Linux HOWTO #1: How to install and use ndiswrapper
LINUX HOWTO 1st installment (Errata: see below)
This is the first in a new series called Linux HOWTOS. Every week I will post a video explaining how to accomplish something using a GNU/Linux operating system. Please write requests for installments in the comments!
This installment deals with using ndiswrapper to use Windows wireless drivers in Linux. Hardware manufacturers often don’t release specifications of their products to the open source community, so programs like ndiswrapper become necessary.
If you have any questions, please ask in the comment field, and I or someone else will do our best to answer. Please avoid ‘RTFM’-style answers. They are not welcome. Also please post corrections if I mistakenly give some wrong information.
I hope this project will serve as a valuable resource for people wanting to make the switch from a proprietary operating system to Linux.
***Errata***
If you are using ndiswrapper but have a native kernel module for your wireless card installed, you need to add the line:
blacklist name_of_kernel_module
to you blacklist file (probably /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist ). Running “ndiswrapper -l” (without quotes) as root will give the name of the native linux module you need to blacklist. If the module is already loaded you need to run “rmmod name_of_module” (without quotes) before ndiswrapper will work.
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This video was created using only free and open source software tools: TightVNC, pyvnc2swf, ardour2, jackd, lame, and ffmpeg.
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Depending on what Distro you use you can just search like i did “how do i use ndiswrapper in Ubuntu?” and the first option from Ubuntu was instructions on how to install and use w/internet w/o internet and if you only have access to a CD. Google is your friend
and you might try looking for a forum specificly for your distro
The ndiswrapper.sourceforge website has moved and the driver site doesn’t exist anymore. I wasted half an hour making notes on this video…and two hours so far with no progress towards wireless connection. I’m getting really frustrated with Linux being hard to use and there being so many versions that most the help is confusing and doesn’t even apply. About ready to stick with Windows.
stupid comment. You may need wireless connectivity for mobility. And as a friend stated. You definitely have an Internet Connection somewhere. And if not you can download all the necessary files into a flash disk and do your job this way.
Yeah i know. EVERYONE has and needs wifi when they have a router plugged in 3 inches from your computer… THINK. Yes. I realize that. But I had to carry my FULL TOWER COMPUTER, that I BUILT WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS, down a FLIGHT OF STEPS and BACK. Why the hell would you want wifi if you could easily plug in and skip all the trouble of setting your linux up for it. Makes no sense…
You have ONLY wireless internet? Holy crap that’s retarded. Most people? No. Most people can plug-in for these 1-time things, or at least could burn a CD containing the software from another computer or something.
You are a moron.
I really do not want to say this man, but fucking useless tutorial. why the hell would you want to get drivers for a wireless card if you have an internet connection? Most people in this situation have NO WAY of accessing the internet through linux, and need to get the drivers to get online. You can’t tell people to download stuff and all that crap. I CAN’T DOWNLOAD ON LINUX BECAUSE I HAVE NO INTERNET.
well i’m almost caught in a paradox here. I need driver software to get online, but i need to get online to get driver software. Help lol?
Thanks! That is still way too hard for the masses. Bail the command line work and make the video into an icon that is clicked on. I programmed since 1983 and will not deal with this low level of OS config- got too much work to do wish I could.
Cool video man!!!
must i have installed an other programm for it? sory for my english
Thanks. it’s the cool tutorial video. i’ve learned something here.
You rock man.
Cool, so its like embedding the calendar and time script into the shell on autoload yeh?
Thanks man
will try when Im booted up in BackTrack 
(on WinXP for video editing at the moment).
Run these 2 commands in your home directory.
echo cal >> .bashrc
echo date >> .bashrc
that will give you a callender + date and time when you open a terminal.
*NIX for the win ^^
Thanks for the upload, that is a cool auto shell calender script. Mind if I ask where to get that?
Keep those videos streaming
hey, how can i get and download lunix
am i the only one who laughed really hard when he was picking his driver….”this one says it has a MAJOR security bug, so im gonna pick this” awesome logic
how do you get ndiswrapper if you don’t have an internet connection? second. How does this work ubuntu 8.04?
It is not the distro’s fault for not including drivers for wifi, it is the fault of the companies who won’t make open-source drivers.
Don’t work on Xubuntu
I also get denied when trying to place in /usr/src/
this is the reason people don’t switch over to linux/ubuntu/fedora, whatever… it’s so freakin’ complicated to just try to get your internet to work!!!!!!!!! I have been wanting to switch over for a while, every once in a while I get the urge, then just dismiss the idea for it not being practical, and please don’t tell me it is easy because not everybody out there is a computer geek!!
isnt the an easier way? without using the terminal or having an internet connection on the machine i need to install ndiswrapper on? some of the commands you tell us to use dont work, i get errors and command not found.
I have been trying to install ndiswrapper for a week now, I am really annoyed and confused that its so hard to install. I feel like ripping my own head off right now.
im lost
how do you download ndiswrapper if you don’t have an internet connection?
“Billion Thanks” for the tutorial it really help me.