Wireless

[Nefariouz]

Alright decided to dual boot XP and knoppix hd install. Newbie to linux and all.

Anyway I'm trying to install my WG111 Netgear USB 2.0 on this 5.1.0 installation (2.6.19 version). I've read many tutorials and guides, including the install for prisma (a little too complex for me atm) so please don't flame me.

I installed the drivers from the Netgear site on windows, and grabbed the netwg111.inf and the wg111nd5.sys and put it in a local directory (/home/nefariouz/netgear). I used ndiswrapper to install the inf but it says "No new device is connected so maybe ndiswrapper isn't working with your card" or something to that effect.

ndiswrapper -l in the shell shows "netwg111 : invalid driver!" And I've tried removing it and reinstalling it, same results.
iwconfig shows "lo no wireless extensions"
network card configuration shows "no supported network cards found"
lsusb shows "Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0846:4240 NetGear, Inc. WG111 WiFi (v2) so OBVIOUSLY it is at least detected at least partially.

Pretty much at my wit's end seeing as that this Compaq Armada 1750 laptop is so old that it has no ethernet port. Which is mainly the reason why I wanted to take XP off of it as it runs poorly. I read in these forums that 5.1.0 is a little messed up. Should I revert to an earlier version? I mean I know I'm a linux noob, but without outside assistance and doing my own reasearch I don't think there is anything I missed, right?

[Nefariouz]

And people wonder why there isn't more support for linux. 60 views and not one comment. If the users themselves aren't willing to at least provide some suggestions to help others trying to escape the M$ beast, it doesn't have much of a future. All I know is I'm done with the knoppix releases other than as a rescue disk because this community is weak.

[Harry Kuhman]

..... All I know is I'm done with the knoppix releases other than as a rescue disk because this community is weak.

Interesting conclusion. We do seem to get an awful lot of community support here though. In the more than 4 years this site has ben operating it has averages over 70 posts a day (not counting the volumes of spam that are removed quickly) and over 16 topics started a day (a little math will show that the great number of the posts must be responses.


Perhaps others chose not to answer your post for some of the same reasons that I did: You had decided to install Knoppix in spite of the warnings, so you already didn't seem too receptive to help (I don't respond to people who ask why it hurts when they hit their hand with a hammer either, that's my choice and I don't expect to be insulted for it). You seem to have either ignored or not bothered to read all of the already posted information on both wireless issues (including that all 5.x versions have problems that previous versions did not, as well as known support issues for much of the available wireless hardwre) as well as the very common problem of networking not working at all after a hard disk install.

I do agree with your conclusion, that does seem to be all that you know.

[Nefariouz]

Of course I decided to install knoppix. And yes, I was well aware of the warnings. But seeing that I'm not a computer novice, I felt up to the challenge. And as I said before, I've read most if not all of the posts on the wireless issues. There is even a list for the wireless cards that are compatible and it has been previously stated that the netgear card that I have works well with linux.

And in this very forum people HAVE been able to get it working on 5.x versions. Seeing that it's already been done, it can be repeated. That is why I was asking for support. It was a simple question, should I revert or did I miss something. I wasn't asking someone to hold my hand, and I didn't just go out and download it, and install, and then cry and moan about it when it didn't work. I can just repartition and go back to XP easily without assistance. But I spent quite a lot of time trying to sort it out myself based on the success (or the lack of) previous posts.

Now you might be right about not knowing much about linux, but don't act like you popped in debian and knew everything there was to know about it. Get off your high horse.

[kujikiri]

To both of you,

From my heart, is with deepest sorry that I have to tell you something, this is what makes Linux "the second option" when a user buy a computer. Instead of being arguing, try to help each other, I'm giving my first steps in Linux, but I accepted the challenge, I want to learn, but although I have been reading a lot of information about how to solve my wireless problem (Both of us have the same wireless adapter, nefariouz), I'm confused about what must I do firstly. It's supposed to be the downloading of Windows Realtek drivers to be used with the ndiswrapper, but all is very confusing. Instead of explain it step by step (as I used to do in my Windows tutorials), everybody is supposed to know how to decompress Linux packages and more, and it's not true. A few years ago I used a Mandrake distro, and it was not too bad, I discovered (with no help) how to install .rpm packages, I felt very happy about this. But now, when I' m trying to use Linux for the second time, I have the same feeling again, you have to do everything, and sharing ideas is even more complex, because everybody seems to know how to do this or that, but at then end, you're alone in the dark (and I'm not talking about the game). I'm still needing help, I want to use Linux, and I want to use my Netgear WG111v2, but it's a pity that 2 users of Linux (or even if it were about Windows) are giving so bad image, I promise to you something Nefariouz, if I learn how to install, configure and make our wireless work, I will send you a tutorial made step by step so you (or someone else) will be able to solve this wireless issue, that's my promise.
Greetings to all Linux users round the world from Spain.

Kujikiri.

[kujikiri]

Nefariouz,

Depending on your Wireless driver, is supposed to work with one or another Linux distribution, for example, with my driver version (5.1213.6.316) my USB Wireless works with Fedora Core 5, it has been tested using ndiswrapper 1.33 and everything goes. I have found this information browsing in the web, it's NOT mine, but I can't remember it's author name (sorry about this) or where did I found it (it was a simple "copy & paste"). I can pass this information to you if you give me an e-mail address, it's explained with many different drivers and which ones of the Linux distributions will accept your wireless depending on your driver version.
Hope this will help you.


Kujikiri.