installing USB wireless network card and locked files

[dave-0]

I try to do a little research before asking questions, but here goes, since my research is turning up a lot of (imo) oversimplified 'answers'.

I installed the latest version of Kubuntu, mainly because I heard of the increased compatability between Linux and USB (and wireless) devices. I have a Dlink G120 USB card, known to be working. I installed Kubuntu and the PCI ethernet card works fine so I can use any installed browsers like Mozilla.

I read that in order to use the Dlink wireless card I needed the drivers. They are windows drivers, packed into these "cab" files labeled data1.cab, data2.cab, and data1.hdr (I read that this file is important too) and that to extract the files you need to use a program called 'unshield'. Apparently Kubuntu likes to have all the utilities like unshield packed away somewhere and you have to install it.

I finally found the Konsole and was able to use the commands sudo apt-get install and 'unshield'. The system gave me some sort of error but suggested I write it another way so I did, and it installed.

Just when I think I have everything solved and I'd be able to extract these stupid wireless drivers, I followed the instructions sudo unshield x '/home/david/Desktop/data1.cab' and the files extracted. They went onto the desktop, and now each one appears as an file icon with a padlock on top. Another fabulous twist.

If there is anyone out there I would appreciate knowing if I am going in the right direction to install these stupid wireless driver files, and how to unlock the driver files (at the very least, to delete them). BTW I tried changing the directory where I was doing the 'unshielding' and wound up creating multiple copies of locked files in /root/root, /root, /home, etc., and every time I try to move them or get rid of them it tells me I don't have access rights, although I am logged in as an administrator.

If there is an easier way to install wireless driver files (or get the wireless card working) I would like to know that, too.

[dave-0]

Re: installing USB wireless network card and locked files

Well, I found out how to do it.

Apparently, Linux was and is still very much dependent upon doing everything from the terminal. Having the GUI is nice, but apparently the only thing that really works well is the terminal, so I guess I'd better get used to it.

Unshield is not without its problems. There is very little mention of the 'sudo' command, or option, or whatever it is, and most of what you have to do has to be in the 'root' mode -- some sort of 'security' issues with Linux trying to protect us from ourselves. Anyway, I managed to find the .cab files I was looking for and when I used unshield to find the .inf file, I could extract it only by typing in sudo unshield -g (the directory) x data1.cab, but that extracted only the one directory. The directory shows up in the directory you happen to be in, although it will be locked for some unknown reason. However, if you use the sudo su command you will be in 'root' mode and it will say so on the terminal command line. I had to move the files around using 'cp filename directory' and then removing unwanted files and folders using the rm folder -r command.

What is strange is none of these actions can be accomplished using a file manager in the GUI mode. I tried a couple of different ones an none of them would allow me to do what I had to do. Like I said, you can only do this in the terminal mode.

Once you have the .inf file and the associated files that are to be installed as drivers (read the .inf file to find the correct files and where they can be found in the .cab files) my advice is to put them all in the same folder. Then I used the program to install the Wifi drivers (it is called Wireless drivers and it is under the main menu) and it will install your wireless drivers. You still have to get it to come on and connect to your WAP. I had problems with the machine always connecting to the internet using the PCI LAN card. You have to use the Network configuration which displays eth0 and wlan1 as network connections, but you have to disable the eth0 connection before the wlan1 will kick in (but it only kicked in partway for me).

I think you have to reboot in order to get that to take effect. Eventually, I just disconnected the ethernet cable from the PCI LAN card and rebooted. There are some scripts buried deep down in the /etc/network folder that will turn the wlan1 connection on if the eth0 connection cannot be established.

I am kind of surprised that so many people read my request and didn't have an answer. But there's my answer, I hope some folks find it useful.