Belkin F5D8010

The following guide was originally published on Welcome to Ubuntu.

The guide was written at the Fiesty-Fawn timeframe (7.0.4). Paul Ryan provides numerous update pointers for a Karmic Koala context (9.10) as a comment on the original blog post (March 2010 timeframe).

Introduction

This guide is a walkthrough for installing WiFi cards that are based upon the TrueMIMO Pre-N technologies. Wireless cards with this chipset (Airgo AGN100) have been particularly difficult to install under Linux due to the chipset's schematics being closed-source. Using the official Ubuntu Documentation on ndiswrapper & the ndisWrapper page on Sourceforge, I have created a set of instructions to install this card. There are two sets of instructions: one if you can currently get online through a wired connection, and one if you cannot get online through a wired connection and must either dual-boot with Microsoft Windows or download the files on a different system. If you can do the wired connection method, it is the preferred method.

Other cards these instructions may work with

These instructions may work on, but are not guaranteed to work for the following cards except for the Belkin F5D8010:

Linksys WPC511GX
Linksys WMP54GX
Netgear WGM511
Buffalo WLI-CB-G108
AeroGuard AGN1023PC
Planex CQW-NS108AG
Planex CQW-NS108G
Samsung X20 Laptop
GemTek WPCO-131G
Corega CG-WLCB108GM

Online Instructions

Installing ndisWrapper

Open Terminal.
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- lspci -nn
Look for the following:
- 03:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Airgo Networks Inc AGN100 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card [17cb:0001] (rev 01)
  - If the line is not present, these instructions will not work for you.

Type (or copy/paste) the following lines into Terminal:

     sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
    sudo apt-get --purge remove ndiswrapper-utils
    sudo rm -r /etc/ndiswrapper/
    sudo rm -r /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper
    sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko

Type (or copy/paste) the following line into Terminal:
- sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into Terminal:
- sudo apt-get install dh-make fakeroot gcc-3.4 build-essential
Navigate to Sourceforge to download the latest version of ndisWrapper.
Save the file you download in your Home folder
Type (or copy/paste) the following lines into Terminal:
- ```
     tar xvfz ndiswrapper-[current version].tar.gz
    cd ndiswrapper-[current version]
```
  (Where [current version] is the version number of the file you downloaded. i.e.: ndiswrapper-1.52.tar.gz)
Type (or copy/paste) the following lines into Terminal:
- ```
     sudo make uninstall
    sudo make
```
Type (or copy/paste) the following lines into Terminal:
- ```
     fakeroot
    sudo make install
```

Installing the Drivers

Type (or copy/paste) the following into a terminal to download the drivers:
- wget http://77.91.202.10/~alpoimco/Satanas/belkin_pre-n.tar.gz Mirror (If the first link is down): wget http://www.someawe.com/uploads/belkin_pre-n.tar.gz
Type (or copy/paste) the following into a terminal to extract the drivers you just downloaded:
- ```
     tar xvfz belkin_pre-n.tar.gz
    cd belkin_pre-n
```
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- sudo ndiswrapper -i NetAni.inf
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- ndiswrapper -l

Look for the following:

     tmimo3p: driver installed
                 device (17CB:0001) present

Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to activate the driver:
- ```
     sudo depmod -a
    sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
```
Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to check for errors:
- tail /var/log/messages
Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to open the Network Manager:
- gksudo network-admin
Verify the connection labeled "Wireless connection" says "Roaming mode enabled" beneath it.
Perform the following steps if it does not say "Roaming mode enabled:"
1. Click the Wireless connection to highlight it.
2. Click the Properties button to open the properties window.
3. Click the check box next to Enable roaming mode and click Ok.
4. Verify that the wireless connection now says "Roaming mode enabled."
Click the close button on the Network manager to close it and return to the Terminal.
Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to create an alias for your wireless card:
- sudo ndiswrapper -m
Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to open the modules list:
- gksudo gedit /etc/modules
Type the following at the end of the text document that loads (if not already present):
- ndiswrapper
Reboot your system to make sure everything is in full working order.

Offline Instructions

Downloading the Drivers and Installation Files

Open Terminal.
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- lspci -nn
Look for the following:
- 03:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Airgo Networks Inc AGN100 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card [17cb:0001] (rev 01)
  - If the line is not present, these instructions will not work for you.
Download the files you need to install the drivers from a separate computer:
1. Download the driver file from either here or here. This file is required for all distributions of Ubuntu.
2. Download the ndisWrapper files for your distribution:
  - Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft):
    - ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 ndisgtk
  - Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn):
    - ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 ndisgtk
  - Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon):
    - ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 ndisgtk
Copy the four files you downloaded to your Home folder on your Ubuntu system using a flash drive, CD-ROM, or other means.

Installing ndisWrapper and the drivers

Open terminal on your Ubuntu system.

Type (or copy/paste) the following into Terminal to install ndisWrapper:

     sudo dpkg -i ndiswrapper-common_*.deb
    sudo dpkg -i ndiswrapper-utils*.deb
    sudo dpkg -i --force-depends ndisgtk_*.deb

Type (or copy/paste) the following into a terminal to extract the drivers you just downloaded:
- ```
     tar xvfz belkin_pre-n.tar.gz
    cd belkin_pre-n
```
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- sudo ndiswrapper -i NetAni.inf
Type (or copy/paste) the following line into terminal:
- ndiswrapper -l