beardyman
16-10-2006, 10:07 AM
Okay guys, there is a lot of word around various forums that the only 511 cards that work with Ubuntu are the 'Made in Taiwan' models. That's not actually true. Although they are the only cards that work out-the-box, the MADE IN CHINA cards use 'softMAC' and will therefore not work straight away. You can however install the MADE IN CHINA cards and get them functioning using 'ndiswrapper' and the XP driver. Here's how:
Put the card in....
FIRST OFF:
You will need to install the kernel headers for your distribution. For the sake of this topic (Ubuntu) you can do this using the Synaptic Package Manager (look for linux-headers-***-***).
When these are installed, go ahead and install ndiswrapper (sudo Make, sudo Make Install). When you install ndiswrapper, it will ask you for the location of the kernel headers. If in doubt, open a new terminal and do a 'whereis' for the kernel header file. probably in /usr/src/linux-header-***-***.
ONCE YOU HAVE NDISWRAPPER INSTALLED:
ok, now we need the drivers for the card. put your cd in, and change directory to where the driver is located (for example $ cd /media/cdrom/Driver/Windows\ /XP). Find the inf file. Lets assume its called WG511.INF, you would type: sudo ndiswrapper -i WG511.INF
At this stage you can check it has worked by going to /etc/ndiswrapper, and the driver will be listed within that directory. Also: ndiswrapper -l will list if the hardware is present.
you can also check your module dependancies by typing: sudo depmod -a
if this returns no errors, go ahead and: sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
once this is done you can type: iwconfig
to confirm that the card is now listed (wlan0)
now, here;s the kicker.......this will NOT support scanning, so you will need to know the SSID of the wireless network you wish to connect to. once you know this, you can simply $ sudo iwconfig essid xxxxxx
where xxxxxx is the ssid of your network.
and you should be in business - on an unsecured network anyway. if you are using encryption the WEP key also needs setting up.
Put the card in....
FIRST OFF:
You will need to install the kernel headers for your distribution. For the sake of this topic (Ubuntu) you can do this using the Synaptic Package Manager (look for linux-headers-***-***).
When these are installed, go ahead and install ndiswrapper (sudo Make, sudo Make Install). When you install ndiswrapper, it will ask you for the location of the kernel headers. If in doubt, open a new terminal and do a 'whereis' for the kernel header file. probably in /usr/src/linux-header-***-***.
ONCE YOU HAVE NDISWRAPPER INSTALLED:
ok, now we need the drivers for the card. put your cd in, and change directory to where the driver is located (for example $ cd /media/cdrom/Driver/Windows\ /XP). Find the inf file. Lets assume its called WG511.INF, you would type: sudo ndiswrapper -i WG511.INF
At this stage you can check it has worked by going to /etc/ndiswrapper, and the driver will be listed within that directory. Also: ndiswrapper -l will list if the hardware is present.
you can also check your module dependancies by typing: sudo depmod -a
if this returns no errors, go ahead and: sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
once this is done you can type: iwconfig
to confirm that the card is now listed (wlan0)
now, here;s the kicker.......this will NOT support scanning, so you will need to know the SSID of the wireless network you wish to connect to. once you know this, you can simply $ sudo iwconfig essid xxxxxx
where xxxxxx is the ssid of your network.
and you should be in business - on an unsecured network anyway. if you are using encryption the WEP key also needs setting up.