This How To explains the setup of Linksys cards that require the ndiswrapper module.

Follow these steps:

1. Link to ndis page Ndiswrapper

   • These instructions for Debian have been helpful for several people configuring linksys cards Arthur's homepage: using WPC54G with Debian

2. The Linksys WPC11 ver 4 is a confirmed success.
3. In one case at least, manually entering nameserver information into /etc/resolv.conf was required.

Here is a step-by-step instruction, which workes very well on IBM Thinkpad with WPC54GS (BMC Chipset) card: First, download the non-free drivers. Unzip the drivers somewhere in your home-directory. Then install bcm43xx-fwcutter and use it to get the firmware stuff needed for ndiswrapper:

apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 ndiswrapper-common
cd ~/windows_drivers/
bcm43xx-fwcutter bcmwl5.sys
cp bcm43xx* /lib/firmware
modprobe ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l

Depending on the driver package used, bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys can be on different places in the subdirectories...

should show the following:

bcmwl5     driver installed, hardware present

Then edit /etc/network/interfaces to contain the following. Alternatively you can just use the gnome or kde configuration tools:

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid linksysgabba
wireless-key 0A0A0A0A0A0A0A0A0A0A0A

Of course you use your ESSID and WEP-KEY then

As next, you take up the interface:

ifdown eth0
ifdown eth1
ifup eth1

Wait until dhcp gets it's stuff and then test it (browse google)

CategoryHardware