onederer Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 I have in my HP DV6100 Pavillion laptop, an AtherosCommunication Inc. AR242x/802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter.I was looking in the Vista "inf" file folder to see if I could make out something understandable which could be used with Mint Linux's ndiswrapper. Any of the files that I selected were rejected by the OS as not usable. Anyone know which file it is, and where it is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 I have in my HP DV6100 Pavillion laptop, an AtherosCommunication Inc. AR242x/802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter.I was looking in the Vista "inf" file folder to see if I could make out something understandable which could be used with Mint Linux's ndiswrapper. Any of the files that I selected were rejected by the OS as not usable. Anyone know which file it is, and where it is?I'm not a linux expert by any means but I doubt that the inf file would do you much good. Typically those files only contain text configuration settings and even if you were to glean some information from it, you would still need to find the appropriate library files for the wireless NIC. The binary file for the windows driver isn't going to do you much good. To answer your question, drivers are typically stored here for Vista:c:\windows\system32\drivers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 (edited) I'm not a linux expert by any means but I doubt that the inf file would do you much good. Typically those files only contain text configuration settings and even if you were to glean some information from it, you would still need to find the appropriate library files for the wireless NIC. The binary file for the windows driver isn't going to do you much good. To answer your question, drivers are typically stored here for Vista:c:\windows\system32\driversNdiswrapper is a Linux system that uses the Windows drivers for wireless NICs that don't have (or you can't find) Linux drivers. It does use the .inf file. I thought I had shown where the drivers for this card could found in Linux tar file but apparently onederer had a problem with it and is still looking for them on his Vista partition. But I don't think he'll find them there because they are on the install CD for the nic. Win uses the .inf file for setting up the driver.sys file but doesn't always keep it. Edited December 26, 2008 by lewmur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Hello,Did your HP Pavilion DV6100 notebook computer originally come with the Atheros Communication, Inc. AR242x 802.11a/b/g wireless Mini-PCIe adapter? The reason that I ask is that I made several attempts to find device drivers for Windows Vista on this combination of hardware, and all I could find were the Broadcom and Intel wireless driver downloads.Perhaps one of the Linux driver sets available for download here on Atheros web site will work for you?Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Hello,Did your HP Pavilion DV6100 notebook computer originally come with the Atheros Communication, Inc. AR242x 802.11a/b/g wireless Mini-PCIe adapter? The reason that I ask is that I made several attempts to find device drivers for Windows Vista on this combination of hardware, and all I could find were the Broadcom and Intel wireless driver downloads.Perhaps one of the Linux driver sets available for download here on Atheros web site will work for you?Regards,Aryeh GoretskyHe doesn't need Vista drivers. He needs Windows drivers to work with Ndiswrapper in Linux. XP or w2k drivers would work fine. But he has Vista installed in dual boot and wants to use the drivers already installed on the Vista partition to use in Linux. I've already told him that that won't work because the .inf file isn't saved. I have offered to email the two files he needs. I haven't heard back from him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 (edited) hey, onederer, how did it turn out?did you try mint's own software manager?rsvp!Mint is now in the retirement repository, in a box in a closet. I then tried Sabayon (which I like very much), but with the same results. I got nowhere using Madwifi, ndiswrapper, or wicd. They all tell me that the flags can't bee seen. It just isn't happening!. So, Sabayon is also now in retirement. I'm now using 64-bit Kubuntu 8.04. I'm still trying all angles on this one, but currently inconclusive. I'm not finished yet.None of them have been laptop wireless friendly. It's a lot of work! Last night, I fell asleep at the computer, while trying to solve this. My wife woke me up and shipped me to bed. I've been a few days on this one also. I don't want to install any one of those distros unless they can work using wireless. Perhaps running them "live is interfering with being able to install wireless capability?Anyone know of an easy to install wireless, laptop friendly OS that I can use? I need it for two laptops. One is to replace Freespire, which has been sorta abandoned by their maintainers, and the other, to be installed in a large capacity Flash Memory (the laptop can boot flash drives and/or SDA memories). Edited December 29, 2008 by onederer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 (edited) Hello,Did your HP Pavilion DV6100 notebook computer originally come with the Atheros Communication, Inc. AR242x 802.11a/b/g wireless Mini-PCIe adapter? The reason that I ask is that I made several attempts to find device drivers for Windows Vista on this combination of hardware, and all I could find were the Broadcom and Intel wireless driver downloads.Perhaps one of the Linux driver sets available for download here on Atheros web site will work for you?Regards,Aryeh GoretskyOh yea! That's what it came with! And now I'm wrestling with it! Edited December 29, 2008 by onederer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 (edited) Mint is now in the retirement repository, in a box in a closet. I then tried Sabayon (which I like very much), but with the same results. I got nowhere using Madwifi, ndiswrapper, or wicd. They all tell me that the flags can't bee seen. It just isn't happening!. So, Sabayon is also now in retirement. I'm now using 64-bit Kubuntu 8.04. I'm still trying all angles on this one, but currently inconclusive. I'm not finished yet.None of them have been laptop wireless friendly. It's a lot of work! Last night, I fell asleep at the computer, while trying to solve this. My wife woke me up and shipped me to bed. I've been a few days on this one also. I don't want to install any one of those distros unless they can work using wireless. Perhaps running them "live is interfering with being able to install wireless capability?Anyone know of an easy to install wireless, laptop friendly OS that I can use? I need it for two laptops. One is to replace Freespire, which has been sorta abandoned by their maintainers, and the other, to be installed in a large capacity Flash Memory (the laptop can boot flash drives and/or SDA memories).ndiswrapper isn't going to work in ANY distro until you get the two files I've offered to send you. The problem isn't with the distros. It is that you don't have the .inf and .sys files you need. I have them if you want them. All you have to do is send me a Private Message to let me know where to send them.Or you can keep spinning your wheels forever, trying distro after distro because no distro is allowed to furnish them. They are proprietary. Edited December 29, 2008 by lewmur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 (edited) Anyone know of an easy to install wireless, laptop friendly OS that I can use? Sorry. I had the same problem with an HP laptop using a PCMCIA card. I finally just bit the bullet and bought a netbook. Problem solved - linux running and wifi working. Edited December 29, 2008 by zlim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Use this tool to backup the drivers in Windows Vista:Majorgeeks - DriverBackup.It will locate and copy the wireless drivers to a folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 b2cm, wow, simple yet effective. I never thought to suggest that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Sorry. I had the same problem with an HP laptop using a PCMCIA card. I finally just bit the bullet and bought a netbook. Problem solved - linux running and wifi working.A rather drastic solution for something that shouldn't take ten minutes to fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 You it might take 10 minutes. For me, it takes months because most distros don't like my old nb hardware and then there is no guarantee that I would be able to go wireless. Besides my HP weighs between 7 and 8 pounds and my eeepc is under 2 pounds. I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 (edited) You it might take 10 minutes. For me, it takes months because most distros don't like my old nb hardware and then there is no guarantee that I would be able to go wireless. Besides my HP weighs between 7 and 8 pounds and my eeepc is under 2 pounds. I love it!The whole point of ndiswrapper is that Linux doesn't have to like your hardware. It uses the WINDOWS drivers for the wireless connection! Onederer's problem was that he couldn't find the Windows .inf and .sys files for his NIC. Even though I offered to email them to him several times and also gave him a link to where he could find them. Remember the old saying that goes "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink?"Sure you weren't just looking for an excuse to buy the pretty new eeepc? Edited January 1, 2009 by lewmur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 (edited) If I have the chance to lug 7.5 pounds or 2 pounds around, guess what I'll pick? :whistling:Add to that the fact that even with the two drivers from windows, I could not get ndiswrapper to work for me.I'm the perennial linux new explorer. Sad but true! Edited January 2, 2009 by zlim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 If I have the chance to lug 7.5 pounds or 2 pounds around, guess what I'll pick? :whistling:Add to that the fact that even with the two drivers from windows, I could not get ndiswrapper to work for me.I'm the perennial linux new explorer. Sad but true!I hear you, but, personally, I'd rather lug the 7.5 than put up with the tiny screen. My old eyes have enough problems with a 15.4 screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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