HELP installing programs

[Brandon]

okay, im trying to install Ndiswrapper in linux for my wifi drivers... im running debian, and im a complete newbie to it... this is what the install readme says but i dont know what to make of it...

* 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.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Did you install Debian using the Knoppix hard drive installer? (for some reason, I thought you had installed FC3 earlier...) If you are using Knoppix, it may not have included the kernel source (I really don't know if the Knoppix CD makes room for the sources, since they aren't useful in a Live CD). You will need the sources to have the install process make the module correctly for you kernel. :yes:

Other than that, you should be able to follow those instructions. Download the file from the site. Untar it, assuming it is .tgz, and then start with the make install to start the automatic compiling process.