If you are using the linksys WPC54GS pc card like I am, the way to get it working is use the rpm package for ndis wrapper and follow these instructions from NDIS wrapper except the ones for installing it because it will be installed using yast. After using this method my wireless card works great.
* Quickstart guide *
====================
Prerequisites
-------------
* You need a recent kernel (at least 2.6.0 or 2.4.20) with source.
* Make sure there is a link to the source from the modules directory:
'/lib/modules/<VERSION>/build' should be a link to the kernel
source, where <VERSION> is the version of the kernel you are running.
* Some vendors ship ndiswrapper in their distributions. Either use
it or make sure you remove it before installing ndiswrapper by
yourself.
Upgrading
=========
If you are upgrading from version 0.4 or earlier make sure you delete any
old version of loadndisdriver and any configuration in modules.conf and
modprobe.conf since the new commands are not compatible with this release.
Installation
============
1. Compile and install
----------------------
As root run
> make install
This should compile both the kernel module and the userspace utilities.
2. Install your windows driver
------------------------------
Download the Windows XP drivers, unpack it and locate the .inf for your card.
Run ndiswrapper -i to install the driver
> ndiswrapper -i </path/to/inffile.inf>
This copies all necessary files to /etc/ndiswrapper and creates the config
files for your card.
After installing you can run
> ndiswrapper -l
to see the status of your installed drivers. If you have installed the correct
driver you should see something like this:
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 present
Where "present" means that you have a PCI-device present that can be used with the
driver bcmwl5.
3. Load module
--------------
To load the module type
> modprobe ndiswrapper.
If you get no error the driver should now be loaded. You can verify
this by checking system log (produced by 'dmesg'). If the driver is loaded
successfully, you should see a message:
ndiswrapper version <version> loaded
If you have windows drivers installed earlier (with ndiswrapper -i <inffile>)
successfully, ndiswrapper module will load them all. You should then see
the following messages in system log:
ndiswrapper: driver <driver1> added
...
for each of the driver1, .... If you don't these messages, it usually means
that there are no (usable) drivers installed in /etc/ndiswrapper directory.
Check if /etc/ndiswrapper directory has one sub-directory for each driver
and in each driver's directory, there are inf, sys and conf files. Otherwise,
you may need to repeat step 2.
If the system has a card that works with one of the loaded drivers, you
should see the following message in the system log:
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
4. Configure interface
----------------------
Use iwconfig to configure wireless network interface. First, locate
the wireless interface:
> iwconfig
This will print the wireless interface (e.g., wlan0). In
the examples below wlan0 is used; replace wlan0 with the interface
reported by iwconfig above.
Set the operating mode of the interface according to your setup. In
most cases, it is Managed:
> iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
If you use encryption (WEP), set the key:
> iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX
You can use 6 hex digits for 40-bit encryption or 10 hex digits for
128-bit encryption. You may need to use 'open' security mode instead
of 'restricted' depending on the setup of your AP (access point).
Set the network name:
> iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID
Replace ESSID with the network name used by your AP.
Now, setup the network parameters for the interface wlan0. This varies
from distribution to distribution. Refer to your distribution's
documents on how to do this. Once this is done, you can use network
tools to bring up the network; e.g.,
> ifconfig wlan0 up
5. Automate
-----------
Once everything works fine you can write the correct modeprobe settings to
load ndiswrapper automatically by running
> ndiswrapper -m
6. WPA support
--------------
See ndiswrapper wiki (
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/wiki) on how to
use WPA with ndiswrapper.
