Sunday, October 12, 2008

Linux Wireless made easy



For years I struggled with Linux wireless. Now, I struggle no longer.

Following these steps will get almost any wireless card working on Ubuntu. It does NOT require a working internet connection.

1. Insert your ubuntu cd. In it, navigate to pool:main:n:ndiswrapper.

2. Install ndiswrapper-common, and ndiswrapper-utils.

3. Go back up to pool/main/n, and go to ndisgtk.

4. Install ndisgtk.

5. run:
sudo aptitude remove b43-fwcutter

6. Insert your wireless card's CDrom. Go to the drivers section. You should see a bunch of sys files, and an .inf file.

7. Copy these somewhere in your home directory.

8. Go to System:Administration:Windows Wireless Drivers. Select the .inf file you copied, and install the driver. It should successfully install.

9. Run:
sudo gedit /etc/init.d/wirelessfix.sh

and in that file put:
#!/bin/bash

modprobe -r b44
modprobe -r b43
modprobe -r b43legacy
modprobe -r ssb
modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe b44

Save it, and run:
cd /etc/init.d/ && sudo chmod 755 wirelessfix.sh

Finally, execute:
sudo update-rc.d wirelessfix.sh defaults


Reboot, and you'll have working wireless.

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