That's good advice, Hangdog. My only point as a noob is that a distro that has ndiswrapper already installed and a number of drivers already loaded will provide a much happier starting-with-Linux experience, especially when a single command will load any other driver needed. I actually don't understand why every distro doesn't have this, at least as an option, with a common database available to all from which the required driver can be automatically downloaded and installed at system installation.

Finally, SSgT, remember that you have another option if you really like what you have installed: spend $40 and buy a card that works out of the box with Linux. Netgear's WG511, for instance, is available from Amazon within a couple of days, and works fine w/o ndiswrapper. Good wireless hardware compatibility list at http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz

Ok I decided to give up on Debian, and I downloaded and installed Mandrake 10.1. I am learning this slowly, but I am trying to figure out how to install the kernel source. I am not sure what it is talking about in the ndiswrapper install instructions, nor do I have any idea how to do this. I have already downloaded the ndiswrapper source and from what I understand the wireless tools is already part of this distro of mandrake (I tried iwconfig and recognized the command, so I'm assuming that it is already installed and working). Can anyone provide me with a quick answer to this question so I can continue with my install? Thanks,

Travis

I haven't seen anything better than this: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/p...p/Installation

Click on the "Distributions" link, then on "Mandrake 10.1"

Good luck!

Of course, I *still* think the easiest is to start with the live CD of SimplyMEPIS and then, after you see that it picks up your card (or if not, you will have to install the driver using the command as root: ndiswrapper -i <driver>), install it on the hard drive and never look back...

I followed the directions from the distro-specific section of ndiswrapper website:

Mandrake 10.1 has built in the ACX100 Sourceforge Project Driver as a kernel module, you will need to remove this before install the ndiswrapper

HOW?

To get out ACX100/111-Support, you can do "find /lib/modules/ -name acx*" or look in /lib/modules/2.6.8.1-12mdk/kernel/3rdparty/acx100 then you have the list of this module components, move them for example in ( /usr/src/backup/ ) to keep a copy, for the end do "depmod -a"

Additionally you will have to remove NDISwrapper support from the Kernel (version 0.8, really old) for newer ndiswrapper versions to work. It should be located somewhere like this: /lib/modules/2.6.8.1-12mdk/kernel/3rdparty/ndiswrapper. Move it to a backup directory as explained above, and finally enter "depmod -a". All of the above has to be done as ROOT.

after doing this I read this on Mandrake's website:

How To / Linksys Sans filG
WPC54G(FR)
802.11g / 2.4Ghz / 54Mbps
– In terminal on root :
#urpmi ndiswrapper
– Inser cdrom Linksys or Download driver Windows
# cd /mnt/cdrom or directory driver.
#ndiswrapper i
lsbcmnds.inf (instal driver Windows)
#ndiswrapper l
(Listing Driver & Hardware present)
#ndiswrapper m
(Add alias wlan0 in modprobe.conf)
– Reboot your system
– Verify in #lsmod ndiswrapper was present in list module.
– In terminal on root or with MCC
#drakconnet
– Configure your Wlan0 > ! CAUTION ! WEP Key don't work.
– Verify your configuration with : #iwconfig wlan0
(If you don't have iwconfig or iwlist install wirelesstools)
– Open your WebBrowser
and test your connection
www.mandrakesoft.com.

(edit: I know that this is not the same wifi card that I have, but I figured that the install would be the same except for the driver. If I am wrong please tell me)

I couldn't get past the first step. I also experimented with the generic instructions on the ndiswrapper install page. I couldn't get ndiswrapper (source code) to install for some reason. I then deleted all of the files that I copied from floppy (ndiswrapper source code), and moved the /ndiswrapper and /acx100 folders back to their original locations. I tried urpmi ndiswrapper again (while in the /lib/modules/2.6.8.1.12mdk/kernel/3rdpary/ directory. Still no ndiswrapper package error message. I am re-installing mandrake to see if that will fix something (and so I can start over clean in case I have screwed something up) and I guess I will go from there.

There is one thing I can now help anyone here do. If anyone needs someone to install Debian woody, Vector Linux, Debian Sarge, or Mandrake linux - I'm your guy. I don't know crap about this OS, but I have installed these distros several times in about the last two weeks. Now if I could just get the hang of the other stuff....

Still no luck. I keep getting the following error when I try to "make" while in the ndiswrapper directory (of the source that I installed):

can't find kernel sources in /lib/modules/2.6.8.1-12mdk/build; give the path to kernel sources with KSRC=<path> argument to make
make[1]:*** [prereq_check] error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/travis/ndiswrapper-1.1/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

From what I can tell this has something to do with the kernel source. What haven't I done and how do I do it?

Sorry, Travis, I can't help you here--because this is about the moment I said there is no point to my spending so much time on this! Some big Linux gun is going to have to answer you here.

BTW: Just for the fun of it, why don't you download SimplyMEPIS, run it as a live CD, install your driver if you have to, and see if the damn thing just works? Having ndiswrapper all installed is a huge saver of time and aggravation.

I'll give that a try until I get an answer to my question...

It seems that I remember there being a live cd version on the mandrake install CD or DVD. Is that correct?

Not sure. I left Mandrake 10.1 over this very issue, and have not paid much attention since...

Sorry, was away for a couple of days........

OK, I need you to confirm that you do have the kernel source code installed in /usr/src. You should see a directory there named something like linux-2.6.8.1-12mdk. If you don't see that, then you need to find the RPM for the kernel source code and install it.

If the souce code is there, then, as root, issue the following command in the console:

export KSRC=/usr/src/linux-2.6.8.1-12mdk (but adjust the linux bit to whatever the real path to the kernel source code is. Then you should be able to follow the ndiswrapper install instructions.

Ok I have checked in the /usr/src directory and the only thing there is a RPM/ directory which contains a RPMS/ directory which contains atholon/, i386/, i486/, i586/, i686/, k6/, and noarch/. I think all of these directories are empty (all that I checked).

How do I go about installing the source if it is not there (where do I find and how do I extract the RPM files)?

This frist result from Googling "Mandrake kernel source" might help:

http://www.speculation.org/garrick/kernelprep.html

No I was able to list a couple of packages but when I tried installing them, it said that it was already installed. I tried rpm -q kernel-source and rpm -q kernel-source-2.6 and neither worked. I then tried rpm -qa | grep kernel and it listed one package kernel-2.6.8.1.12mdk-1-1mdk. When I attempted to install it with rpm -i it said it couldn't find the file or directory. I also tried urpmi kernel-2.6.8.1.12mdk-1-1mdk and it said that everything was already installed.

Not quite sure what is going on, but I sure would like to find out soon!

The RPM you are looking for is here

Thanks for the link, BUT it is saying you have to be a member in order to D/L it. Is there anyplace (or anyone) I can download this from since it seems that it is the only thing that is holding me back!!!

Also, after getting my hands on this file, how do I go about installing it?

Seriously though, I appreciate everyone's help on this, and I thank you for putting up with me for this long. Don't give up now!!!

D'OH! I'm starting to have a much better appreciation of Slackware.......... One thing to remember is that most linux distros have mirror sites that are freely available. Usually rummaging through a Google search brings up a mirror or two.


You can find a freely accessible version of that file here . You should find it about half way down the page. Since it is an RPM file, you should be able to install it as you would any other RPM package.