HOW TO: Update Kernel w/o internet
 

I need to update my kernel in order to install ndiswrapper so that i can use my wireless drivers, but until then i have no internet. I have downloaded the newest kernel but am stuck on what commands to use to update it.

Which distribution are you using?

And how did you post the question ... ??? :D

We need to know whether you are talking a package (binary) update or a source update.
If you don't give us info, we can't give you answers.

Edit: How to: Update Kernel w/o internet
 

Umm I'm very new to this, but I'm using Ubuntu, and i have put the latest kernel on a Cd (2.6.21.5) from www.kernel.org. I don't know if that is a package update or a source update, how can i tell.

Dugon143, the kernel you downloaded is a source update, since it's in tar.gz or tar.bz2 format. So long as you're using Ubuntu Edgy or Feisty, you should be able to compile ndiswrapper as it is right now without a kernel update. Get your ubuntu install CD, put it in the drive, and when the menu pops up that says "We detected a CD with packages, do you want to open the package manager" or something along those lines, tell it yes, enter your password, and install the build-essential and (maybe) kernel-headers packages (kernel-headers will have some other stuff tacked onto the end of it). From there you should be able to compile ndiswrapper with:

while you're in the ndiswrapper directory.

And as far as updating the kernel with ubuntu, it's kind of difficult because the Ubuntu people mess with the kernel some, so the one you downloaded might not work with it as well as it should. It happened to me.

If you want to use the source package (the one you downloaded from kernel.org), you will have to compile it first. However, you may want to leave that till later when you are more experienced with Linux, as the process is somewhat complicated at least for the first few times.

@Dugon143, what makes you think you need the "latest and greatest" kernel level for this ???. What Ubuntu are you running ?.
As I said before, more info needed ...

ingrix advice above should be sufficient - I really don't understand why Ubuntu don't ship those tools as standard.

Indeed - you really don't want to go there.
Can be done using the Debian based tools, but a mangling a "raw" kernel compile to work is just too much like hard work.

When I put in the CD all that happens is that a window pops up containing all the files on the CD, might i have a different CD? Is there a way to manually install the packages?

@Syg00, when going through the instructions on how to install ndiswrapper, it said make sure you have an updated kernel at least 2.6.6 or 2.4.26 while mine was 2.6.20. I didn't know if that meant I was out of date, or updated. Also when I compiled ndiswrapper I got a bunch of errors, so I thought maybe I needed to update the kernel. To answer your other question I'm running feisty.

Perhaps if you post the compile errors we could help with that.

Feisty will be at the appropriate kernel level. However it doesn't ship the compiler packages by default.
From a terminal do "uname -r", then use that number with synaptic to get build-essential and linux-header-`uname -r` (or similar).

Then tell use what (compile) errors you get - if any.

Ok, so i installed those packages and ndiswrapper, and I think I installed my driver from the windows CD because when I type ndiswrapper -l it says:
"wmp544gs : driver installed
device (14e4:4318) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)"
I restarted my computer, but yet I am still not getting any connection. Did I miss a step in installing this or might there be another problem with my wireless card?