FC11: ACX111 Help Needed

[GA-B1-G5]

Hey fellow Fedora users

I was wondering if anyone knew how to get a Westell 802.11g (acx111) wireless card working in Fedora 11

I want to use Fedora more, but I'm only able to use it when I'm tethered to a router, which sucks :\

Any help is appreciated

[bbfuller]

Hello GA-B1-G5

Welcome to the forum.

The only reference I have seen to success with this card suggests the use of ndiswrapper.

If you don't get any response from anyone who has the actual card, post back if you need any notes on how to do that.

[GA-B1-G5]

Thanks for the quick reply

Could I have a how-to for installing and setting up ndiswrapper?

Thanks

[bbfuller]

Hello GA-B1-G5

This is the generic instruction set for installing your windows driver with ndiswrapper:

Ndiswrapper, as it's name implies is a way of wrapping some Linux code around a windows driver to make it work in Linux.

Ndiswrapper will not work with Windows Vista drivers. It is also not happy with every version of a driver for every chipset. If the one that came with your card doesn't work it may be necessary to experiment with other manufacturers drivers that were made for the particular chipset.

The parts of the windows driver file that you are looking for are the .inf file and the matching .sys file.

For instance in my case when I used ndiswrapper for my broadcom card, there was a 'bcmwl5.inf' file in the driver along with a bcmwl5.sys. Other manufacturers will use different file names.

Acquire full root rights with:

su -

That's a space and a minus sign after the su. It gives full root rights over the machine, not just over your own environment which is what you get with plain su.

If you haven't already, install the rpmfusion repositories:

rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Install ndiswrapper:

yum install kmod-ndiswrapper

should bring in the three relevant packages.

Then set up and configure ndiswrapper with:

ndiswrapper -i <path to your windows driver file>.inf

should install the driver,

ndiswrapper -l

if it is going to work should return "driver present" and "hardware present"

modprobe ndiswrapper

should load the driver into the kernel, but probably only until you reboot.

If you are lucky now and NetworkManager is running then after a short while it 'may' begin reporting wireless networks. NetworkManager is the preferred method of connecting to wireless networks with Fedora and should be located on the top Gnome Panel to the right in the notification area.

If it works, or indeed if it doesn't you will also need to run:

ndiswrapper -ma

and then reboot.

Do note the proviso in the second quoted paragraph, no Vista drivers.

If you don't have internet access to the machine I have notes to download the things you need on another machine and transfer them to your wireless installation.

Getting late here, if you're quick I might see a request for those this evening. If not tomorrow morning.

[DaFoot]

I'm currently looking at http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/D...on_list/Fedora for a card that lspci reports as having same chipset as you (pci d-link 520).

It mentions a download using yum of acx111-firmware which it says is in the freshrpms repo, which according to 'yum repolist' is active.
I get package not found messages from yum in response to 'yum install acx111-firmware'.

Anyone know of another name for this firmware?

[bbfuller]

Hello DaFoot

During the lifespan of Fedora 9 several of the third party repos for Fedora, Livna, Freshrpms, atrpms etc. merged to become rpmfusion. As you have found, acx111 doesn't appear to be there.

Searching for rpm packages took me here:

http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2htm...submit=Search+...

for ACX100, and here:

http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2htm...submit=Search+...

for ACX111.

As you can see, the packages don't seem to have been updated since F9.

[DaFoot]

Thankyou bbfuller. Always nice to get an answer explaining the why rather that just 'go here'. Cheers

[bbfuller]

Hello DaFoot

Likewise, if you get a working card I'd be grateful if you'd post the solution. It may well help others.

Incidentally, I did come across a reference while I was searching, to downloading the firmware direct and compiling it, never had to do it but it shouldn't be hard. Also, someone mentioned that it didn't work against more recent kernels which "may" be why it's not in the Fedora repositories any more.

[DaFoot]

As and when I fix issues on my machines I like to document them either at dafoot.co.uk or on mylinux blog so I can find them again later should my system get mashed somehow.

Not having any joy so far... got a driver installed (I think!), but it complains about wrong firmware. Will continue to fight it!

Maybe I'd be as well getting a new PCI card!