Hello all,

I'm trying to figure out how to install/configure my wireless card, and I can't seem to find the instructions I need. Here's where I'm at:

I'm running SuSE 9.1 personal, dual-boot with XP-SP2.

I have my wireless notebook adapter (Linksys Wireless-G - WPC54G) installed and working fine in Windows XP.

When I plugged in my wireless adapter while running SuSE, I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I tried fiddling with the YaST configuration, but really had no idea what I was doing.

I want to use my wireless adapter to connect to public (free) access points (e.g., at the public library, at cafes offering free wireless access, etc.). Point being, the access point may vary.

I saw other threads talking about ndiswrapper and such (and I downloaded it), but I don't understand how it works, or how I should go about configuring my adapter.

Could someone walk me through the set-up process, or point me to a site that might describe the installation/configuration procedure?

Thanks much, in advance!

Hello niima,

Your first port of call should be ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net. This project supports your card. You will also want to use this site's HCL as I believe there is an entry there which may help.
Regards
Chris

Read the readme or the install (not sure which) that came with ndiswrapper. Its very detailed.

Thanks snecklifter and HappyDude, for pointing me to the ndiswrapper installation sheet. For some reason I missed the link when nosing around the site before...

Though reading it, I realize how absolutely little I understand about Linux... I will have to go through and parse out the specific things I don't understand how to do so that I can ask for help on them.

To show you how basic my issue/ignorance is, here's an example of stuff I don't understand from the ndiswrapper installation page (under pre-requisites):

[aside: maybe instead of asking questions point-by-point on this specific task, I should be asking for directions to the Linux 101 classroom... I feel like these installation instructions are for advanced users and I am a complete novice... I ventured to Linux becaues I feel like I understand Windows pretty well, at least from a users standpoint, and figured it couldn't be THAT hard to figure out another OS, but I've never done command prompt type stuff, which seems a pre-req here in LinuxLand, except for learning the fundamentals of Basic in high school in the 80s... eek]

So anyway, back to my specific questions, to give a taste of what I'm up against:

"You need a recent kernel (at least 2.6.6 or 2.4.26) with source. Under Red Hat or Mandrake, the sources can be installed using the package kernel-source<kernel-version>.rpm."

How do I tell what kernel I have, and how do I know that I have the source? I am using SuSE, so the instructions for Red Hat and Mandrake don't apply for me.

"Make sure you have started compiling the kernel sources, so needed header files are present."

This I don't understand at all... how do I compile the kernel sources?

"Some vendors ship ndiswrapper in their distributions. Either use it or make sure you remove it before installing ndiswrapper by yourself."

Okay, so how do I tell if I have ndiswrapper already? I guess the biggest problem I'm having in my First Week with Linux is that I can't figure my way around. I've been exploring drop down menus and such, but I really don't understand the file structure... stuff like, what are "bin" and "dev"... and how do I access the root...

Please don't laugh at me (or at least not "out loud")... I'm so sick of Windows, I really want to work with Linux, I just don't yet know how... I'm a fast learner though!

Thanks again, and especially for your patience!

I'm not so sure you need kernel sources (someone verify please) to install ndiswrapper. About knowing if you have it already type "ndiswrapper" or "/sbin/ndiswrapper" in the terminal. If anything other then an error message shows up, its installed.

yes you do need the kernel sources to install ndiswrapper however niima you will be glad to know in suse this is very easy. You should use YAST to install them. Just search for "source" or "kernel" and they should appear in the list. If they are ticked then you are fine. Now here's where you will have a problem. To compile ndiswrapper you need make, which 9.1 personal does not come with. My best advice therefore is to read this post from the suse forums aobut how to get it up and running. Suse does indeed come with an older (0.6 i think) version.
Regards
Chris

Well thats ironic, on FC3 you don't need sources installed...

you can find make on the suse ftp server, ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.1/suse/i586
search through the files and copy make to your desktop. Once downloaded, run the command line and navigate to the desktop and type in:
rpm -i (filename of make)
that should install make.
you must be under root to do this

Niima,

Did you get this sorted out? Am doing virtually the same thing under SuSE 9.2, and can help if you're still struggling. Where are you at?