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Install Drivers for an unsupported Linux Wireless Network Card


Last Updated: 2006-03-01

If you are a Linux user you might have run into a problem when you are tyring to get your Windows only wireless network card to work. I have a Fujitsu S-Series Notebook with a Broadcom wireless chip.

At first I decided to use a D-Link PCMCIA card which works fine but I would rather use my internal wireless card.

First you need the ndiswrapper installed on your system which is very easy to do with a rpm based system.
Once installed, get the Windows driver for your wireless network card. You need the inf file.
Now use the command below to install the driver.


Command:
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

Replace bcmwl5.inf with the name of your inf file. You can check if your device has been detected by using ndiswrapper -l.

Command:
ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present


Now we need to load the ndiswrapper module into the kernel.

Command:
modprobe ndiswrapper


Now you can check your log file with

Command:
dmesg
or try to find an access point in your area with

Command:
iwlist wlan0 scan


Now create a file called /etc/wpa_supplicant with the following contents.
network={
ssid="SSID"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="PASSWORD"
}

And connect to the wireless access point with

Command:
wpa_supplicant -D ndiswrapper -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Now run

Command:
dhcpcd wlan0
to get an IP.

Check out the linux section, I will post a short wireless key management script soon.
Originally Posted by Skylinux @ 2006-03-1 11:12:19

 

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