mdwvt Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 So I'm running Mandrake 10.1 and I'm trying to get my built in wireless driver working. I think ndiswrapper would work just fine if I could get it to install its driver/module correctly but Mandrake already has a default module in place and I'm having a **** of a time finding out what exactly it is and removing it!!! I have a friend trying to help me that is very good with linux. He helped me out with a lot of the module stuff and ndiswrapper stuff involved in trying to get my wireless card working!! Heeelllpp!! Like I mentioned in the Topic Title I have the RaLink RT2500 802.11g (b too I think) card.Any help with this is much appreciated! If anyone can point me to somewhere else on the internet where this problem has already been solved that would be awesome! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 Hi mdwvtWelcome to the forum !I am not the wireless expert here . . but Julia ( nickname "teacher" ) is . . . and sure she will be in here soon . . . . but maybe I can help you here: finding out what exactly it is and removing it!!!The new mandrake loads its modules from /etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/modprobe.preload . . . if you "comment out" the correct line there it will no longer load at boot ( the usual place for this was /etc/modules.conf but it has recently changed :"> )Do not remove the line completely . . . you never know you might need it again . . .just place a # at the start of the line ( that is called "commenting out" ) :"> Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 I don't know how you could have another module in its place. I have a USB port that was configured as wlan0. When I ran the commands to get ndiswrapper going it overwrote what was there and replaced it.Let's start with some basics.1. Do you have your inf file where you know its location?2. Did you install the ndiswrapper through your Mandrake Control Center?3. If both are yes, then have you typed as root: #ndiswrapper -i filename.inf You put the correct inf file name there of your RaLink card rather than the word file name. . If you have done that already, did you follow it up with ndiswrapper -l This should have shown that both your driver and hardware are present. Let me know if you have gotten that far and we will go from there. :"> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 I found a Ralink support site with directions for your card. This is the part after installing ndiswrapper from the MCC: 7. (use su to switch to root) ndiswrapper -i Rt2500.INF8. ndiswrapper -l (make sure its there)9. modprobe ndiswrapper10. do this:iwconfig wlan0 mode Managediwconfig wlan0 key YOUR_KEYiwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSIDiwconfig wlan0 channel YOUR_CHANNEL/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.10 up/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0ORdhcpcd wlan0Where 192.168.0.10 is, replace with a unused IP in your network, where 192.168.0.1 use your gateway IP (either router or AP ip), or use dhcpcd wlan0 to use DHCP.11. ping google.com12. if you got no ping reply, i cant help im only telling you what i found out. if it works usendiswrapper -mto save modprobe settings.Knoppix (and other Knoppix-based distros, or those with netcardconfig):You can omit the last three lines (only configure with iwconfig up to setting the essid) and run "netcardconfig", either from the Knoppix menu under Network, where it is called "Network Card Configuration", and select "yes" in the "Use DHCP broadcast" window.Have fun! Ralink site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdwvt Posted February 22, 2005 Author Share Posted February 22, 2005 Guys thank you very much for your help so far... I have a feeling (after digging around more in linux) that maybe a module isn't being loaded by default. The reason I think this is because I checked the modprobe.conf and .preload and I didn't see anything to do with the RaLink hardware or any wireless LAN. There was a ndiswrapper module (from when me and my friend tried to get it going) but I think we might have added the module incorrectly. I'm going to try the instructions that teacher posted (thank you so much by the way...anything is helpful!) and then I'll post again when I find out more or I am still stuck! Thanks again for your help everybody! I love the support that comes along with any linux community! