Hi Folks,
I've been using Mepis for a few months now and I think that it is great! In fact, I would be completely free of Windows except for one thing: I cannot get my wireless card to work on my laptop. It works fine with Windows 2000 (a dual boot system Mepis 6 / Windows 2000) but doesn't work with Mepis. I have read everything I can find on installing / configuring the card but (call me stupid, it's alright, I do) I cannot seem to understand exactly what to do in order to get it up and running. Often, I do not even understand the instructions themselves. Can anyone here maybe talk me through it?

Laptop
Dell Latitude C600
1 Ghz CPU
256 MB SDRAM
Dual Boot Mepis 6 / Windows 2000 Pro

Wireless Card
Netgear WG511

Driver for the card shows up via ndiswrapper -l
iwconfig reveals
eth1 NOT READY! ESSIDff/any Nickname:"default"
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200
Retry min limit:0 RTS thr=0 B Fragment thr=0 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

There are many variations of the WG511. Most do not require ndiswrapper, which is being used as an MS subterfuge to convince people that Windows drivers are necessary, and Linux is too complicated for the average person to use. Unless your card is a "WG 511 v2 Made in China" with a Marvell chipset, you should be using native Linux drivers. If it is that card, you should bite the bullet and get a different card with native Linux support.

Thanks for the reply,
The card is a v3 Made in China: Intersil prism chipset
Here is my ndiswrapper info:
Installed ndis drivers:
airplus driver present
bcmwl5 driver present
lsbcmnds driver present
lstinds driver present
mrv8k51 driver present
netr33x driver present
netwg511 driver present
prismnic driver present
wlanuig driver present
wlipnds driver present

I used ndiswrapper on advice from a forum after days of frustration.
Anything further? Thanks

I have the WG511v2 and I got it to work with ndiswrapper using the Win 98 driver. I am a Slackware user, so it may be different for your distro.
Here is the link to my thread. It might help.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=457896

Okay, thanks Wirt . . . I'll study the thread for a while and get back to you.

Ok. According to Google that one (v.3 Made in China) is driving a lot of people crazy. It supposedly uses the Prism54 chipset, but it doesn't work with Prism drivers. It can be made to work fairly well but not 100% via Ndiswrapper, but someone else will have to help you with that. I refuse to learn anything about ndiswrapper.

Okay, Rickh -- you've been helpful -- thanks

Thanks again, Wirt, bit it's not working. Would you know of a card that is out-of-the-box linux compatible?

Check out the Linux hardware compatibility list. I wish I would have known about it before I got my card. Oh well, live and learn...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

Thanks! I jotted down a few for future reference. For now -- the generic WLG1101 card (see Wireless Woes Part 2) is working!! Thanks again -- you and the others here have been a great help!