Setup a Wireless Device in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
When I first started using Linux, one of the hardest things I had to do was to setup my wireless device. I use a Netgear WG111T USB device, which works well in Windows, but I had to make a significant effort to get it setup using Ubuntu. Doing so requires using an application called ndiswrapper which uses the Windows drivers for various wireless cards to make them work in linux. Most of my instruction will be geared toward my wireless device, but hopefully this guide will also work for other wireless cards. I’m also using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. The guide might work for other distros, but I won’t guarantee it.
The official Ubuntu support for ndiswrapper is here. I made use of this support extensively when writing this guide, but the instructions there didn’t work perfectly for me.
Step 1:
First, we need to install ndiswrapper. The Ubuntu support offers a method of doing this that might work for some cards, but the version of ndiswrapper that is installed in this method is somewhat out of date. Many cards, including my Netgear WG111T, don’t work with the older version and require the new version to run. In order to get the newest version, we need to compile the latest version of ndiswrapper ourselves. First, we need to remove all traces of ndiswrapper from the system. This ensures that we get a fresh install. To do this, open the Terminal (Application>Accessories>Terminal) and enter the following commands:
sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get –purge remove ndiswrapper
sudo rm -r /etc/ndiswrapper/
sudo rm -r /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko
Note: When you compile your own ndiswrapper, you have to recompile everytime you update your kernel. With Gutsy Gibbon coming out next week, this might mean you have to repeat this process pretty soon. It’s also possible that Gutsy Gibbon will fix some of the issues with Wireless Adapter support. I’ll let you know about my experiences with it as soon as possible.
To begin installing ndiswrapper, type the following commands:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install dh-make fakeroot gcc-3.4 build-essential
You then need to download the current version of ndiswrapper from here. As of the time of the writing of this guide, that was version 1.48. After you have finished downloading, use the Terminal to change to the directory where you downloaded the file. (If you downloaded the file into your home directory, you shouldn’t need to change.) Type the following commands into the Terminal:
tar xvfz ndiswrapper-[current version].tar.gz
cd ndiswrapper-[current version]
Replace [current version] with the number of the current version you downloaded.
Now comes the actual installation. Type the following into the Terminal:
sudo make uninstall
sudo make
fakeroot
sudo make install
This should install ndiswrapper.
Step 2:
1. You need to disable the free drivers that Ubuntu comes with by default. If these drivers aren’t working for you, the should be disabled because they will conflict with ndiswrapper. To do this, open a Terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and enter this command:
echo ‘blacklist bcm43xx’ | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
This won’t take effect until you restart your computer.
Step 3:
You should go to this list and find your wireless card. At the time I wrote this, the search wasn’t returning any results, and I had to go into the list to find my card. My card, the Netgear WG111T was number 19 under ‘N.’ You need to download and unzip the appropriate Windows drivers from the list. At the bottom of the entry for each card are notes. Pay attention to these notes, as they can be very important. For instance, the notes on the Netgear WG111T say that the driver comes with two sets of .inf and .sys files. Both of these must be installed to get the device to work.
Step 4:
Now we need to install the windows drivers. There is a graphical tool to do this, but I didn’t have much luck getting it to work. Instead, I used the Terminal. First, locate the driver file(s). This should be a file with a .inf extension. Type this following into the terminal:
sudo ndiswrapper -i ‘/drivers/drivername.inf’
Replace drivers with the directory containing the driver, and drivername with the name of the the driver.
For the Netgear WG111T, you have to repeat this process: once for athfmwdl.inf, and once for netwg11t.inf.
Next, you need to check to see if the driver was installed correctly. To do this, type this command into the Terminal:
ndiswrapper -l
If the driver is configured correctly, you should get a message that the driver is present and that the device is present. (For the Netgear WG111T, you should recieve a message for both drivers, but only for one device.)
Step 4:
If the drivers are loaded correctly, you now need to load them into memory. Type the following command into the Terminal:
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
To test that the connection is working correctly type the command ifconfig into the Terminal. If the connection is working, an interface named wlan0 should appear in the output. If it appears, you should be able to configure the network connection.
Step 5:
Assuming that everything is working correctly, you’ll probably want ndiswrapper to start every time your computer starts up. To make this happen, you just need to type the following command into the terminal:
sudo ndiswrapper -m
That should configure ndiswrapper to start whenever your computer boots.
That’s everything you need to do. It’s a fairly long process, but I tried to lay it out as simply as possible. If you have any problems, feel free to ask here, or on the Ubuntu forums. Hopefully, the process will be simpler with the upcoming release of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. I’ll let you know when I find out.
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