i recently bought a wireless network card for my laptop. its fairly generic looking brand. i am running the latest ubuntu on an ibm t20 laptop.the Cd that came with it does contain linux drivers (although they are in a folder titled 'redhat 9'). however it is not available as a netork device and i have no idea how to install drivers or hardware under linux as i am completely new to it.

when i look in device manager it is listed as RTL8180L 802.11b

status status
bus type PCI
Device type unknown
capabilities unknown

anyone know how i fix this?

also how do i install drivers on linux?

I use a similar wifi card with an rtl8180 chipset and use ndiswrapper to drive it, using the windows .inf file - on the installation CD.

Check your kernel to see if there is support for this hardware - unlikely.
cd into your kernel source directory e.g. /usr/src/linux-2.x.x.x or whatever the kernel is.

#make xconfig
if this doesnt work try

#make menuconfig

Then (in the case of my kernel 2.6.15.1)
Drivers > Network Device Support > Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) > to see a list of drivers.

I do not use ubuntu and maybe debian has it's own method to install this hardware. Under Slackware I use ndiswrapper.

Download and install ndiswrapper (follow the instructions - the readme directs you to the web site for installation details). Installation errors may require a different version for your running kernel.

Download and install the associated firmware
(Check /etc/hotplug/firmware-agent - open with text editor - for the correct FIRMWARE_PATH= and copy the firmware files to that directory.
/lib/firmware under Slack.

Install the windows supplied .inf file for the rtl8180L driver

#ndiswrapper -i <filename.inf>

#nidswrapper -l
should say hardware present driver present.

#depmod -a
makes it permanent.

#modprobe ndiswrapper

#iwconfig
should show the wireless device as wlan0 plus much more info.

Errors up to this point usually involve the firmware, either the wrong version or in the wrong directory.

Then assign it an IP address and if required a default gateway to your router if you have one.

#ifconfig wlan0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0 up
#route add default gw xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

For security options and the various modes please read the appropriate forums.

Be sure to select the appropriate package for your kernel and with it the associated firmware release.

There is plenty of info googling to help you.

Hope this helps.

Hi, I have made some changes to my reply. I wrote it rather quickly at first and then realised that I had made some errors. Should be more accurate now.

Cheers.