I'm now running Debian Etch on my system. I have a Netgear MR814v2 router connected to a cable modem. I have successfully connected to the internet on my system, but now, after praising Linux over Microsoft my wife wants Linux on her system. Her computer is using Windows XP and has a Buffalo 125 PCI card. She has been able to connect wirelessly using Windows, but when I installed Debian Etch on her system it will not recognize and/or configure her wireless. The setup installation goes through the DHCP configuration but fails. I have tried to set it up manually, but am not sure if I am doing anything correctly, or if there are specific packages that I need to install before it will work.
Any advice?

my advice is to try an ubuntu install... probably not the type of advice you are looking for, but it's debian-based and specially tailored for the desktop, so it might save you a lot of hassle - not only with this particular issue...

if you want help troubleshooting your issue on debian, it would help if you'd post the output of /sbin/lspci and /sbin/lsmod... it would also be great if you could tell us whether you can assign a static IP and ping it locally...

Have you looked into Ndiswrapper?
Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper

$ /sbin/lspci
bash: /sbin/lspci: No such file or directory

hmmmmm, that could be part of the reason.....ya think?

ok, so it appears that Debian does not recognize an ethernet card, is that right?

sorry, on debian it's probably:nothing you've posted so far would indicate that... lets see what lspci (and lsmod) says first...

$ /bin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1689 K8 Northbridge [Super K8 Single Chip]00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation AGP8X Controller
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation M5249 HTT to PCI Bridge
00:03.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1563 HyperTransport South Bridge (rev 70)
00:03.1 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5455 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 20)
00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: ALi Corporation M5263 Ethernet Controller (rev 40)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c7)
00:0e.1 Mass storage controller: ALi Corporation ULi 5289 SATA (rev 10)
00:0f.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:0f.1 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:0f.2 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:0f.3 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 2.0 Controller (rev 01)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)


seems I have an ethernet controller....... hmmmm

what about lsmod?

also, do you know which chip your wireless card uses??

/bin/lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_intel8x0 29596 0
snd_ac97_codec 82848 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2304 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 43936 0
snd_mixer_oss 15872 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 74376 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 20484 1 snd_pcm
snd 46336 6 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 8928 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 9992 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
nls_cp437 5888 1
vfat 11520 1
fat 46876 1 vfat
isofs 32192 0
nls_utf8 2176 1
udf 72992 0
sd_mod 16528 2
usb_storage 69696 1
nfsd 200068 13
exportfs 5248 1 nfsd
lockd 53992 2 nfsd
nfs_acl 3456 1 nfsd
sunrpc 132260 9 nfsd,lockd,nfs_acl
appletalk 31540 20
ppdev 8452 0
parport_pc 31728 0
lp 10688 0
parport 31944 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
button 6544 0
ac 4868 0
battery 9476 0
ipv6 218080 23
dm_mod 48180 0
loop 14216 0
usblp 12416 0
i2c_ali1535 6788 0
i2c_ali15x3 7300 0
i2c_ali1563 6660 0
psmouse 34568 0
ali_agp 6656 0
i2c_core 19600 3 i2c_ali1535,i2c_ali15x3,i2c_ali1563
floppy 55852 0
shpchp 39488 0
pci_hotplug 24372 1 shpchp
serio_raw 6660 0
uli526x 14996 0
amd64_agp 11844 1
agpgart 29360 2 ali_agp,amd64_agp
pcspkr 3204 0
evdev 8960 2
mousedev 10688 1
tsdev 7488 0
ext3 115976 1
jbd 46996 1 ext3
ide_cd 35488 1
cdrom 32176 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 14976 3
generic 4356 0 [permanent]
usbhid 32352 0
alim15x3 11024 0 [permanent]
ide_core 111280 5 usb_storage,ide_cd,ide_disk,generic,alim15x3
sata_uli 7300 0
libata 52752 1 sata_uli
scsi_mod 122444 3 sd_mod,usb_storage,libata
ehci_hcd 27144 0
ohci_hcd 17412 0
usbcore 111008 6 usb_storage,usblp,usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
thermal 13192 0
processor 21952 1 thermal
fan 4740 0


lotss of stuff there.........hmmmmmm........ yep, lots of stuff
don't have a clue what I'm looking at though

well, it does seem to me now like linux isn't seeing your card... if that's the case, then the next step would be to check this list to see if your card's chip is supported by ndiswrapper... i've tried to google about the buffalo 125 pci card but didn't have any luck...

well.........thanks for the time, and the help. I think; however, that I will take your advice and try Ubuntu for her. Less headache for me.

I'll still get to play with Debian, and she'll have a system that, as they say..."just works"

Thanks again