the microsoft card "should" work, according to the wiki on the ndiswrapper website. after trying at least 4 or 5 distros on my averatec laptop, ive decided to switch to arklinux from windows. i know its a less popular distro, but i havn't been able to use my 54g card after downloading ndiswrapper 9.1 from "kynaptic" . the drivers installed fine, but i try to write congifuration for modprobe (ndiswrapper -m) it does it sucessfully, but when i type modprobe ndiswrapper, i get 'cannot locate module ndiswrapper'

i get this at lspci -v

02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4325 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Microsoft Corporation: Unknown device 0003
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 10
Memory at 10800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

i can give any information that will help solve the problem, i really want to contribute in this forum, but wireless is too important to lose just because i want linux, any help appreciated

Are you doing the install as 'root'?
You shouldn't be writing the modprobe information until you've probed. Follow the steps exactly as in the install guide and it should work fine, especially if the drivers have installed. However you need to make sure you use drivers from the ndiswrapper wiki card list as people have had success with them before.
Regards
Chris

yes, i am doing everything as root, and the drivers did install sucessfully, as i got them from the wiki card list, as they have been known to work. what do you mean by probed? i already wrote the configuration, and it says it wrote the configuration sucessfully. perhaps the "module" itself is not installed. i did install ndiswrapper from a package manager, perhaps this is the problem? I am fairly new, and am sorry if i say something stupid.

You did this the wrong way round. The LAST thing you do is write the configuration using ndiswrapper -m as this means you are happy with the configuration, everything is working and you want it to boot up as it is at that point. However, you have written the configuration before you got it working. Oh dear.

You need to follow the install guide step by step. I suggest you go back, removing the drivers and ndiswrapper and try again.

ok, i think i know the problem. when i try to install ndiswrapper using the package manager, it doesnt seem to install the module. the module is comparable to a windows driver from what i understand, when i modprobe, the module is missing...even though ndiswrapper is installed... now, when i try to compile and install ndiswrapper myself, it spits out errors, i guess i need the source for the kernel, and something about symlinks? the installation guide doesnt explain this very well to me

i get this error when "make install"

Entering directory `/root/wrapper/driver'
cc -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DMODVERSIONS -include /lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include/linux/modversions.h -DNDISWRAPPER_VERSION=\"0.11\" -DEXTRA_VERSION=\"\" -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -I/lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -O2 -c -o wrapper.o wrapper.c
cc -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DMODVERSIONS -include /lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include/linux/modversions.h -DNDISWRAPPER_VERSION=\"0.11\" -DEXTRA_VERSION=\"\" -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -I/lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -O2 -c -o iw_ndis.o iw_ndis.c
cc -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DMODVERSIONS -include /lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include/linux/modversions.h -DNDISWRAPPER_VERSION=\"0.11\" -DEXTRA_VERSION=\"\" -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -I/lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -O2 -c -o pe_loader.o pe_loader.c
cc -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DMODVERSIONS -include /lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include/linux/modversions.h -DNDISWRAPPER_VERSION=\"0.11\" -DEXTRA_VERSION=\"\" -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -I/lib/modules/2.4.27-1ark/build/include -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -O2 -c -o ntoskernel.o ntoskernel.c
ntoskernel.c: In function `ExInterlockedAddLargeStatistic':
ntoskernel.c:281: error: initializer element is not constant
ntoskernel.c: At top level:
ntoskernel.c:728: error: initializer element is not constant
ntoskernel.c:728: error: (near initialization for `thread_wq.lock')
ntoskernel.c:728: error: initializer element is not constant
make[1]: *** [ntoskernel.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/wrapper/driver'
make: *** [install] Error 2

i am sorry, but ive given up on the microsoft card. the microsoft driver itself is unstable and the range is not that good. perhaps someone could direct me to a wireless b or g card that WILL work under almost any distro, and is avalible in retail stores?

Ive got a belkin f5d7000 that works fine using ndiswrapper. Thats the only one I can recommend from personal experience. Other than that, see the HCL on this site for other cards thatg people have got working with linux.
Regards
Chris