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How to Install Netgear WG511 v. 2 PC Card under Fedora Core 4 (on Thinkpad A31)

I am running Fedora Core 4 (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4) on a Thinkpad A31.  I am new to Linux, and I have been trying for months to get a wireless card working.  I bought a Netgear WG511 v2 (made in China), because I heard it was widely compatible.  Can anybody give me an outline of the steps I need to follow?  FYI, I have never compiled a kernel or used PC cards under Linux.   Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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sundeepgopal

do the following to get the card working

1)Go to ATrpm (http://atrpms.net/dist/fc4/madwifi/)  and download madwifi-0.9.6.0-18.rhfc4.at.i386.rpm . type " rpm -Uvh  madwifi-0.9.6.0-18.rhfc4.at.i386.rpm" to install the package.

2) Now search the ATrpm Fedora driver list (http://atrpms.net/dist/fc4/madwifi/) and make sure you get the correct rpm to match ur kernel  "uname -a".  madwifi-kmdl-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4-0.9.6.0-18.rhfc4.at.i686.rpm. Make sure you click on the "madwifi-kmdl-" rpm that matches both your processor and kernel.  type "rpm -Uvh madwifi-kmdl-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4-0.9.6.0-18.rhfc4.at.i686.rpm" to install it .

3) reboot the system

4) Go to Desktop in your FC4 top panel. Select "System settings" then "Network". Type in your root password when asked and you will be taken to graphic menu that will list your network cards. In my case my laptop has an ethernet card and the wireless card. Until I installed Madwifi as described above the wireless card was not listed.

5) The wireless card is now listed under "Devices", in my case under the ethernet card. Check the box to the left next of the wireless card and press the "Activate" button.

6) When you go to leave the network menu you will be asked to save the new settings. Press OK. You're almost there.

7) Restart your computer.
 

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ASKER

Thank you for the post.  One quick question before I start.  The website you reference in #2 states the driver works for "Atheros chipsets".  I was told the WG511 v2 card from Netgear has a PRISM chipset.  Do you have the same card as I do?  Are you sure MADWIFI supports WG511?  thanks again, Carsten
Give a try ,I think it should work. If it doesn't work ,you can easily uninstall the packages " rpm -e <package name>" ...After installation see if  you get any error messages in /var/log/messages
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ASKER

Sundeep, thank you for the help.  I am stuck on STEP 2.  The output from "uname -a" is below:
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 #1 Thu Jun 2 22:55:56 EDT 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

There appears to be no "madwifi-kmdl-" rpm that matches my kernel.  Is that correct?  What can I do?
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Thank you for the instructions.  Sorry for taking so long to reply, but I was traveling on business.  I followed all your steps, and it still doesn't work.  Here are some facts:

1.) I got the firmware add-on, and the /lib/firmware directory existed already.  The firmware.agent file already pointed to this directory.

2.) When I ran "chkconfig --list | grep pcmcia", I got the following:
pcmcia          0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

One thing that is peculiar is that the card doesn't even appear to be powered.  No lights.  No sound from my Thinkpad that PC cards are running.  I get that sound under Windows, and the card runs fine under Windows.  Is this a potential problem?

3.) Here is the output from lsmod:
Module                  Size  Used by
radeon                 76609  1
drm                    70101  2 radeon
parport_pc             28933  1
lp                     13001  0
parport                40585  2 parport_pc,lp
autofs4                29253  2
rfcomm                 42333  0
l2cap                  30661  5 rfcomm
bluetooth              56133  4 rfcomm,l2cap
sunrpc                167813  1
pcmcia                 29025  4
video                  15941  0
ibm_acpi               15997  0
button                  6609  0
battery                 9413  0
ac                      4805  0
md5                     4033  1
ipv6                  268097  8
yenta_socket           21449  3
rsrc_nonstatic         12737  1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core            50909  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
uhci_hcd               35152  0
shpchp                 94405  0
hw_random               5973  0
i2c_i801                8781  0
i2c_core               21569  1 i2c_i801
snd_intel8x0m          19589  0
snd_intel8x0           34689  1
snd_ac97_codec         75961  2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0
snd_seq_dummy           3653  0
snd_seq_oss            37057  0
snd_seq_midi_event      9153  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                62289  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          8781  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            51185  0
snd_mixer_oss          17857  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm               100169  4 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              33605  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    57157  12 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore              10913  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          9669  3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
e100                   47297  0
mii                     5441  1 e100
floppy                 65269  0
dm_snapshot            17413  0
dm_zero                 2113  0
dm_mirror              26029  0
ext3                  132553  2
jbd                    86233  1 ext3
dm_mod                 58101  6 dm_snapshot,dm_zero,dm_mirror




Any ideas?  
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ASKER

Another update...
(1) I called Netgear and gave them the card's serial number & specs.  They told me the chipset is "Intersil/Frisbee" -- not PRISM.  However, I have seen on several websites that Frisbee and Prism are compatible/indentical.  One more wrinkle:  when I run "lspci", it says "Ethernet Controller: Marvell Technology Group LTD.: Unknown device 1faa.  This leads me to believe the chipset is actually by Marvell.  Clearly NetGear is no help at all.  They suck.

(2) I decided to trust the output from "lspci", so I started installing ndiswrapper.  NDISWRAPPER compiled fine, but I keep getting "invalid driver" when I try to load the driver using: "ndiswrapper -i WG511v2.INF".  

(3) This leaves me with a card that is still not running, and I'm not sure where to go next.  I have now decided to blow away my entire installation.   I am going to install Fedora Core 5 (in the hopes that it might even identify the cards out-of-the-box).  If it does not, I will try installing NDISWRAPPER again.  

Any thoughts would be very appreciated.  Thanks, Carsten
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ASKER

Resolved -- sort of.

This problem took way too much of my time.  In the end, I went to the following website: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_alles.php?

I looked for a card that has PRISM54 GT chipset.  I found SMC 2835W was the cheapest at a local store.  I followed your instructions regarding PRISM.

Thank you very much, Sundeep Gopal, for all the help.