MSI PC54G Wireless Adapter Problems and Ndiswrapper
 

What im running - Knoppix Hard Drive Install v3.4 (Debian based)
- MSI PC54G 802.11 Wireless Adapter
- AMD Duron II 900mhz PC
-Linux Partition about 6Gig with 500mg swap file
- 256mg RAM

The windows drivers for this adapter are not compatible with linux, so i have tried installing ndiswrapper, but have realized lately the Debian install of ndiswrapper is much much harder than just ./configure, make, make install :(.


Ive only been using linux for 2 days now and have only read 1 text (Revised Linux Pocketbook) so please be as friendly with your response as possible :). Sorry if this has been covered i could not see, but ive tried looking up guides and they really have me befazzled.

Thanx for your help in advance - Aaron

You can install ndiswrapper on debian with ./configure and make install (I don't think the make step works or does anything you should try that. If it works just do it in the order you posted)

Then you have to use modprobe to insert the module in the kernel:

now install the windows driver:

Now you can configure with iwconfig, ifconfig and route or with dhcp. You'll need the wireless-tools package:

That's the package with iwconfig in it.

BTW if this isn't what made the debian install harder than ./configure etc. could you post the error you're getting then?

Just ask more if it doesn't work yet or you have a question :)

ok i do the make and make install and a bunch or writing comes up like it should, no errors

then i type modprobe ndiswrapper

~while in the same directory where i made it and literally nothing happens, just goes down to the next menu line, i have no idea what happens there.

Another problem is after reading ahead i figure i should look for the driver in Windows in the device manager just a .SYS file. Is this a problem considering it specifies .inf and have i got it wrong? is there a .inf file i dont know about?

im not even sure i have the right version of ndiswrapper now, because it came in a debian package, and all the research ive done indicates that it should have been in tar.gz:confused:

Actually now the module is added into the kernel. If you do:
you should see ndiswrapper in the list :)

You got a CD with your card isn't it? The file is on the CD. I don't know if it's the same but for my linksys card the file was lsipnds.inf . Note that for me there were 2 .inf files on the CD and I checked them both, one didn't work.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/ donwload this .tar.gz file. I don't know how you got your ndiswrapper in debian packages but it's not on the official debian mirrors so I don't know if it's good. Also if you have ndiswrapper in the list when you do lsmod you shouldn't download this then you can go on with what you have now.

Ok, to make things easier for you ive included all the steps i took to get where i am, the thing is that i install ndiswrapper on the inf files and tried iwconfig and it still says no card so im not sure if i have used the right .inf -unless otherwise noted the step works just as you said it would, btw i downloaded the tar.gz file you pointed me to.



~error:no such file or directory (so i just skipped it)
~bunch of code comes up, says its successfule basically
~more code, success messages
~ndiswrapper shows up on the list as expected
~says latest version installed

====Problems Point====
then i used DHCP broadcast and iwconfig, both do not detect card
no cards detected
no cards detected

this puzzled me deluxe because there were 6 .inf files on the setup cd but only these 3 were located in mnt/WINDOWS/inf

just so you can see the other files, ive included a screenshot of the driver directory on the MSI driver CD which is at the bottom of the post, the red arrows indicated the files in the inf driver file, and the 3 other .inf files are shown as well



thanx for your huge help up until this point
-Aaron::scratch:

http://www.free.prohosting.com/imevi...iverscreen.JPG *right click save target as*

I can't see the picture as my GIMP tells me it's not a .jpg file.

Try
If one line says that the driver is present and the hardware is present it's ok. If it doesn't work then do:
This removes the module. Then do
again.

If this doesn't work can you try the other files from the CD as well as trying the files you now got out of windows. So try all the files directly from the CD and use ndiswrapper -l to see if one is right.

thanx for your help with this, ive got to the point where ndiswrapper is installed and i just need to find the correct driver, i think i can handle from here.



Thankyou again from a linux :newbie:

-Aaron