Ndiswrapper HowTo

[Andr'e Kuntze]

Hi,

setting up ndiswrapper must be trivial for you gurus out there but since
i spend yesterday messing aroung with my system to get this thingy to
work i decided to post a little howto.

I expect you to know which inf-file you need and where to find it.

Here we go:

1. Fire Up synaptic or whatever you like to use and update your
repository.

2. Install the packages "ndiswrapper-utils" and
"linux-image-2.6.8.1-3-386".

Note:
The linux-image-2.6.8.1-3* package is system dependent. I am pretty sure
you can use linux-image-2.6.8.1-3-686 instead of
linux-image-2.6.8.1-3-386.
Just make sure you use a linux-image-2.6.8.1-3* (or later) because
linux-image-2.6.8.1-2* packages [default by installation] do not include
the needed ndiswrapper module.

3. Boot with the new kernel.

4. Call "ndiswrapper -i foobar.inf" where foobar.inf is the path to your
inf-file.

5. Call "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" to install the needed module.

6. Edit /etc/network/interfaces to your likings. Mine looks like:

// Code starts here

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet static
#	address 192.168.2.3
#	netmask 255.255.255.0
#	network 192.168.2.0
#	broadcast 192.168.2.255
#	gateway 192.168.2.1
#	# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if
installed
#	dns-nameservers 194.25.2.129auto eth0

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
	netmask 255.255.255.0
	network 192.168.2.0
	broadcast 192.168.2.255
	gateway 192.168.2.1
	# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
	dns-nameservers 194.25.2.129
	wireless_keymode XXX
	wireless_key XXX
	wireless_essid XXX

// Code ends here

7. Now you can call ifup wlan0 and your card will be hopefully ready to
work.


Maybe this helps some of you guys out there.

Greetings
André

P.S.: Thanks to the Ubuntu Team for creating such a great distribution.
Keep it up guys... it's awesome!!