Does anyone know of a way to install a wireless card during install.

This would be good for getting security updates and to cut the timeout on "testing network repository"

My only meens of net' access is wireless.
I would install ndis after, but that would be pointless because if i could do that I wouldn't need to install because the card would be working.

Any ideas anyone?

Regards
Alistair

what kind of card is it?

when i installed mine it would allow me to select it. but i don't remember there being a bit for WEP key etc..... ergo no connection........

Asus WL - 138G

Have go it to work with another machine, after installation, but I would really like to get it to work before the apt tests during install.

There must be some way of doing it surely?

If your card already has support built into the ubuntu kernel your card should be recognised at the installation stage. If not, don't worry, you can still get wireless working if you're offline, but how you do this depends on your card. Once you've installed the system go to the sourceforge ndiswrapper website to see if your card's listed and how to get the .inf and .sys windows drivers. You might be lucky and find that linux drivers are available, but if not you'll have to use ndiswrapper. You can install ndiswrapper from your installation cd, but I've never managed to get this to work. Better to download the source file for version 1.2 from http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=93482. You will obviously need to go online for this, but just download the file from a pc that is online. Once you have this use the synaptic package manager to install essential packages from the CD by typing the following into a shell:

sudo apt-get install debhelper build-essential fakeroot linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Then untar the file and install it:

cd /home/username/
sudo tar xvzf ndiswrapper-1.2.tar.gz
cd /home/username/ndiswrapper-1.2.tar.gz
sudo make
sudo make install

You then need to cd to the directory where you've store the windows drivers for your card and type:

sudo ndiswrapper -i <insert name of .inf file>

Then type the following to make sure the driver's installed:

ndiswrapper -l

Hopefully this will show the driver installed. From here you need to type:

sudo modprobe nidswrapper
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan - if you're cards not listed as wlan0 just change this accordingly.

If you can see your network type: ndiswrapper -m followed by sudo gedit /etc/modules. Add ndiswrapper to the end of this file.

From here you should be able to set your essid and encryption from the system/administration/network interface in the gui. Just click on your wlan card and then select properties. When you've finished press activate. You should now be online.

If you have problems with ndiswrapper try different versions. However, if there's linux driver available use that. Hope this helps and that I'm not teaching you something you already know. I've managed to get three Ubuntu boxes working with this method - all used belkin cards with broadcom chipsets.

Thanks for that, I have got it to work with an installed system. althought what i was really after is the ability to get the card up, during a first install.

i.e. like an extra task , setup locale, partition, network, network (ndiswrapper for wifi), base system, etc. reboot into new system.

but at this stage i would have to do this manually, with the sources from a mount on the other cd drive i have. I just need to know how to stop the install at a stage, get a command line, sort the card out, load module, configure network, carry on with install.


I hope I am seeming clear on this, and not just babbling on

Regards
Alistair