister_R079bdc5b
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol __kfree_skb_Ra94f0814
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol __netdev_watchdog_up_R486f2ecf
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol misc_register_Rf9895fac
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol remove_proc_entry_Rd7de1670
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol add_wait_queue_R53621d0f
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol proc_mkdir_Rb8b992f9
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol alloc_skb_Rbc023ad0
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol skb_copy_and_csum_dev_Red0cd491
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: unresolved symbol proc_net_Rd3e67137
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.o: insmod ndiswrapper failed

Any ideas as to how to fix this, or another way other than this where I can configure my wireless and set up a network connection? Keep it simple, I'm a noob hehe. Thanks.

Last time I had that many unresolved symbols in a module, I had compiled the module with the "wrong" version of gcc. In other words, the kernel and module had been compiled with different versions of gcc.

If you execute dmesg do you see any messages pertaining to that?

I really don't know if that's it, but I'm just thowing this idea out there.

Yeah, your right hehe. I got ndis wrapper to work, but going ndiswrapper -m, does not work for me. It adds the wlan0 alias to modprobe, but everytime I restart the machine, it won't automatically load wlan0 despite being in modprobe. If I go 'modprobe ndiswrapper' in a terminal each time, it will come up, but it would be nice for this to happen automatically.

ndiswrapper -m only enables the driver at startup. The actual wlan0 has to be configured and set to start automatically /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0

there should be an entry in there for boot just type yes right next to it

There is a very nice how-to for ndiswrapper and RH here