Hello all, I'm new to Mandriva Linux i just installed on my desktop.

I'm having a problem installing my Belkin F5D7000 Wireless Desktop PCI card. ndiswrapper is giving me a fit basically.

The error message i receive upon setting up the card is...

"would you like to install ndiswrapper"

Answer OK

than, "could not install the ndiswrapper package"

I did some searches, nothing applied to me on mandriva. Is there anyone who has an idea, i have the latest update on cd, I also just tried installing a "ndiswrapper-utils 0.6.3.rhfc1.dag.i586.rpm" file that a fellow member gave me.

I just did more searching, i came to a How-To url that i can't post yet. until i've made 3 posts (probably a spam prevention which is pretty cool)

Anywho. the guide tells me to type in
sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/rcurci2/Desktop/bcmwl5a.inf

The error message I receive is.
"rcurci2 is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be report"

Should be automatic process. When you go to hardrake and setup new wireless connection Mandriva asks if you wish to install driver using ndiswrapper. Answer yes and ndiswrapper installs off dvd (assuming its in drive) and off you go. Only caveat I would add is that the process didn't work for me when setting up network during installation of Mandriva (got the message about couldn't install ndiswrapper)but worked first time after first reboot.

It should've been automatic, but it wasn't. It's fixed i figured it out. I'll be updating when i get home i have to run to work. There's a reason it didn't work I'll explain why or what i did rather to get it to work.

Alirght, Just like you said above, It should've worked automatically.

However, I had to use the how-to as a follow up, it helped me fix some of the issues, I created as well as others.

Mainly, if you read that how-to http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...Complete_Guide

Read it slowly to install the F5D7000 drivers on Mandriva. Make a mental note not to use the Belkin driver from Belkin's website, and also not to use the Belkin driver from the CD. They will not work and just cause havoc. Also, If you have tried them, and suddenly you are finding that ndiswrapper is not working, DO NOT procede to find another version of ndiswrapper such as the one I had (listed above) for Red-hat, (i had no clue).

However, If you ahve done this. This is pretty easy to fix (now that i've done it *rolls eyes* Head over to dell's website. Type in the search file R74092us.exe It will bring you to the download page for this file. Or you can search F5D7000 in the search, just confirm it brings you to this file. Extract the file however you chose, and waste a whole CD for this small .inf file and put that on CD. The file name may be the same as the how-to, or in my case wasn't which is bcmwl5.inf instead of bcmwl5a.inf (small difference)

Good, now go to devices, open the cd drive and copy it to the desktop (makes things much quicker)

To fix any problems you've created, head over to Root (AHHH SCARY...) and open Konsole. Type in "sudo ndiswrapper -L" (lower case L just put a caps so you could see the difference)

This will list all drivers that are installed under ndiswrapper.

it will list all of the drivers you've tried to install using the CD such as the French, english, european and etc drivers.

Finally, remove one at a time (unless there's a quicker method) by typing "sudo ndiswrapper -e" and after the -e type "driver name" whatever the driver names listed are.

repeat for each driver related to the drivers you chose to install.

Finally, go into system config, find yourself the way to removing the ndiswrapper (only if you installed another version other than Mandriva's like how i installed red-hat's which did nothing but screw things up )

Now start over. Head back to your username, go to the K Menu -> System -> Configuration -> Configure your Desktop.

Go to Network and Internet click on Setup New connection. Click wireless, than next, click Use a Window's driver than Next It will than ask you if you want to install ndiswrapper util click ok to install

Now it may list drivers if you left some installed already, simply ignore them, and chose "install new driver" It'll open a window, click on Desktop than chose the file you just copied from the CD.

Voila, it should definitely work now. I just did this, followed the on screen instructions (to restart basically) and i connected, it didnt' tell me at all, i just noticed the little connection logo in the lower right hand side of my screen is now connected.

I hope that this helps anyone in the future.