Alright, I am not the fastest person when reading code. I have read the instructions on the website for ndiswrapper, and find it rather confusing. I have done several searches here for previous posts, but I cannot quite fill in the gaps in my knowledge. So, I must appeal to you, this limitless source of Linux guru-ism. HELP!!!

Ok, down to brass tacks. I have sucsesfuly installed Slackware 11.0, and have X up and running. I should point out that the laptop I am dealing with is old (Compaq Presario 1255), and slack is the only up to date distro that will install on it. As a side note, Slackware is running faster than any of the several distros that I have tried, and is running laps around the Win98 that was on the laptop when I got it. I have a Belkin F5D7010 wireless card, and have downloaded the latest win drivers as required by ndiswrapper. I have also downloaded ndiswrapper-1.38.tar.gz. I have not transfered these files to the laptop yet, but as my Lexar JumpDrive Trio is working just fine with Slackware, this is not a problem.

Now that I have all these files, what next? I could not make heads or tails of the instructions on the ndiswrapper site.

Thanks for any help in advance. I must sneak off as I have a meeting in about 10 mins.

run "lspci -n". there should be an entry 14e4:4320.
download this
unzip
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...Windows_driver
modprobe ndiswrapper and plug the card in for a test. hopefully you just got a new network interface.

Untar the ndiswrapper tarball. $tar -xvf <filename>

cd to the new ndiswrapper directory.

$make
$make install

copy the windows driver files to some place (in the ndiswrapper directory is handy as it keeps everything together.

$ndiswrapper -i <full path to windows driver filename.inf>

$ndiswrapper -l will show the installed driver and should also say device present

$modprobe ndiswrapper
$ndiswrapper -m

that's pretty much it.

Oh, by the way, if you're running a 2.4 series kernel ndiswrapper may or may not work very well. It's known to have problems with the 2.4 kernels.

Follow this link
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...s/ndiswrapper/

and get ndiswrapper and use pkgtool to install it.

Oh and if you need help with using ndiswrapper
check this out.I followed it and got my rt2500
wireless card working in no time!
http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/in...p?topic=1282.0

Jeffepp,
Just a quick tip, the Belkin F5D7010 is actually based on a linksys chipset, for which there are pre packaged linux drivers available. I had a similar problem with my card when i first setup slackware 11 only to discover after 2 days of searching that ralink manufacter the chipset on my linksys card. I'm currently looking for the appropriate drivers for you card, so as soon as i find them i'll post you a link. Trust me when i say that i know finding what your looking for can be difficult but stick with slack and you won't ever go back!

Expect a response tonight

The Yikes

Also jeffepp, open the kinfocenter by either typing kinfocenter in a c console window or through the kde menu and look at the details for your card. Post what you find here as the results will aid in recognizing your particular card and chipset, which in turn will mkae finding a suitable driver much easier.

Thanks

I dug through my old bookmarks and found the ultimate Linux wireless card info site:

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

Belkin cards are listed here:

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_p...andname=Belkin

Hmmm ... it seems to depend on the revision number ... do you happen to know it ?

Ok, following Masonm's instructions, and much banging of my head, I got ndiswapper installed. Then came the driver problem. The program did not like the file I downloaded from Belkin.com. After reading some of the links from Nem, I found out that the problem was that it was an exe, and that I needed to pull out the inf files out. I did that, and lo and behold..., that didn't work either.

The card is a ver 5000 according to the sticker on the back. And I have xfce installed, rather than kde. Also, it seems I am experiencing the common problem of Slackware only occasionally allowing my flash drive to mount, which is slowing down the file transfer from my desktop.

Well, I have a broken desk, splinters in my forehead, and my fingertips are bleeding. In other words, not nearly as frustrating as most days of computer maintenance, which usually results in skull fractures at least. On that note, I will call it for the day. I thank you all for all the help so far. Good night Cleavland.

ndiswrapper has a good support page. just read it:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

all the answers are there.

Version 5000 is supported by madwifi native Linux drivers:

http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility#F5D7010ver.5000

I would use madwifi NOT ndiswrapper.

ndiswrapper is a last resort anyway...