So I installed the ndiswrapper source package from: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
1) Just added the source to the sources.list file and download the source, version 0.11.
2) Had an earlier verison of ndiswrapper, uninstalled that (deb --purge <packages>, then rmmod ndiswrapper).
3) Went into /usr/src and unpacked the source file as root: #> tar zxf ndiswrapper-source.tar.gz
4) Went into /usr/src/modules/ndiswrapper and gave the command (as root, with fakeroot it gave some error and didn't work):
#> debian/rules binary
5) the resulting dep packages were in /usr/src/modules:
#> ls ../
ndiswrapper ndiswrapper-modules_0.11-2.6.7.20040920.hs_i386.deb ndiswrapper-utils_0.11_i386.deb nvidia-kernel
6) Installed these packages(while still in /usr/src/modules/ndiswrapper):
#> dpkg -i ../ndiswrapper*.deb
Selecting previously deselected package ndiswrapper-modules.
(Reading database ... 147721 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ndiswrapper-modules (from .../ndiswrapper-modules_0.11-2.6.7.20040920.hs_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package ndiswrapper-utils.
Unpacking ndiswrapper-utils (from .../ndiswrapper-utils_0.11_i386.deb) ...
Setting up ndiswrapper-utils (0.11) ...
Setting up ndiswrapper-modules (0.11-2.6.7.20040920.hs) ...
7) then loaded the module: #> modprobe ndiswrapper #> lsmod | grep ndiswr ndiswrapper 118652 0 usbcore 117440 5 ndiswrapper,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
8) not sure about this, but #> depmod -a
9) extracted the R83097.EXE (driver for WinXP download from Dell website) in a temporary directory /tmp/wl
10) made ndiswrapper see the inf file: #> ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5a.inf <-- removed earlier instance of driver #> ndiswrapper -l <-- just making sure no driver is loaded No drivers installed
#> ndiswrapper -i AR/bcmwl5a.inf <--install this driver Installing bcmwl5a
#> ndiswrapper -l <--verify driver was installed Installed ndis drivers: bcmwl5a driver present, hardware present <--good, it is.
Okay, that is all fine, or so it seems to me. Then I listed the interfaces with iwconfig and it includes:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-10 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:15 Missed beacon:0
So looks like the wireless card is being seen. I don't have a wireless network here where I am trying to get the wireles card working, but I sometimes see this:
#> iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:02:6F:08:51:22
ESSID:"TadaaWireless"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-86 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0
And dmesg says: ndiswrapper version 0.11 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=yes) ndiswrapper: using irq 18 wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:0b:7d:08:25:9d using driver bcmwl5a wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP, WPA with TKIP, AES/CCMP ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5a (Broadcom,06/25/2004, 3.40.73.0) added ndiswrapper (iw_set_encr:685): key 1 is not set wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
But I am not sure how to get the ESSID info into the card. I have tried this in /etc/network/interfaces:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
name Wireless LAN card
wireless_essid Sunny
wireless_channel 6
wireless_key 0a1b2c3d4e
But iwconfig still does not show the ESSID of "Sunny"? What am I missing here?
In Windows, I remember I had to 'switch on the antenna' by by pressing Fn+F2. Is there a similar thing in Linux on this laptop also? This is a bit strage to me because usually I have seen a separate switch on laptops that switch on or off the wireless card.
->HS
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