fedora 6 and ndiswrapper

OK guys, I am once again stumped and on the verge of giving up linux forever.


How the effin hell do you install ndiswrapper?

I tried to add it to kernel and it cant find the kernel files

make install dont work
I have the drivers, i have the software, but can I hell make them work.
Why does linux not have a setup.exe file like windows?????

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by timewarrior2001

Why does linux not have a setup.exe file like windows?????

Simply because every Linux distro is built in a slightly different way wether or not they use the same Kernel, and an installer to suit every single distro would be massive!

[Druchii]

Does Fedora Core use Apt? I'm sure i've done it through that in some wa
y or another over a wired connection to begin with.

Oddly i now have to fight with ndiswrapper myself if i want Linux on my sisters pc...

[Aragorn]

IIRC, you're probably missing the Kernel-Devel rpm.
Try something like
yum install kernel-devel
while root. This should get the appropriate binaries to enable the make to work.

HTH

---------- Post added at 20:07 ---------- Previous post was at 20:05 ----------

There's an ndiswrapper howto for FC5 here - should work for FC6.

[Strzelecki]

You may want to read http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=29659 and run yum -y install kmod-ndiswrapper to download and install ndiswrapper. You will then have to go to the ndiswrapper page and look on their hardware list to see what Windows driver you need.

[Gareth]

There's a thread about this over at Fedora Forums...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=29659

It's a few years old so the first few pages will be for pre-FC6 releases, so will have changed, but there should be some useful info there.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

You may want to read http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=29659 and run yum -y install kmod-ndiswrapper to download and install ndiswrapper. You will then have to go to the ndiswrapper page and look on their hardware list to see what Windows driver you need.

I seem to recall reading that howto when trying to get ndiswrapper working last year ;-)

tried it all,

Installed kernels etc and still ndiswrapper will not do what everyone says it does.

And ladies and gentlemen, this is why Linux will NEVER beat windows in popularity.

All I get now is

make -c driver
make [1]: entering directory '/root/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper/driver'
cant find Kernel build files in /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build;



OK so even though I installed Kernel-devel

Its still looking for some damn kernel files in a stupid place, its like how the hell can people even use this piece of crap OS????
At least with windows you can take it out the box, install it, install your drivers at the click of a button and your away.

Christ even DOS was better than what I have seen of Linux.

Now it seems to be telling me that it cant make an installer because some files are missing, despite me doing updates, installing an rpm and being on the verge of bouncing this crappy OS from here to timbucktoo, 2 bloody days I've been messing with this and I am not one step further forward!!!!

[Skatoony]

Originally Posted by Druchii

Does Fedora Core use Apt?

No, it uses YUM/YaST IIRC (RPM packages, not Debian packages).

[Aragorn]

Hmm - this howto suggests that ndiswrapper is now a yum installable rpm - ie no need to 'make' ndiswrapper - as indicated in Strzelecki's post.
Try that before giving up!

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

No, it uses YUM/YaST IIRC (RPM packages, not Debian packages).

Ah, cool Same concept then

[popper]

ofcourse ndiswrapper might not even be needed if theres a native linux wireless driver for your card, what is it by the way?, for instance rtl8180 11b drivers work out the box.

[Gareth]

Plus, it's hardly the fault of the OS if the manufacturers don't write a driver for it.

Imagine this the other way round... imagine taking a piece of hardware from a Unix box or from a Mac which has no Windows drivers for it, plug it in to your Windows box and see if you can get it to run.

Given the choice of using either Windows-only hardware in a *nix box or vice-versa, I know which one I'd rather be trying to get to work

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by timewarrior2001

OK guys, I am once again stumped and on the verge of giving up linux forever.

Just install Windows.... Much easier..... (sorry, had to be said! )

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by timewarrior2001

OK guys, I am once again stumped and on the verge of giving up linux forever.


How the effin hell do you install ndiswrapper?

I tried to add it to kernel and it cant find the kernel files

make install dont work
I have the drivers, i have the software, but can I hell make them work.
Why does linux not have a setup.exe file like windows?????

I didn't know about ndiswrapper until reading this forum...

It was a dead simple install.

1 - Download Windoze driver for your PCMCIA card

2 - Insert card into slot : Linux pcmcia_core should complain that it doesn't recognise it.

3 - Configure ndiswrapper to load windows driver
ndiswrapper --h
Usage: ndiswrapper OPTION

Manage ndis drivers for ndiswrapper.
-i inffile Install driver described by 'inffile'
-d devid driver Use installed 'driver' for 'devid'
-e driver Remove 'driver'
-l List installed drivers
-m Write configuration for modprobe

I used ndiswrapper -i inifile for my driver and thats it : You shouldnt need to do this step again.

4 - Load the actual ndiswrapper module into the kernel...

rmmod ndiswrapper (removes the module if its already in the kernel)
modprobe ndiswrapper (insert the module)

At this point you should have the card recognised (dmesg)
lsmod (to see what drivers are loaded in your kernel)