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Let us know how that works for you. I had to try several different ones and am going to reboot today to see if I need to change where it saved. Using ndiswrapper -m seems to be the key to getting it in the right place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdwvt Posted February 24, 2005 Author Share Posted February 24, 2005 hey I'm still around! Completely aside from my linux wireless internet problems I finally got my satellite internet here at my house working!!! That was quite the adventure let me tell you! Its not a good thing when I have to go outside and physically adjust the pointing of the satellite dish to get a better signal strength (thats exactly what I had to do)! Ok so back to my wireless problem in linux... I am going to try the open source driver that is available and if that doesn't fix my problem then I'm going to try anohter distro of linux...probably suse pro 9.1 or the new fedora core =) The other thing I havn't tried doing is updating my mandrake 10.1 kernel but I'm not entirely shure on how to do that (I know its not a big deal and I could find the instructions online so I might do that...I've also got that friend at school that will help me do it too ...if he's got the time)...ok so here I go...trying the open source driver with ndiswrapper! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Good luck with the wrapper. Mine is working pretty good now. There are several ways to do that final connection so if that one does not work we will try another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdwvt Posted February 24, 2005 Author Share Posted February 24, 2005 Ok so I downloaded the open source RT2500 driver and I have had some trouble getting it to install...I tried installing the module part of it and the very first command that you're supposed to run is something like make -C /usr/src/linux SUBDIRS=$PWD modules ... something a lot like that....and I get an error on that....any ideas??? Pretty bad when I can't even get the open source driver installed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Everything I read on yours said it would not work with the driver. You need to follow the ndiswrapper instructions. Did you give that a try? 7. (use su to switch to root) ndiswrapper -i Rt2500.INF8. ndiswrapper -l (make sure its there)9. modprobe ndiswrapper10. do this:iwconfig wlan0 mode Managediwconfig wlan0 key YOUR_KEYiwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_ESSIDiwconfig wlan0 channel YOUR_CHANNEL/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.10 up/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0ORdhcpcd wlan0Where 192.168.0.10 is, replace with a unused IP in your network, where 192.168.0.1 use your gateway IP (either router or AP ip), or use dhcpcd wlan0 to use DHCP.11. ping google.com12. if you got no ping reply, i cant help im only telling you what i found out. if it works usendiswrapper -mto save modprobe settings.Knoppix (and other Knoppix-based distros, or those with netcardconfig):You can omit the last three lines (only configure with iwconfig up to setting the essid) and run "netcardconfig", either from the Knoppix menu under Network, where it is called "Network Card Configuration", and select "yes" in the "Use DHCP broadcast" window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdwvt Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 hey guys I just wanted to let you all know that I did get ndiswrapper working with mandrake 10.1 and my wireless card =) It is/was very nice. Thank you very much for helping...it is much appreciated. On a completely seperate note...Has anyone had problems with mandrake 10.1 not being able to use apic (advanced power and interrupt control)...my battery runs out pretty fast while in linux...so I'm going to try a different distro...probably Fedora cuz I already tried SuSe 9.1 and it didn't mix well with my laptop at all...couldn't even get my ethernet 10/100 card working =( so no internet...no updates ...anyway the search for a good distro goes on...or maybe there's a fix for mandrake 10.1. I definitely like mandrake. I havn't checked out fedora since they changed from being redhat.-Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Glad you got it working. I was wondering. If you don't like Mandrake, I would try PCLos before going to Fedora. I would look at it here:http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/html/download.htmlLet us know what works out for you. I have found that I like my connections better with PCLos than Mandrake. Everything seems just a little better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdwvt Posted March 2, 2005 Author Share Posted March 2, 2005 Glad you got it working. I was wondering. If you don't like Mandrake, I would try PCLos before going to Fedora. I would look at it here:http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/html/download.htmlLet us know what works out for you. I have found that I like my connections better with PCLos than Mandrake. Everything seems just a little better. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> excellent...thanks for the advice...I'm downloading the iso as I type :DI will let you know how it goes...I hope everything works a little bit better too (at least better than suse) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 Hi mdwvtThe advantage of PCLos is that you can first "test" it Live running from CD . . . . no need to install to HD to see if you like it better and if the powermanagement does a better job ( Then if you do like it the install to HD is a piece of cake ) Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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