Need help compiling and installing WiFi driver
 

I've got a Realtek 8187b wifi dongle and need to compile and install the driver. The instructions say the following:

"The driver is composed of several parts:

1. Module source code

stack.tar.gz

drv.tar.gz



2. Script to build the modules

makedrv



3. Script to load/unload modules

wlan0up

wlan0down



4. Script and configuration for DHCP

wlan0dhcp

ifcfg-wlan0

4. Supplicant source code:

wpa_supplicant-0.5.3.tar.gz



5. Example of supplicant configuration file:

wpa1.conf



< Installation >

Runing the scripts can finish all operations of building up modules

from the source code and start the nic.

1. Build up the drivers from the source code

./makedrv



2. load the driver module to kernel and start up nic

./wlan0up

Note: when "insmod: error inserting 'xxxx.ko': -1 File exists" comes out

after run ./wlan0up, please run ./wlan0down first, then it should

be ok.



< Set wireless lan MIBs >

This driver uses Wireless Extension as an interface allowing you to set

Wireless LAN specific parameters.



Current driver supports "iwlist" to show the device status of nic

iwlist wlan0 [parameters]

where

parameter explaination [parameters]

----------------------- -------------

Show available chan and freq freq / channel

Show and Scan BSS and IBSS scan[ning]

Show supported bit-rate rate / bit[rate]

Show Power Management mode power



For example:

iwlist wlan0 channel

iwlist wlan0 scan

iwlist wlan0 rate

iwlist wlan0 power



Driver also supports "iwconfig", manipulate driver private ioctls, to set

MIBs.



iwconfig wlan0 [parameters] [val]"

In the file are a bunch of other files like wlan0up/wlan0down, makedr, etc. Could someone walk me through this process? Thanks.

You might want to change the thread title to "wifi" driver, not video driver.

Sorry, I can't help with wifi...

I think the Realtek 8187b is already supported by the kernel. It uses the r8187 module, which is present on my kubuntu 8.04.1 install.
Try is it listed?
If not do (as root): Then maybe re-plug the dongle, and you should be set to go.
Check with Do you see any networks?

Actually, you're right, I'm running Linux Mint 6 and the wifi driver is installed. It's just that it keeps failing and I can't connect. I was advised by the LM forum to do a manual install of the driver but no one there seems to answer this question.

This is a particularly difficult thread to answer as I do not have your hardware to play with.

And you are not providing us with any real information to help us diagnose your problem.
"I can't connect" and "I was advised" isn't helpful at all because we cannot read the error messages, or where you read the "advice".

Maybe your distro is loading the wrong module?

What's the output of ?

If you see the rtl8187 module, it needs to be "blacklisted" because it will not drive the b version of your chipset.

I think you need the r8187 only

The output of lsmod | grep 8187 give me:

rtl8187 53248 0
mac80211 216820 1 rtl8187
eeprom_93cx6 10240 1 rtl8187
cfg80211 32392 2 rtl8187,mac80211
usbcore 149360 4 rtl8187,usbhid,uhci_hcd

When I first bootup, my wifi works fine then unexpectedly stops connecting and I have to reboot. The Linux Mint forum says it's the driver. Since my dongle is a Realtek 8187B, what should I do here?

I found a site that explained how to install the Win98 driver using ndiswrapper and got the following result in the terminal:

$ ndiswrapper -l
net8187b : driver installed
device (0BDA:8189) present (alternate driver: rtl8187)

Does this mean the Win98 driver is installed and the old rtl8187 isn't?