Linux has come a long way with hardware support, but if you have a wireless card that still does not have native Linux drivers you might be able to get the card working with a Windows driver and ndiswrapper.Using a Windows driver inside of Linux may also give you faster transfer rates or better encryption support depending on your wireless card.
If your wireless card is working, it is not recommended to install the Windows driver just for fun because it could cause a conflict with the native Linux driver.
Download Wireless Card Driver
The first thing you need to do is figure out what wireless card you have. There are a couple ways to do this and some involve finding the device chipset and others involve scouring through system logs.
The easiest method is to just look at the device itself, if you have an external wireless card, or search your manufactures website for what wireless card came with your computer, if you have an internal wireless card.
Once you know what wireless adapter you are trying to install, go to the manufacturer’s website to download the Windows drivers for the device.
If at all possible, you should try to download the 32-bit Windows XP drivers in .zip format rather than .exe. If you don’t have an option, select the latest Windows driver that your manufacturer provides.
Extract Wireless Driver
To extract the files, browse to the .exe or .zip file, right click on it, and select open with archive manager.
Note: Although archive manager can extract both .exe and .zip files, sometimes the files within the .exe may not work with ndiswrapper.
Click extract at the top and copy all the files to an easy to find location.
Install Ndiswrapper
Ndiswrapper is the tool that allows Linux to use Windows drivers for wireless card support.
To install it in Ubuntu go to the Software Center and search for ndisgtk.
Note: Linux Mint comes with ndiswrapper installed.
Install Windows Driver
Now that you have your wireless driver extracted and ndiswrapper installed, open Windows Wireless Drivers from the System -> Administration menu.
In the window that opens, click on install new driver and browse to where you extracted the driver.
Sometimes the .inf files will be in sub-folders inside the driver so you may need to dig around to locate the right file to use.
After you select the .inf file for your wireless card click install. It will take a couple minutes to install the driver so be patient while it works.
After the driver is installed the main window will indicate if you selected the right .inf file by telling you if the hardware is present or not. If you selected the wrong driver the first time you can try installing a different .inf file that was extracted from the driver.
If none of the .inf files work you may want to try the driver for the same card for a different version of Windows (e.g. XP, Vista, 7).
After you get the right driver installed click configure network to open Ubuntu network connections and connect to your wireless network.
If you are still having trouble you may want to check out the ndiswrapper wiki to see if others have had success with the wireless card.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
How to Install a Wireless Card in Linux Using Windows Drivers - How-To Geek
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Broadcom BCM4311/12/21/22 Hardware (STA driver):
Broadcom BCM4311/12/21/22 Hardware (STA driver):
NOTE: ASSUMES FRESH INSTALL. FOR LAPTOPS, ONCE THE SYSTEM REBOOTS AFTER INSTALL, REBOOT AGAIN
AND TOGGLE THE WIRELESS BUTTON (YES, IT COULD BE THAT EASY).Plug into the network via cable:
Friday, June 18, 2010
New ATI Linux Video Driver Has OpenGL 4.0 and RHEL 5.5 Support
Monday, May 31, 2010
How to Add Proprietary Drivers to Ubuntu 10.04
Does the hardware on your Ubuntu system need proprietary drivers work at peak performance? Today we take a look how easy version 10.04 makes it to install them.
Ubuntu 10.04 finally automatically recognizes and installs drivers for most hardware today, it even recognized and configured Wi-Fi drivers correctly every time in our tests. This is in contrast to the past, when it was often difficult to get hardware to work in Linux. However, most video cards still need proprietary drivers from their manufacturer to get full hardware video acceleration.
Even though Ubuntu doesn’t include any non-open source components, it still makes it easy to install proprietary drivers if you wish. When you first install and boot into Ubuntu, you may see a popup informing you that “restricted” drivers are available.
You may see a notification asking you if you’d like to install optional drivers from your graphics card manufacturer when you try to enable advanced desktop effects. Click Enable to directly install the drivers right there.
Or, you can select the tray icon from the first popup, and click Install drivers.
Alternately, if the tray icon has disappeared, click System, then Administration, and select Hardware Drivers.
This will open a dialog showing all the proprietary drivers available for your system, which may include drivers for your video card and other hardware depending on your computer. Select the driver you wish to install, and click Activate.
Enter your password, and then Ubuntu will download and install the driver without any more input. After installation you may be prompted to reboot your system.
Now, you should be able to take full advantage of your hardware, including fancy desktop effects with hardware acceleration.
If you ever wish to remove these drivers, simply re-open the drivers dialog as above, select the driver, and click Remove. Once again, a reboot may be required to finish the process.
Conclusion
Ubuntu has definitely made it easier to use Linux on your desktop computer, no matter what hardware you have. If your video card or other hardware require proprietary drivers, it makes them available and simple to install. And, best of all, all of your drivers stay updated with your software updates, so you can be sure you’re always running the latest.
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