New Linux User

HOWTO: User NdisWrapper to Install my Wifi Card

by Jon on September 26th, 2005

NdisWrapper may allow you to use your Windows wifi drivers on your GNU/Linux box. Here’s how:

1. Install NdisWrapper: either use your package manger or download the package from the NdisWrapper site.
2. Locate the *.inf and *.sys files on your Windows driver CD (we’ll use d:\winXP\driver.inf and d:\winXP\driver.sys for the example)
3. Install the drivers. Type:
   

   ndiswrapper -i /mnt/cdrom/driver.inf (your device may differ)

4. After installing, check that the driver was installed correctly by typing:
   

   ndiswrapper -l

   The terminal should report back the name of your driver.

You can now get on with the business of configuring your card with iwlist and iwconfig.

Note: Theses are the steps I have used many times with two different wifi cards and have had success from. However, the NdsiWrapper site’s instructions contain many other steps that I have never executed. If you’re having troubles, please check out the NdisWrapper instructions.

Note: Being a good little GNU/Linux blogger, I thought it would be a good idea to actually check out the NdisWrapper instructions to see how they worked. Well, for me they borked my system totally and brought me down, down, down. I had to go back to the instructions that I’ve detailed here to get my system back up. Your mileage may vary, though, so if one set of instructions doesn’t work for you, try the other.

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