[1002richards]

Hi,
I've run the live CD for Mint and really like the feel of it. I'd like to progress to dual booting with Vista.
However I can't find an idiot's guide to getting my built in wireless network adaptor (Athens AR5007EG) to function in linux.
There are several complex looking work-arounds which seem to finish off with 'this might not work'.
Is there a simple guide that I've failed to find?

Please note I'm newer than a Linux newbie!!
Thanks for your help.
Richard

[prunejuice]

Unless there is explicit support for your wireless device with Linux, I have had some success with ndiswrapper, using Windows drivers in a *nix environment.

I used ndiswrapper to get a Microsoft PCMCIA ethernet card working on an Xubuntu 7.10 installation.

[1002richards]

Hi,and thanks for your reply.
Sorry, but what's a *nix environment?
How do I find out if there is explicit support for that item? Where do I look-in the system or elsewhere?

Thanks
R.

[georgeg2000]

Originally Posted by 1002richards

Hi,
I've run the live CD for Mint and really like the feel of it. I'd like to progress to dual booting with Vista.
However I can't find an idiot's guide to getting my built in wireless network adaptor (Athens AR5007EG) to function in linux.
There are several complex looking work-arounds which seem to finish off with 'this might not work'.
Is there a simple guide that I've failed to find?

I also run MInt, dual booting with WinXP. There isn't a simple way to get wireless working but if you follow the various threads in the Mint support forums, I think you'll get it working eventually. Over the last two years, I've managed to get it working on three different versions of Mint. Each time it takes a bit of trial and error and generally it will require re-installing Mint so you are working from a fresh install but keep at it and it will work eventually. Each version is a bit better than the previous one. They just release Mint 6.0 (Felicia) so I'm hoping for a faster reinstall than my past experiences but if not, I'll just keep plugging away until it works again. See you in the Mint support forums!

[1002richards]

Thanks to you both, I'll see if any other suggestions come forward before I mark this as solved.

Richard

[prunejuice]

If you have ndiswrapper installed, you take the .INF file from your Windows driver file and load it into ndiswrapper.

To launch the ndiswrapper GUI, type ndisgtk into your terminal.

[1002richards]

prunejuice thanks I'll see how I get on with that.

R.

[georgeg2000]

BTW, just which release of Mint are you running?

[1002richards]

I think it's the most recent ? Mint 6 'Felicia' and I'm using the Mint4Win (Wubi-style) install, at the moment. Seeing how it goes before I go for full dual boot.

R.

[1002richards]

Struggled find how to use ndiswrapper but just found this guide so will try it this weekend:
"
If Ubuntu doesn't recognize your wireless network adapter, you can use an ingenious piece of software called ndiswrapper to replicate in Linux the Windows networking interface that the Windows wireless drivers expect to see, thus allowing them to run natively in Linux.
To install ndiswrapper, first launch Synaptic Package Manager by clicking System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager. Type ndiswrapper in the search field and wait for the results; then select the three resulting packages (ndiskgtk, ndiswrapper-common, and ndiswrapper-utils) for installation, click Apply, and restart the computer when installation is complete. Download the Windows driver from the manufacturer of your wireless hardware, and choose System, Administration, Windows Wireless Drivers to launch the ndiswrapper configuration utility. Click on Install New Driver, browse to the manufacturer's .inf file (we were able to browse directly to the folder in our Windows partition where the driver was installed), and click Install. "

[1002richards]

Tried this ... no luck but that seems to happen to lots of people, from what I've read.
Oh well, back to wired.

R.

[prunejuice]

Originally Posted by 1002richards

Tried this ... no luck but that seems to happen to lots of people, from what I've read.
Oh well, back to wired.

R.

You were able to locate the .inf file?

ndiswrapper is usually pretty good. Last week I got it working with a Microsoft PCMCIA NIC.
Microsoft!

[1002richards]

Yes, I think it was the .inf file. At least it was "accepted". Some other files that I tried resulted in a big red X!