Need help getting my wireless card to work on CentOS 5.2
 

I am almost a complete Linux Newbie, this is the first time I have tried installing and running Linux.

I installed linux just fine, added the server options because I want to use this as a test box, I work for an online coupon company and we are considering moving our servers to linux. Anyway Linux seems to recognize the wireless card just fine, when I go to system->Administration->Network

it shows eth1: as inactive
when I click on the Hardware Device tab in the hardware dropdown this is listed

Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless Lan Controller

I tried setting it to dhcp but it wouldn't connect, my windows pcs are all connecting to the router fine and in fact this particular machine was running vista and connecting to the network before I decided to use it as a linux machine.

I tried setting the IP address and gateway information then activating the eth1 connection but it fails as well with this error

SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
Failed to bring up eth1:0

please help

The HCL section on this site has instructions for getting that card working in Linux. Take a look here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php/cat/202

Bob

BY THE WAY, WELCOME TO LQ!

thanks for the welcome and the reply... I had seen some solutions similar to this earlier, but I can't seem to make the files for ndiswrapper, when I try to use the make command I end up with this error

*** Kernel tree not found - please set KBUILD to conifigured kernel.

from what I have been able to gather I need to install the compiler, I have CentOS on dvd and I am not connected to the internet yet, I tried installing the compiler from the dvd but was unable to get it successfully installed. I actually re-installed my os selecting all of the options to install hoping that would install it during the intial set up.

unforuneatly I'm still getting the same error... I think I'll try hardwiring my computer to my router and installing the developer tools that way...

I'll post back wiht my results, thanks for the help thus far

thanks for the welcome and the reply... I had seen some solutions similar to this earlier, but I can't seem to make the files for ndiswrapper, when I try to use the make command I end up with this error

*** Kernel tree not found - please set KBUILD to conifigured kernel.

from what I have been able to gather I need to install the compiler, I have CentOS on dvd and I am not connected to the internet yet, I tried installing the compiler from the dvd but was unable to get it successfully installed. I actually re-installed my os selecting all of the options to install hoping that would install it during the intial set up.

unforuneatly I'm still getting the same error... I think I'll try hardwiring my computer to my router and installing the developer tools that way...

I'll post back wiht my results, thanks for the help thus far

Yes what you will need is gcc. I do not use CentOS, but I know it is an RPM based system like the Fedora I DO use and you should not have trouble installing it using the package manager in CentOS. What errors are you getting? You will also need the kernel headers. Also check the CentOS repositories when you get on line with a wire connection. Many distros include ndiswrapper in their repositores. If it is not there, there should be an RPM version on the freshrpms site.

Well I downloaded and installed gcc, but I still can't make a single thing Still getting the same error as before.

when I couldn't get ndiswrapper to make while, searching online I stumbled across someone metioning rpmforge and that it was like ndiswrapper and even had a GUI tool but unfortuneatly I can't for the life of me figure out how to run it... at least when I connected via hard line it was very easy to get running.

going to keep trying... thanks for the help

oh for the erros... when I try to run amke in the ndiswrapper-1.53 directory I get this
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver`
Makefile:23: *** Kernel tree not found - please set KBUILD to configured kernel.
Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/ndiswrapper-1.53/driver`
make: *** [all] Error 2

I don't know how to set KBUILD or a command ot even tell me what kernel I have :-(

I believe you need the kernel headers which will be available in the CentOS repositories. But, as I mentioned above there is an RPM version of ndiswrapper available which will make it much easier to install.

Bob

forgive my ignorance but a rpm is like a windows installer then?

ok I was able tog et ndiswrapper successfully installed and the driver installed, but I think I messed myself up earlier by editing the ifcfg-eth1 file trying to get it to work earlier now it seems that the settings I have in GNOME are showing different than what is in the file, and when I try to activate I get SIOCSIFFLAGS: No Such File or directory, and in the settings I can not select dhcp even though I have it set to use dhcp in the file.