Hi,

I have only just newly installed Fedora Core 2, and what a great product.

Well, my problem is that I have no linux command line knowledge and do not know how to go about installing the driver for my wireless pci card.

The card is a Minitar (minitar.com) PCI 802.b card. It comes with linux drivers and the following instructions;

1) Installation Procedure



- run 'make config' to set up module install directory.

(If the new kernel has a different version string, you need to

change the directory. The default answer is correct for most users.)

- run 'make install'

(This will do everything (install the driver and the necessary files ).

(make sure that you logged on as root).

- run '/sbin/insmod rt2400.o' (as root)

run '/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up'

run '/sbin/route add default gw YOUR_DEFAULT_GW dev ra0'

(where [YOUR_IP] like [192.168.1.1], [YOUR_DEFAULT_GW] like [192.168.1.254])


- run '/usr/local/bin/RaConfig' to start the Configuring Utility.



2) Uninstall Procedure



- run "make uninstall"


I have extracted the .gz file to a folder on my desktop and followed the instructions until it aked for the Linux Kernal Source? I do not know what to entre.
More so then this, I do not know if the pci card should even be detected automatically in linux or not? From what I can see it is not showing as a device anywhere.

further more, I have has this pci card running previously under windows server 2003, so the hardware should be working.

The card model is; Minitar MNW2BPCI (if that means anything)

Does anyone have any suggestions about where I can go from here?

Cheers

Michael

Hi, If your in as root then it should be a snap...I'm no expert but I've found it's just a case of hitting enter if your not sure about teh kernel source and it usually finds the right place.

Give it a bash...if it don't work, kick your PC till it does.

J

Hello mharding76,

I believe it is just trying to compile the program from source. It sounds like your kernel-source files are not installed. These should be on your fedora core cd. Get them installed using whatever manager fedora uses and try again.

Regards
Chris

Hi Guys,

I wasnt logging in as the root user, so I think that was the problem.

I ran the commands as per the instructions in my previous post, and wham, it appear to work, but I did receive an error, cant recall ATM but when I get home will post error message.
Was something along the lines of permission denied blah blah

I then when into the network adapter config tools and noticed that a new adapter had appeared, but clearly not got the right drivers and my list of NIC's still didnt have my card in the list.

Is there a GUI method for installing drivers? I hate the command line especially when I dont know what I am doing. Atleast with a GUI I can see the choices and its usually a snap.

Is anyone familiar with my wireless card at all?

cheers

If its GUI's you are after then MDK or Suse are the ones for you. rpmDrake on MDK is really good for installation (and even removal of packages) . Dont assume that becuase the card works okay in Windows 2003 server it will work fine in linux. Ive had to wrap my Windoze XP driver up using ndiswrapper to get it to work in MDK 10.1. I'm not familiar with your card (never even heard of it before) but the chipset of the card will figure greatly. Check out the HCL on this site for more info.
Reg,
Chris

Hi Chris,

Cool thanks for the help, but I must admit, I do not understand the terms you are using.

When you refer to MDK or Suse or ever rpmDrake on MDK are you refering to other distributions of Linux? or applications that I can run on Fedora Core that will give me GUI access to install applications/packages?

Cheers

Hi Michael,

Sorry, yes by MDK I mean Mandrake. It and Suse are different distrobutions of linux. Fedora Core is really a testing ground for Red Hat - kind of like a beta program for its next release - so it may well be more technical than either of the others mentioned before. However I have no experience of it so cannot comment from personal use. rpmDrake is an installation manager that comes with MDK and Suse and i cant say a bad word about it really. Its great! Its got a good GUI interface for installation of rpm packages. MDK also has a GUI application for unzipping gz files such as you have.

Regards
Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info again, sounds like I should probably migrate to Mandrake, didnt realise that Fedora Core was more in the realm of beta software. I guess I might get better driver support in a distribution which is post beta? Who knows, but might give it a shot.

Once again, thanks.

Hi Michael,

Before I get half the linux community breathing down my neck I should point out that fedora in itself isnt beta software but much of it is "cutting edge" for possible inclusion in the next Red Hat release. Its just that it is probably not the best choice for your first distro. There is a good reason Mandrake is the most popular one out there. My personal recommendation is to try this one first and then move on to others to experiment. Everyone has their own favourite but the general consensus is that MDK is a good start for newbies. Not that I'm saying your a newbie or anything
Just had a look for your wireless card - man thats not a common one by any means! You are lucky in that it has linux driver source files available for download. These should work no problems but failing that download the Windows XP driver and check out

ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net

which helped me get online.
Your card uses the RaLink chipset and so the wrapper works with several drivers listed there.
Regards
Chris

Just to add, Minitar run a forum where there seems to be lots of people with the same prob as you and some good installation tutorials.

http://www.minitar.com/forums/

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for pointing out the Minitar forum, I just had a look at the follow post: http://www.minitar.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=749

It is just what I need, I should have been there in the begining.

But Ive already learnt alot just from this forum alone.

Thanks again.

PS I am a newbie, and its fine to refer to me as one. I know what its like when I see someone new to Windows and I know I must look like that in the Linux community. Ive literally only been using Linux for the last few days.

Join the club! I installed MDK 10.1 Community five days ago! Before that I tried MDK 10.0 which I couldn't get my wireless card to work with (I was just too lazy) and before that I used MDK 9.2, MDK 9.1 and Mandrake Move, none of which had support for my sata hard drive. Not that Move would but...

Anyway, even 's get there in the end!
Chris