I cant figure out how (if there is a way) to get my microsoft wireless networking stuff to work with mandrake 9.2.

if by microsoft stuff you mean their wireless hardware, then you can probably use either linux-wlan.org drivers or the orinoco drivers that are included in the kernel. those are standard wlan drivers which work with most wlan hardware. knowing microsoft, they like to keep everything secret and may use a proprietary protocol allowing only their drivers to use their hardware. the question then is: are you/are there any good reverse engineers willing to work on the ms wlan drivers?

also is this 802.11 a or b or g?

so try the drivers compiled with the kernel, or the linux-wlan.org drivers or maybe prism54.org drivers.

You can use your windows wireless drivers on Linux if you don't mind paying a nominal fee to the company that made it possible.

Link:
http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader...f1ca823cb17890

Umm... maybee a free solution if at all possible?

Well... I can't figure it out Is there any other solutions you people can come up with? (besides paying for a program)

now, did you actually try the things i proposed? i told you three things: linux-wlan.org prism54.org and the kernel orinoco drivers. did you try these things? if so, which part didnt work?

try this: http://homepage.mac.com/cuddapah/wireless.html

Well... I don't really know what you were talking about and have no idea how to "try" those things. (if the situation was reversed I would probably be slightly frustrated with my self )

-

EDIT: Oh and it's 802.11b

well then perhaps it's time to learn about how modules work. they are basically linux drivers. you can either compile support for your hardware directly into the kernel or you can load a driver (module). without one of these two things, it's silly to expect any hardware to work. you can goto www.google.com and learn more about modules and also be sure to check out tldp.org (search around in there...)

once you understand what a module is and you learn some of the basic commands (how to load a module, how to unload a module...) you can then try a module that will allow linux to use your wireless hardware. an example of such a module is written by the people over at linux-wlan.org (ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/). you download that, install it, and load up the module (remeber: you should know what you are doing before you do this). there are plenty of instructions in the readme file of that driver: READ THEM!

now suppose you do this correctly and it doesnt work, you have to try another module. your kernel probably already comes with some modules that you can load up (ie: orinoco) . in this case you dont need to download anything but simply find the right module and load it up.

suppose your distribution did not compile the module for wireless drivers. you should then recompile your kernel and add in support for your type of wireless hardware.

so to sum it up: learn about modules, try modules, pray they work.

the first step is important.

good luck.

Um... no offense, but I don't think you under stand the degree to which I am a newbie. I am a newbie as in; I went to where you said, tried google, and went to that place you linked to. And the results are as I thought they would be: I did'nt understand ANYTHING ANYBODY was talking about in those places. I appreciate you trying to help and I think if I knew more about Linux and such it would've been a great help, but I'm afraid you over estimated my knowledge of this sort of stuff.


-It looked like a great post and all I just could'nt understand anything. It's not your fault I'm a complete IDIOT at this stuff.



EDIT: In particular, I did'nt know wich file to download, I found a "HOWTO" ("Linux Loadable Kernel Module HOWTO") on that site you mentioned and first off I don't even know where to type this stuff! (all those command-like things people keep telling me to learn example: "blablabohonana_loadstuffandsuch.0")

no offense taken.

you really have to decide if you're willing to take the time to learn this. in linux you type commands in a command line and run the system that way. that's just how it's done.

the file you are looking to download is a driver that will support your hardware.

i did some searching for microsoft wireless lan hardware and ill try to help you out. keep in mind that i dont have microsoft hardware. linux-wlan says that they support some microsoft cards so try downloading this file: ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-w...1-pre17.tar.gz

after you save that file, you would use goto the directory it is saved in with a command line (using the cd command for example: cd /home/newbie/drivers/) and unzip the file with the following command:

tar -zxvf linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1-pre17.tar.gz

and then type in :
cd linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1-pre17
./Configure
make
su
make install

make sure you answer those questions. and then READ THE README FILE!!!!!! you really have to do that. i think those were pretty explicit instructions. tell me how it turns out.

But I don't know where I can find the info I need. Google did'nt work, and thats a bad sign.

all you need to know about linux kernel modules is here: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Module-HOWTO/

you type the command lines in a command line terminal like konsole or xterm or aterm

read up a bit and then download this file: ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-w...-pre18a.tar.gz

uncompress it
and then run:
./Configure (select what you need if its a PCI, USB, PCMCIA, or PLX (pci+pcmcia))
make
su
make install

i dont know what the problem is here. you just download that driver and install it. of course, you have to know how to install the driver before you do it. simple.

Ok so I save the file and then boot in to linux and, oh wait... how the heck do open the file from here???(I tryed a file seach for "*.*" to find everything and it was'nt there) So... how do I open files from linux?

EDIT: I DID save it to the hard drive that linux runs off of and it's not the windows boot drive. Also If I install one of these programs like insmod or something how do I install it?

this is a bit confusing but ill try to help. it sounds like you're dual booting with windows and linux and in order for linux to access the files on the windows parition it would need to mount the windows partition and access the file.

mount -t vfat /dev/hdxX /mnt/hd

should work on a FAT32 partition. replace vfat with NTFS if your parition is ntfs (note: this will probably require a kernel recompile) and replace /dev/hdxX with the partition on which windows is installed.

if this isnt making sense you might as well save yourself a lot of trouble and just save the file to a floppy and mount that floppy in linux.