The instructions below explain how to install ndiswrapper. This is rather short version; more details about installation, troubleshooting, FAQ etc. can be found in the Wiki at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/wiki Prerequisites ============= You need a recent kernel, at least 2.6.13, with header files for the kernel. Make sure there is a link to the kernel source from the modules directory. The command ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build should have at least 'include' directory and '.config' file. Downloading =========== Download the latest version of the ndiswrapper sources from here and extract it with the command tar zxvf ndiswrapper-version.tar.gz This will create ndiswrapper-version directory. Change to that directory and run make uninstall make Login as root and run make install Install Windows driver ====================== If this is the first time you install ndiswrapper, you need to install Windows driver for Windows XP (in some cases Windows NT or Windows 2000 may also work). First, get a Windows driver that is known to work. See http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/wiki/List for status about the device for which you are installing Windows driver. For this, you need to identify device ID with lspci -nn if it is PCI device or lsusb if it is USB device. Then lookup in that List for the device ID and if a driver is known to work, get that driver. Occasionally, Windows driver on the CD or your Windows partition may work, but if it doesn't, don't complain - get a known-to-work driver. Many Windows drivers are distributed either as zipped files or cab files. Zipped files, even if they are .exe files, can be extracted with 'unzip' in Linux; cab files can be extracted with combination of 'cabextract' and 'unshield' programs. Once the driver has been unpacked, locate .inf and .sys files. If necessary, move these files so both .inf and .sys are in the same directory. Some drivers also come with firmware files, such as fwrad16.bin etc. These files also should be in the same directory. Then install the Windows driver with ndiswrapper -i driver.inf This installs .inf file and required .sys and .bin files. Now, see if installation of Windows driver is "valid" with ndiswrapper -l This should report "driver present, hardware present" for the driver installed and if that driver is for the device that is already in the system. If device is not present, it should report "driver present" If not, the Windows driver has not been installed properly. Now load ndiswrapper module with modprobe ndiswrapper If everything worked properly, this should initialize 'wlan0' wireless device, which can be configured with wireless tools, such as 'iwconfig', 'wpa_supplicant' etc.