Install ndiswrapper on Fedora 10 (Compaq Evo N800c laptop)

[suffa07]

I spent upwards to two days trying to get my Netgear WG511 v2 wireless pcmcia adapter to work with Fedora 10, on a Compaq Evo N800c laptop. After many hit and misses, I finally got it to work. I read several different websites and references to accomplish my task. Hopefully, this user friendly, straightforward guide will help you accomplish connectivity without jumping all over the place, and prevent you from going down the endless paths that I traveled to complete a journey. (terminal commands are in bold).

1. if you haven't done so already, download ndiswrapper. Open up terminal and type: su - and enter your password when prompted.

2. Make sure you are connected to the internet, and once logged in as root, type: yum -y install kmod-ndiswrapper (I'm assuming that you have yum installed and several repositories).

3. Once ndiswrapper has finished installing, type: cd / to get to the root path, and create a folder for your card's drivers by typing: mkdir ndiswrapper_drivers.

4. Now for the fun part, you need to get the drivers for your card. If you don't have the disk, you should be able to download them from online. You will need two or three files from your drivers for ndiswrapper, and those are: file1.inf , file2.sys, file3.arm. If the drivers don't include file3.arm, don't worry about. The other two will work just fine. I use 'filename' in the preceding sentence because the names of the drivers may vary, depending on the driver you use. The extension is what will help you recognize the files you need. You may find the files online, but trust me, don't waste your time. The easiest way to get them is install wine by typing the following command in terminal: yum install wine. Once wine is installed, proceed to getting your drivers. I would suggest doing a google search for your card type or just going to the manufacturers website and downloading the drivers for you card.

5. Now that you have your drivers, open the path to your drivers and double click on the executable (.exe) file. It will install because you have wine installed. Once the drivers install, click on Applications --> Wine -->Wine File, you will see a directory. Above the files, you will see several buttons shell, C:\, D:\ and perhaps one more. You probably guessed, click on the C:\ button. Once open, click on Program Files and you should see a folder named after your card brand, in my case it was named NETGEAR. You should see 3 files with the extensions I mentioned earlier, at the very least you should see 2, file1.inf, and file2.sys. ( If for some odd reason you don't see the files there, don't panic. Click on the C:\ directory again, then choose a folder named windows-->inf-->wg511 ( this folder will be named after your card. Mine happens to be wg511). You should find those files in this folder for sure, if you didn't find them earlier.

6. Now that you know where the files are located, we have to move them to the folder we created earlier: ndiswrapper_drivers. The easiest way to do this is to type the following in terminal: cd /home/'whatever your user name is'/ . The 'whatever your user name is' should be your user name without the quotes, in my case it's Rozelle. Once at that directory, type: cd .wine (that's cd space dot wine). Once there, type: ls then enter so you can see the directories. Type: cd drive_c, to get to the windows files. Type: ls again to see the directories. Now you should be familiar with the folders, as they are the same ones you looked at earlier in wine when you found the 2 or 3 driver files. Choose the folder where your files are. Once you are in the directory where your files are located, ( and you will know by, again, typing ls to see your files), type the following in terminal: cp file1.inf /ndiswrapper_drivers/ , do this for each file you need. This will copy the drivers to the ndiswrapper_drivers folder.

7. Now that the drivers are in the folder, navigate to the ndiswrapper_drivers folder. The quickest way is to type: cd /ndiswrapper_drivers/ .

8. Once there, type; ls to verify the files were successfully copied to the folder. Now type: ndiswrapper -i file1.inf (where file1 is the name of your driver mine is: WG511v2.INF). After pressing enter you should see: Installing wg511v2.inf... Next , type: ndiswrapper -l. The next line should then read: Installed drivers: nameofdriver( where this is the name of the driver).

9. Next, type: modprobe ndiswrapper (If you get an error just uninstall the driver by typing: ndiswrapper -r wg511v2.inf, and reinstall by typing: ndiswrapper -i wg511v2.inf). It should work the first time. If it doesn't work after several tries, you probably have an invalid driver. Proceed to downloading another one.

10. If you had no errors after the modprobe ndiswrapper command, type: ndiswrapper -ma enter, then type: echo “alias wlan0 ndiswrapper” >> /etc/modprobe.conf enter.

11. Now, minimize terminal and click on System--> Administration--> Network to configure your wireless network (make sure to select automatically connect when computer starts up). Once this is done, restart your computer. Voila, your card should light up and connect to the network. Good luck.