just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

[zed013]

the title basically says it all here. i'm fairly new to linux--i've fiddled with it before, and can generally do most anything i need to do if i'm guided through the process, but i'm currently trying to install ndiswrapper on my dell inspiron 1100 with kubuntu 8.04 to get my wireless card working, and it's giving me fits. i've downloaded the latest version of ndiswrapper from the web, but when i try to compile and install it spits out a bunch of weird errors.

basically, i was wondering if anyone could walk me through the process of getting ndiswrapper installed on 8.04, and if that won't work, if there's another way of getting a windows driver to play nice with kubuntu 8. thanks in advance.

[Snowhog]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

Please post the output of:

lspci -v | grep Ethernet

[zed013]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

that output:

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

[Snowhog]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

Okay. Broadcom. Yep, you'll need to use ndiswrapper!

A bit dated, so read it through: HOWTO: Broadcom 43xx based wireless cards the EASY way.

[zed013]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

i'm a little confused--it seems that you had me lspci the ethernet controller--my wireless card is a linksys model, the wpc11 v4 that gives everyone fits all the time .

is your response still the one i should follow?

[Snowhog]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

The lspci -v indicates you have a Broadcom ethernet controller (or at least, the chip set is Broadcom). The card may be manufactured by Linksys. Is this the case?

[zed013]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

yeah, the card is a card slot wireless-b adapter from linksys, and is generally a pain in the ass to configure on linux systems. from what i've read on the net, the wpc11 v4 card that i have is easiest to get working via the windows driver and ndiswrapper, hence my question. is that indeed the case, or not?

[jayhawk]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

The lspci -v information that was provided looks like the wired card instead of the wireless card. This card (BCM4401) is using the b44 driver I think which also uses ssb (which seems to cause problems with ndiswrapper).

Can you provide more lspci info? It might be more helpful to use lspci -nn. It will list everything, but I am not for sure how your wireless is going to be listed. Mine shows up as a network controller but it seems that wireless cards have a lot of different descriptions.

Also, can you also check and see if ssb is being used? That can be done by using lsmod|grep ssb. If it is not being used, no results should show up.

[zed013]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

ok, i've figured some of this out after wandering around the internet.

it's a realtek chipset (RTL8180L 802.11b MAC rev 20) in the card itself (obv linksys has 4 versions of the wpc11 card, and most of them use another chipset). i've found what appears to be the windows driver for it.

from looking around, it also looks like ndiswrapper is the way to go with this card, but i still for the life of me can't get it to install properly. i've downloaded multiple versions of the source, and the make command spits out pages of errors that i have no idea what to do with. unfortunately, i only have one wired connection available and can't copy the errors directly to the thread, but most of them are "undeclared" errors that seem to indicate that the source code isn't being read properly.

any thoughts?

[zed013]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

ok, it crossed my mind that ndiswrapper probably existed on the repositories somewhere, so and i found it that way with a graphical frontend and everything, so now the card seems to be showing up just fine.

HOWEVER....

when i try to configure the wlan0 interface, i enter everything that i need to and sites still don't load or anything. thoughts?

[blackpaw]

Re: just installed 8.04, problems getting ndiswrapper going

when i try to configure the wlan0 interface, i enter everything that i need to and sites still don't load or anything. thoughts?

What settings does you wireless router have?
- Channel
- Security : WEP/WPA etc

I ended up having to edit /etc/network/interfaces to get my card working.