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-   -   No recognition of Sitecom USB wireless adaptor (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-wireless-networking-41/no-recognition-of-sitecom-usb-wireless-adaptor-517508/)

Ivanhoe99 01-08-2007 04:07 PM

No recognition of Sitecom USB wireless adaptor
 
Help!
As a complete beginner in Linux I have just installed PCLinuxOS on my second machine. Kernel is, I believe, 2.6.16.27.tex1.1ve, (according to uname -r)
Everything is working perfectly apart from my Sitecom WL-022 wireless USB adaptor, which I use to access the Web on all computers in the house through my home network router.
I note from reading various postings here that wireless networking with Linux seems to be a bit of a problem for more than a few people.
Bearing in mind that I am a complete beginner with Linux, and that expressions like "Compiling code" may as well be written in Swahili for all it means to me, can anyone give me the idiot's guide to solving this problem? I realise that, unlike Windows, you can't (yet) simply plug a device in and have it recognised and installed, but is there a (comparatively) simple way of getting these drivers installed to get this computer onto the network?
Thanks in advance for any help.

chrisortiz 01-09-2007 04:10 PM

its always nice to see a new face, thats what we're here for. I'll try and explain how things work so we can get you on the right track. The likely hood that your wireless card has a linux driver is very slim so i'll guide you throught the ndiswrapper route.

Ndiswrapper is a utility/module that takes drivers that adhere to the Network Device Interface Specifacation (NDIS)[windows drivers] and essentially translates the inputs and outputs so Linux (ODI standard i think) can understand it (wrapper)hence the name.

The first thing you will need to do is get the latest version of ndiswrapper, you can get it here. I would recommend downloading the source. it should be in tar.gz or bz2 format.

The next step is to copy the file to a place where you can compile the source code (put the program together). When i compile programs i usually do it in /usr/src/ so for me it would be
Code:

cp ndiswrapper-1.32.tar.gz /usr/src
tar -zxvf ndiswrapper-1.32.tar.gz

this will copy the file to /usr/src/ and uncompress it to /usr/src/ndiswrapper.
To compile the code you will need to do
Code:

make && make install
this is actually 2 comands, make builds the program and make install, installs it. I'm assuming that when you installed pc linux you did a full install. If you didn't you will probably get an error having to do with kernel.h

The next thing you will have to do is to install your windows driver, to do it you need 2 files. One will be end in .inf and the other in .sys, (you can also get links and information in that website i sent you under compatibility )after you find and copy them to your linux box navigate to the directory you installed them to and do
Code:

ndiswrapper -i urfilename.inf
then do
Code:

ndiswrapper -l      # -l is a lowercase L
you should see something like
Quote:

hardware present, installed
I would also recommend turning off wireless encryption until you get everything working

next do
Code:

ndiswrapper -m
this will make an entry in your /etc/modprobe.conf to automatically load ndiswrapper when you turn on your computer.

Now you will have to verify that everything thus far is working you can do this by running
Code:

iwconfig
with any luck you should have an interface named wlan0 with a bunch of stuff.
now you can scan for nearby wireless networks this is done by doing
Code:

iwlist wlan0 scan
to connect to a wireless network without encryption just change your ESSID to match the one on the list like this
Code:

iwconfig wlan0 essid URSSID
dhcpcd wlan0

you may or may not have to do the 2nd line. It depends if your distrobution attempts to get an address automatically. When you get done with all of this or have any problems repost and we will go from there.

Ivanhoe99 01-10-2007 08:39 AM

Chrisortiz
 
Many thanks for taking all the trouble to try to help me to get my wireless connection working.

I will follow your instructions and see what I can achieve! I'll let you know the results.

Thanks again


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