I have spent about a good 6 hours trying to do this.. im sort of new to linux. have done my share of playing around with it but never tired to install any hardware. I have wanted to duel boot for some time now, but i cannot get my wireless adapter working inside ubuntu 9.04. I have a linksys wusb54gsc ver.2 adapter and i need to know how to isntall it so i can have wireless on my computer since running a ethernet cable is not an option.. thanks

You need ndiswrapper to do this. There are clear instructions on the site - make sure you read them through a few times to properly get an idea of what's required.

Hello Medec5

Welcome to Linux Questions

You can help us to help you by reading the good advice given on "How to Ask a Question" in XavierP's signature block. I'm only suggesting this because of the title of your post; the body is well put together.

Best

Charles

Ok I understand that I need to use ndidwrapper, and I have found a few walkthroughs that help me do so, the only problem I have is I don't have Internet while in ubuntu to get ndiswrapper install, and my understanding is that I need it. is there anyway to install this without having to have the pc hooked to a Ethernet? thanks

Yes, but I forget exactly how. I once set up a laptop to be on my ethernet LAN and act as an "ubuntu repository" for another linux laptop that wouldn't connect wirelessly. It worked but it took me a whole day of searching and configuring. I resolved that next time, I'd just use an ethernet connection.

Drag your PC to somewhere where you can get an ethernet connection, and configure ndiswrapper there. Trust me, it'll be easier.

If you don't like this advice, do a search on local ubuntu repository. You'll need 2 linux computers, one of which can connect either wired or wireless. Then join the 2 together with a crossover cable, or your router. It's a pain if you have not done it before.

when you drop down to a shell, can linux see the wireless adapter using the lspci command?

ok im not sure about the whole shell thing.. i was trying to look around on the internet to see if linux had some type of device manager. from what i read it seems that it dosent. so im not sure to tell if Linux sees the adpater or not. and tredgar, unfortantly moving the pc near the router isnt an option, thats why i got the wireless apater in the first place thanks.

if youre using ubuntu, go to the applications menu, then click Accessories, then Terminal. that will get you to a shell prompt. from there, type: lspci | grep Eth now lspci will generally show you all of the attached PCI devices that linux sees, but this line will help you filter through all the stuff youre not looking for and show you specifically the ethernet devices that your OS can see on the machine (and yes, your wireless card does fall under this category).

To mods of LQ, this thread belongs to the subforum: wireless networking.

Thanks

Thank you, chris71mach1.

I've been suspecting for a couple of weeks that the wireless adapter on this box has gone bad (the box is still under warranty). It was working fine. Then it was not.

The output from that command reported the ethernet adapter, but not the wireless adapter.

Looks like I need to call Dell. It's warranty time.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Wireless Networking and has been moved accordingly to help your question get the exposure it deserves.

FrankBell: Look at "lsusb" instead for a usb device. It may show there.

Medec5: I used to use ndiswrapper for a broadcom wireless device before the bcm43xx device was available. I downloaded the source and would need to rebuild it after a kernel upgrade. In the meantime I didn't have internet access. As long as you have the needed NDIS driver. After the first time, only the kernel driver needed to be reinstalled, not the ndiswrapper program itself. You may need the kernel source installed as well, and if there is a kernel-syms package available for your kernel, install that one as well.

http://jefim.wordpress.com/2007/07/2...ux-704-feisty/
Here is a wusb54gsc / ndiswrapper howto for Ubuntu. It is for Ubuntu 7.04. It implied at the end that this device has a native Linux driver but that he was unable to join a network with it. Perhaps support has improved in the meantime. If a native driver is available and doesn't require firmware or a driver, you may not need ndiswrapper. This was the situation I was in when I used ndiswrapper, although I did need to use b43-cutter to cut out some firmware blobs for the Linux driver to work. But I no longer needed ndiswrapper.
Because you don't have wired access, if the Linux driver works now, it may be the easiest route for you.

If it would be easier to use another computer's wireless connection to connect to the internet, and you have another linux computer available, you want the cross-over connection to be on another subnet. Then the computer with both a wireless and wired connection can route the traffic based on the subnet. The computer with both a wired and wireless interface needs IP forwarding enabled, and I had discovered needs the nf_conntrack module loaded. On the computer you are setting up wireless for, use the other computer's IP address as the default gateway.

Good Luck. Sorry your circumstances have sort of painted you in a corner.

thank you guys for all the help.. i just have one more problem im trying to work out. i have gotten everything i need to build ndiswrapper, only prob i have is somehow i have managed to misplace my wirless adaper cd for the drivers.. once isnt usual for me, and i have downloaded the linksys drivers for windows.. but i cannot seem to find all the nessary files that linux needs for the install. anyone have any ideas.. thanks again!

ok guys i have made some headway i think.. i booted up the live cd for linux, and i couldnt find anything with ispci | grep Eth, but i ran the iusb command i belive it is.. and i saw linksys.. so i take it that ubuntu sees my adpater it just needs drivers correct me if im wrong please

You need to be careful with spelling and the case of letters when running commands.
Read the ndiswrapper documentation under /usr/share/doc/ndiswrapper-<version no>/ or /usr/share/doc/packages/. A readme file may indicate links and md5s for good known drivers for various wireless controllers. Also, the blog link I included in my last post contains a link at the top for the drivers that user downloaded for the same device.

If the wireless device showed under lspci, then a native kernel driver may be indicated running "sudo lspci -v". For other devices in the future (that are on the pci bus) that may come in handy.