I've just installed Slackware 10.2 on my HP Pavilion ZE4900 - only problem is, I'm pretty new to linux and don't know how to configure the sound card, ethernet card, or wireless card.

Linux-laptop has a pretty detailed explanation of my exact laptop, but I'm just not sure how to do the things it says to do. Can someone explain how to install drivers, configure an ethernet card (connecting to the 'net through a university router), and use modprobe and ndiswrapper?

Let's tackle the sound card and ethernet card first. You can find out what hardware you have in your PC by typing 'lspci' as the root user in a xterm window or at the command line interface. Copy and paste in the relevant information about your hardware in a reply post.

Ok, I got the sound and ethernet card working, but still need help with the instructions on this webpage regarding the wireless card:

http://www.geocities.com/clsdaniel/ze4900.html

For future reference, it is better to post exactly what you need help with, not just "I need help getting my xxxxx to work". I read over the link you provided and there are indeed several steps to getting your wireless card to work. Which step do you need help with?

I have a ze4900 (ze4935 to be exact) and mine is using a broadcom driver with ndiswrapper.

The driver mine is using is bcmlw5. Give us the output of lspci so we can see the information on the card.

To be honest, I need help with everything concerning the wireless card installation. It's not so much that I can't do it as I'd like to know what it is I'm doing. That way, if I have problems in the future, I don't have to post just because some specific thing I did before no longer works.

Here's what lspci says regarding the wireless card:
Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

HP packs their drivers in a compressed executable. If you have access to Windows (another machine or dual boot) then go to HP's driver download site and grab the driver exe file. When you run it, it will extrace itself into an SPXXXXXX directory, burn those files to a cd. Then use the cd in linux. Find the appropriate .inf and .sys file(s), copy them to your home directory then run

ndiswrapper -i <driver>.inf
modprobe ndiswrapper

Your wireless indicator light should come on after the modprobe command if you used the correct .inf file.

Here is the link for the ndiswrapper wiki. It includes your card in the List of known to work. Just click that, then go down to the "I" and look for the 2200BG for instructions on obtaining the appropriate driver. Then go back to the wiki home and go to "Installation" for instructions on using ndiswrapper.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m....php/Main_Page

Thanks alot, justanothersteve. This is helpful.

I tried using ndiswrapper like the site said to, but this is what happens:

Everything works fine up until I type:
modprobe ndiswrapper

Then I get:
<3>ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:133): couldn't load driver 'w22n51'

What's the deal?

I'm going to start a new topic, so if you have something else to add, look for my post on ndiswrapper troubles