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Linux r hard

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:25 am
by shiznatix
Ok so I am once again trying to get my linux box kickin. I am having more success this time. So far I was able to get my mp3's to play! yay...

What I need to do more than anything is have the ability to use my wireless drivers. I found quite a good website that goes over things for my particular laptop at http://www.ampersand.com/nx6110/#FC4 but the wireless drivers thing required a command called ndiswrapper. Now I don't seam to have that command so what I did was downloaded the package (imagine that!) and attempted to install it. Problems ahhhhhhhh. I still don't have the command even after following all the instructions. I don't know how to get this command working straight from the console because I can kinda install the drivers to the point that linux recognizes that I have a wireless card but when I try to start it I get a error saying that some command failed. I am perdy sure its because the ndiswrapper is not installed properly. I have read many tutorials but to no avail. Any help?

edit:

Maybe if I started everything with these drivers from scratch it would help out a lot. I seam to have installed a new kernel while my whole process was being attempted so I want to remove the older version because the new one should help me get my video drivers working well. How do I uninstall software? I want to get rid of everything dealing with ndiswrapper that I have previously installed and the older kernel stuff. Is there a easy way to do this without breaking everything?

edit 2:

Just noticed that this almost definatly belongs in the linux forum...sorry bout that one.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:56 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Do you know if the command was installed to a location on PATH - otherwise you may need the full path to it. Maybe try "locate ndiswrapper" as a quick search. If you had run a "make install" it should have turned up in /usr/sbin...

The kernel upgrades kinda depends on what you did. If you overwrote the old kernel (god forbid ;)) its gone to linux heaven or maybe your Trash. There are tons of Linux Kernel upgrade tutorials on Google, and the process is usually almost identical across most Linux distributions. They'll give you a really good idea of how kernel upgrades work. You should always backup your older kernels in case you need to switch back. Some users might test new kernels over an emulation layer - somthing like vmware or xen.

Typically, just to give a tip, its best to check your Linux distro's update program for applications. This connects you to online repositories where the latest and greatest usually shows up - and its usually simpler to manage thereafter. ndiswrapper is widely distributed as rpm and deb packages, and these are the easiest way to install them without compiling from source.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:44 am
by neophyte
What distro did you install Shiznatix?

I could recomend some good noob distros:

Ubuntu
Mepis
Mandriva

etc...

I still consider myself a noob, I use Mepis.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:46 am
by shiznatix
fedora core 4. I like it and its what I use at school. My first linux install was with red hat but since that went astrange I just went with the replacement.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:55 am
by neophyte
If that's the case if you have installed your software with Fedora you should be able to uninstall software with yum or rpm at the commandline. I don't remember the specific arguments. (man rpm). I like Debian distros myself. If you did a make/install thingey I've got no clue.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:06 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
I use Ubuntu- its not just a noob distro, it's a simple easy to manage distro...;) Plus its on a 6 monthly update curve so its updatable with less hassle about running into out of date version problems - very cool when you have no broadband access.

Typically source installs need to be removed by hand - they're not registered with the distro's update manager.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:09 am
by shiznatix
i did the make install thingy BUT is there a way to find a list of the programs that you have installed and be able to possibly remove them? somthing that would return a list simmilar to windows 'add remove programs' thing because there is probably a bunch of garbage that I have installed that I just don't need.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:37 am
by Chris Corbyn
*cough*

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net

Works a peach.

Run this command first:

Code: Select all

ls -l /usr/src/linux
Make sure something gets ouput otherwise it won't compile. There are good instructions on the site though ;)

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:44 am
by shiznatix
ls -l /usr/src/linux

this gives me "no such file or directory"

and yes, i have read their site a downloaded their stupid tar file like 35354243524 times and tried like everything.

edit: to be more specific, i add a new network connection thing with my wireless (which shows up fine as ndiswrapper wlan0) and i put in the ip info and whatnot then when I go to active it i get this error:

"ndiswrapper device wlan0 does not seam to be present, delaying initiation"

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:40 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Another stupid question - this is when logged in as root or a normal user?

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:00 am
by shiznatix
does not work either way.

stupid question from me: with windows you have to press the button to turn on the wireless thing but under linux pressing the button does not turn it on (at least the light does not turn on). would this have anything to do with it?

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:24 am
by Chris Corbyn
shiznatix wrote:does not work either way.

stupid question from me: with windows you have to press the button to turn on the wireless thing but under linux pressing the button does not turn it on (at least the light does not turn on). would this have anything to do with it?
The light doesn't come on because the module that controls it is not running ;) This is normal if you haven't installed the drivers yet... which you haven't due to these problems :)