Trouble Installing Linksys Wireless-G PCI-Adapter

ShawnM · #1 9th June 2006, 03:08 AM

Well I am a complete newbie to Fedora Core 5 and Im having some trouble getting my wireless-g card to work. FC5 Found my intergrated ethernet port on my motherboard but it wont see my wireless card which is what I have to use. If anyone can help with this problem itd be great. thanks

stoat · #2 10th June 2006, 01:44 AM

You have no takers in almost 24 hours. So, in the absence of a reply from "those with many posts", I just will tell how I got my Linksys WMP54G going in FC2. It worked very well. I am still using the device today, but not with Linux. Anyway, I hope this will help in some way. If one of the experts comes in here and runs me off, I will humbly retreat.

I used an NDIS wrapper to install and use the Linksys Windows drivers in Linux. It is called ndiswrapper. I had to find it, download it, untar it, compile it, learn about it. Google will get you there.

I also used a DHCP client software package. I used dhcpcd but dhclient seems popular these days and will be installed with FC5. It seems to do the same thing (get an IP address, etc. from a host server). I have never used dhclient. You should research dhcpcd v. dhclient.

These are the exact steps that I took from my notes. Some of the details will surely need to be customized for your hardware. This worked for me. It may not work for you. It may be outdated for today's packages, and I cannot vouch for its applicability in the FC5 environment. Anyway, here goes:

1. Compile and install ndiswrapper and dhcpcd (or dhclient?)

2. Install the Linksys Windows driver from the Linksys CD using ndiswrapper:

Code:

ndiswrapper -i /mnt/cdrom/Drivers/bcmwl5.inf

3. Confirm the status of the installed drivers:

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

4. Load the ndiswrapper module:

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

5. Verify the driver is loaded and active:

Code:

dmesg

6. Configure the wireless interface using iwconfig (encryption key, essid, etc.):

Code:

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted [WEP key here]
iwconfig wlan0 essid "router SSID here" (including the quotes)

7. Create the alias “ndiswrapper” for “wlan0” in the modprobe.conf file

Code:

ndiswrapper -m

8. Activate the the wireless interface using ifconfig

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up

9. Run dhcpcd

Code:

dhcpcd wlan0

At this point, I would then be online. I wrote a Perl script to automate the everyday startup steps (steps 4-7). If the FC kernel was updated, I had to recompile ndiswrapper.

I sincerely wanted to help. I hope I did. I am willing to elaborate as required. Since I am not currently doing any of this, I cannot help much with troubleshooting. But I will try if the experts never show up.

stoat · #3 10th June 2006, 03:36 AM

ShawnM,

There is a huge topic elsewhere in this forum spanning 2 years of posts on this subject.

The later posts (entered today) will be more up-to-date than my notes. The FC5 Network Configuration GUI will do some of the command line work that I did in my notes. I have not read it as slowly and closely as you may want to, but I think it may be worth your time.

stoat · #4 10th June 2006, 07:40 PM

ShawnM,

I went to my computer with the Linksys WMP54G and installed FC5, ndiswrapper, dhcpcd. I followed my old notes from the earlier post and the thing still works. And it worked in spite of that 4K stack warning when ndiswrapper compiled (discussed in detail in the How-to article referred to above).

The only trouble I had was a short period of dependency hell manually installing gcc and its dependencies from RPMs from the installation DVD to compile the source code. I had no Internet connection on this computer except for the wireless card which obviously was not working at that time.

I still refer you to that How-to article in my last post. Darkmage and those folks have covered just about everything regarding wireless networking. But to finalize my input here, I will recap what I did today:

1. Compiled, installed ndiswrapper following its instructions
2. Compiled, installed dhcpcd following its instructions.
3. Created symbolic links to /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper, /usr/local/sbin/dhcpcd and the other executables to ease the command line work.
4. Inserted my Linksys CD and ran these command lines as SU:

Code:

ndiswrapper -i /media/WMP54G/Drivers/bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
modprobe ndiswrapper
dmesg
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted [my WEP key went here]
iwconfig wlan0 essid "my router SSID went here"
ndiswrapper -m
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhcpcd wlan0

5. Started Firefox and up popped Google.

Note: Get your WEP key and SSID from your router. Don't use the passphrase that generates the key. Use key #1 from your router if there are several. I used channel 6 (2.437 Ghz) on my router. I don't know what happens if WPA is used instead of WEP.

I will probably not use Fedora much on this machine. But if I were to use it for Internet work, simple Perl scripts would ease getting the device started up and shut down.

I think I had better get out of here before I irritate somebody (too late!

). But at least here is a proven way to get that Linksys wireless card going in FC5 if all else fails. Good luck.

ShawnM · #5 11th June 2006, 03:34 AM

Well I guess I should start over to the very first thing. How do i install ndiswrapper? I know it probly sounds stupid but I cant do it no matter what I try, Ive been at it for a couple days now. Im really new at tryin this stuff, lol

stoat · #6 11th June 2006, 05:02 AM

It's okay. Maybe I got ahead a little. But basically, ndiswrapper, like most other linux packages, can be obtained either as 1) source code that has to be compiled and installed by you or 2) as an RPM (Redhat Package Manager) file that has already been compiled by someone into a binary file that can just be run and will install itself. Or even better: found, downloaded and installed automatically by the yum command.

Each has advantages and disadvantages. Each is handled and installed very differently. We can continue this by PM or email. We probably don't need to keep bumping this topic to the top of the installation forum talking about compiling source code and using yum.

But, don't be discouraged. PM me when you are ready to proceed. Also, please go to the ndiswrapper tutorial elsewhere in this forum for a walkthrough on this whole issue.

ShawnM · #7 11th June 2006, 05:06 AM

Cool, thanks, I'll get on there tomorrow when i can bring my modem upstairs and give it a go thanks for the help if anything else ill post back

Shawn..