I am a little disappointed......

[Clay Weber]

On Thursday, May 03, 2012 08:50:20 AM Terry Madore Jr wrote:
> I have loved Kubuntu from the first time I installed it and yes it takes
> a bit of work to get it to where I want it to be but it's worth it......
> MOSTLY. My only problems with it now is still,  even after all these
> version updates, that I cannot use my TV tuner card (Avermedia A188
> HDDuet TV) and my wireless card (Netgear WN-311T) without using
> ndiswrapper (which apparently isn't working right now in 12.04 but I
> will get to that in a minute). Isn't there anyone in the community out
> there who knows anything about drivers, who can get me some that will
> work. I tire of trying to use ndiswrapper for a Netgear card that should
> have a working driver by now. Also I have used the proven info for
> ndiswrapper from undiff.com (which I had used up until this version with
> no problems) to get my card to work and apparently it is not working
> anymore in 12.04, which makes it all the more disappointing for me. This
> is the 3 strike rule for me on this OS, I am up to 2 and hoping that
> someday they can be remedied since this puts a huge damper on my ever
> moving completely here. I've tried to rally my family behind this OS but
> if even I have problems (who has been working in IT and Electronics
> since I was a young boy) cannot get everything to work right, how can I
> expect anyone in my family to figure it out...... Anyway please if there
> is anyone at all out there who has gotten either of these to work , I
> would greatly appreciate the assistance. I am really trying to break
> Micro$oft's hold on my PC. Thank you for your time.
> TJ
> 

I am sorry you have these problems. You are hitting a wall most Linux users 
have hit at least once. The lack of drivers cannot be fully placed on the 
voluntary efforts of the volunteers who volunteer to hack on hardware to 
attempt to create drivers. I think that if the only way to use a device is via 
ndiswrapper, the hardware specs are not available from the chip maker - making 
it extremely difficult to impossible to accomplish, or there is simply not 
enough interest in a particular device- often due to the first reason. Seeing 
as the Avermedia card dates back to at least 2009 makes me think that it is 
unlikely a driver will ever be developed.

As to the netgear, the  same thing can be said.  However, it is terrible that 
it did work for you previously. The only thing I can recommend with 
ndiswrapper is to make sure you use XP or Wn2K driver files, not sure if any 
32bit/64bit compatibility issues could arise out of this.

clay