Hi!
I'm a newbie. I just installed my first os, Debian. Successful so far. Right now I desperately need to install the driver for my belkin 802.11g wireless so I can move my desktop off of the living room floor. I installed ndiswrapper successfully, but I ran into a curious problem on the next step. Here's some shell output:

debian:~# ndiswrapper -i DRIVER.inf
driver is already installed. Use -e to remove it
debian:~# ndiswrapper -e DRIVER
Driver DRIVER is not installed. Use -l to list installed drivers
debian:~# ndiswrapper -e DRIVER.inf
Driver DRIVER.inf is not installed. Use -l to list installed drivers
debian:~# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
driver invalid driver!
makefile invalid driver!

As you can see, ndiswrapper seems to be a lazy and trying to get out of work. If I want to install, its says it's already installed. If I want to remove what's already there, it's not there. I have been working on this for hours, and I am getting extremely furious with ndiswrapper. It seems to be capable of lieing, and I don't need any dishonest software. I would appreciate any help. Thanks

How did you install ndiswrapper? If you didn't compile from source but used a .deb package, that type of behavior is typical when the .deb package was created on a system with a different kernel than the one you are running.

When I installed, I followed the ndiswrapper wiki instructions. I downloaded the tar file and used the make commands from source.

try doing a # make clean

and then reinstall.

I just solved the ndiswrapper problem I was having and wanted to leave a record for other newbies.
If you have apt-get the source and header files for your kernel, don't forget to run make and make install in /usr/src/ndiswrapperx.y (the source files BEFORE you run make and make install in the directory where you put the tar ndiswrapper.tar.gz file. I kind of figured this out accidently, so if any experienced users would like to clarify what I just did for posterity (and my curiousity), that would be great.

Alright, now the next problem. I can't seem to find a driver that recognizes my device. I successfully installed the driver from the cdrom, a couple from the list, and a driver from dell that was suggested on another site.
ndiswrapper -l
recognizes the driver but can't find any hardware.
iwconfig puts out:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.
//(end)
wlan0 is nowhere to be found. My device again is Belkin 802.11g F5D7001 version 1212

stupid question but did you #modprobe ndiswrapper ? (to have it done on boot up #ndiswrapper -m)

yes, I did run modprobe ndiswrapper.