I just installed mandrake linux 10.1 but the internet wont work. the wireless card has a Ralink rt2500 chipset. i have downloaded the linux drivers from their website, but they didn't work. now, im just using ndiswrapper. the problem is, is that if i load the winxp drivers from their website, and use them in ndiswrapper, running "modprobe ndiswrapper" results in a kernel panic, but if i use the Win2k drivers, it doesn't crash the computer but doesn't make the wlan0 device. any ideas?

i think you need to update ndiswrapper, their own page mentions that if you have mandrake, ndisrwrapper comes in the distribution, but must be uninstalled and replaced with the newer version.

ok, i installed ndiswrapper 1.0 from source. now i installed the official winxp drivers from the ralink website through it. ndiswrapper says that the driver and hardware are present. lspci shows the card but it still wont create a wlan0 device.

Try using the opensource drivers. They are better then the Windows drivers + ndiswrapper.

http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

ive tried it but i can't configure/make/make install because the kernel sources aren't sufficient or somthing. the mandrake premade folder also doesn't have one for the kernel im using.

I've got a similar problem with the same RaLink RT2500 chipset ... I've got a Averatec 6200 laptop and I'm also running mandrake 10.1. My problem is different though I think...I tried the most recent version of ndiswrapper but only with the windows drivers (my wireless does work in windows xp home...I'm dual booting). So after going through the appropriate modprobe steps and actually making sure ndiswrapper was installed right and the driver was installed right ...this is where my problem is.... I can do a lsmod but it says that nothing is connected to ndiswrapper...I have a friend helping me out with this and he seems to think that linux is loading a module that is built into the kernel...thats basically where I am at this point....anybody have any ideas???? I did look in modprobe.preload and modprobe.conf and I didn't see any module being loaded so I am stuck...please heeellllp!?!?

i think your friend means that the driver is built in to the kernel. modules are loaded into the kernel after the kernel is loaded. i think ill just give up on mandrake. i have gentoo on my main comp and can work with it better.

yeah I think I might try a different distro and see how far I get with my wireless ...its just weird... I could try another driver with ndiswrapper just for the hell of it but I don't think thats the problem

I got mine working with MDK 10.1 & MDK10.2. Before it will work you have to remove the Linux driver for the card and use ndiswrapper. By removing kernel module for the card. These cards are supported by Mandrake but the drives have problems. By leaving them they are causing conflicts between ndiswrapper and the Linux driver for the card.

if you're gonna try another distro, i'd recommend slackware. simple and stable.

Thanks for replying courtrrb. =) I definitely figured out that you had to remove the pre-installed ndiswrapper module and then install a newer version. Since I followed ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net's installation instructions I've had very few problems getting my wireless working in server distro's of linux I've really got into linux over the past month or so (was mildly experienced with it before then) and I am really starting to like it. Out of all the distros I've checked out I like mandrake 10.*, ubuntu (havn't checked out debian yet), and fedora core 3. I know plenty of people that don't like fedora/red hat but it gets along with my averatec laptop better than any other distro from the get go (besides the fact that I had to configure xorg entirely on my own).

I have Mepis (Debian based distro) running on an Avaratec 5400 and everything works great including the RaLink Wireless. I just install the kernel sources and then build the opensource rt2500 driver I linked to above.

http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

what kernel version? What kind of specs does your averatec 5400 have? Also...how long does your battery usually last on that puppy cause I've had some trouble with getting power management to work (in Mandrake 10.1 for ex). Did you customize your kernel at all specifically because of the averatec? =) Sorry for playing 20 questions =D

Currently 2.6.11.2

http://www.averatec.com/archives/5400series.htm


Not really. I started with stock MEPIS config file for 2.6.10 kernel and basically just eliminated alot of things I didn't need so it would compile faster, e.g. un-needed nic cards, video cards, scsi adapters etc... Also the stock MEPIS kernel config has OSS audio which I turned off and turned on ALSA instead.

About 45min to 1hr. The Averatec's seem to be known for short battery life. I exercise my battery about once a month but usually only use it for switching from room to room.