Help needed - Installing Wireless card drivers without network connection

manjo · #1 23rd July 2009, 07:37 PM

Hi,

I have Fedora11 running in my machine and it has no LAN port (RJ-45). I have a wireless PCMCIA card.
The model of the wireless card is NL-2511CD EXT2(ETSI).

When I insert that card to the PCMCIA slot a window pops up and ask for a WEP key. My wireless router is configured with WPA but above pop-up has no WPA option.

I suspect my fedora installation does not have the necessary driver for my wireless card.

I found this driver for the card.
ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/
and I chose linux-wlan-ng-0.2.9.tar.bz2.

I want to install that driver. I can transfer that file to the machine via thumb drive since it has no network connection yet.

How do I install this? Please refer below images as I'm still a newbie at linux.

add/remove software GIF
software sources GIF
yum command line GIF

Thank you.

Nokia · #2 23rd July 2009, 08:01 PM

Please post the contents of lspci.text and dmesg.txt here

Code:

lspci > lspci.txt
dmesg >dmesg.txt

tuxthejedi · #3 23rd July 2009, 11:58 PM

there should be a README or a INSTALL file on the package just read it

Debian

manjo · #4 24th July 2009, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nokia

Please post the contents of lspci.text and dmesg.txt here

Code:

lspci > lspci.txt
dmesg >dmesg.txt

Hi again,

here is the lspci GIF and dmesg GIF

Thank you.

manjo · #5 24th July 2009, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuxthejedi

there should be a README or a INSTALL file on the package just read it

Thank you tuxthejedi, I'm going to try your idea too. I'm just going through the read me file.

The read me file surely explains thing crystal clear. However, my experience with those technical terms (build, kernel, binary, source ..... ) is not that deep. I'm still learning. I can always type a set of commands at the command line.

Thanks again.

rexbinary · #6 24th July 2009, 06:28 AM

Those drivers you downloaded are already included with Fedora, that is what is allowing you to have the option to configure it for WEP. I do not believe WPA is supported by the wlan-ng driver. You might be able to get WPA working using ndiswrapper.

manjo · #7 24th July 2009, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rexbinary

Those drivers you downloaded are already included with Fedora, that is what is allowing you to have the option to configure it for WEP. I do not believe WPA is supported by the wlan-ng driver. You might be able to get WPA working using ndiswrapper.

Thanks rexbinary.

Can you please provide a link to ndiswrapper. Also please check my images, specially add/remove software GIF.
I couldn't find any package for networking there. Probably this is not relevant.

rexbinary · #8 24th July 2009, 06:45 AM

It's in the RPMFusion repo.

http://rpmfusion.org

manjo · #9 24th July 2009, 07:05 AM

Thanks Rex

rexbinary · #10 24th July 2009, 07:24 AM

Your Welcome. I haven't used ndiswrapper before, but I think you will need the windows driver for the wrapper to 'wrap around'. Maybe someone with more knowledge will be nice enough to help you further.

bbfuller · #11 24th July 2009, 09:10 AM

Hello all,

These are the generic notes for installing ndiswrapper in Fedora 11:

Quote:

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:

Code:

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:

Code:

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:

Code:

yum install kmod-ndiswrapper

should bring in the three relevant packages.

Then set up and configure ndiswrapper with:

Code:

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

should install the driver,

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

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

Code:

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:

Code:

ndiswrapper -ma

Post back with any questions or problems.

bbfuller · #12 24th July 2009, 09:12 AM

If you don't have a network connection then you need to obtain the ndiswrapper parts manually and transfer them to the machine in question.

Notes here:

Quote:

If you want to install the ndiswrapper rpm's from rpmfusion without an internet connection then you need to know which kernel you are running.

Code:

uname -a

from a terminal will tell you that. My machine reports:

2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE

The important parts to note for the kernel on your machine are the equivalent to the parts I've marked in red.

Go to this site:

http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/...thing/i386/os/

You will need a file like:

Code:

kmod-ndiswrapper-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE-1.54-4.fc11.8.i686.rpm

but that matches your kernel number and architecture, the parts I have highlighted red, and a file like:

Code:

kmod-ndiswrapper-PAE-1.54-4.fc11.8.i686.rpm

note how the parts of this file name match the previous file, and finally like:

Code:

ndiswrapper-1.54-2.fc11.i586.rpm

that again matches the other two. Don't worry, the architecture for this one is the basic architecture.

Transfer them all to a folder on your linux machine where there are no other rpm files..

In a terminal, acquire full root rights by issuing the command:

Code:

su -

that's a space and a minus sign after the su.

Then use the cd command to change into the folder where you have the three rpm files.

Use the command:

Code:

rpm -ivh *.rpm

to install the three files. By using a wild card they should be able to sort out their interrelated dependencies for themselves.

That should get ndiswrapper installed.

manjo · #13 26th July 2009, 07:31 PM

bbfuller,

Thanks for this great post. I'll try this first thing in the morning. Keep you posted on the progress.

Have a great day.

Manjo.

bbfuller · #14 26th July 2009, 08:05 PM

Hello manjo

One more thing will probably need to be done.

That is to stop the wlan-ng driver trying to take over.

If you open the file:

Quote:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

as root, add the line:

Code:

blacklist wlan-ng

at the end of it. After a reboot that should stop it trying to load and interfering with ndiswrapper.

Code:

/sbin/lsmod | grep wlan

should return nothing, which will prove it.