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When I first started using linux, one of the biggest problems I had was getting my wireless network adapter working. I finally got it, and, in the hopes of getting others to use linux I am writing this tutorial on how to do it. First you need to get the drivers for your wireless adapter, sometimes the disk that came with it will work but in my case I had to download them from the Linksys website. You should do this while you still have windows, since the drivers are usually in .exe format. After you get the drivers and have them copied to a cd or floppy or whatever, and have linux loaded on your computer, you need to see if your distro has ndiswrapper (it's a good idea to do this before you install the OS, but whatever). To find out if you have ndiswrapper, open a terminal and type ndiswrapper, here is what it should look like:
kbk@0[~]$ ndiswrapper Usage: ndiswrapper OPTION Manage ndis drivers for ndiswrapper. -i inffile Install driver described by 'inffile' -d devid driver Use installed 'driver' for 'devid' -e driver Remove 'driver' -l List installed drivers -m Write configuration for modprobe where 'devid' is either PCIID or USBID of the form XXXX:XXXX
Now that you know you have ndiwrapper, it's time to install the drivers. First you will need to cd to the directory where your driver files are (don't need to, but it's not a bad idea). For me that will be:
cd /home/kbk/drivers/WUSB54Gv1. Now for me I will type
ndiswrapper -i WUSB54G.infto install the driver (for you it might be something different, just install whatever .inf file you have in the directory). Now to make sure it installed we type:
ndiswrapper -lto list the drivers installed, here is the output of mine:
kbk@0[~]$ ndiswrapper -l Installed ndis drivers: airplus driver present bcmwl5 driver present lsbcmnds driver present lstinds driver present mrv8k51 driver present netr33x driver present prismnic driver present wlanuig driver present wlipnds driver present wusb54g driver present, hardware present
Now you type
modprobe ndiswrapperso that it will save your settings. And you're done. If I've left anything out, let me know.
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