HowTos

This page contains general information on setting up Ndiswrapper in general. If you have an article or information pertaining to a specific network device then please add it to that device's page.

• Howto setup WPA with Ndiswrapper
• Howto report bugs with Ndiswrapper
• Howto uninstall Ndiswrapper
• Howto troubleshoot Ndiswrapper
• Using_Ndiswrapper
• Howto on Ubuntu
• Howto on OpenSuse
• Howto on Debian
• Howto on Opensolaris
• Installation video

Distribution-specific instructions

Describe how to install ndiswrapper in your distribution. Give detailed instructions so newbies can follow it. Most frequently asked questions are about getting the module to be loaded automatically at boot time, installing INF files with ndiswrapper tool, configuring the interface. Please do NOT add information about cards/chipsets here add such information to List instead.

Ark Linux

The Ark Linux kernel is already patched with ndiswrapper and the userland tool is included. For many cards, you can simply "apt-get install driver-cardname" and it will be configured correctly automatically. For other cards, use the normal "ndiswrapper -i" mechanism and if it works, let devel-list at arklinux dot org know so we can package the driver for other users of the same chipset.

CentOS

Running a NetGear WG511 Chinese version with the "unsupported" kernel from the "centosplus" directory on the CentOS web site. Only real obstacle: Since the OS thinks this is a Prism54 chipset, you’ll have to move the Prism54 kernel module dir away from /lib/modules/2.6.9-5.0.5.106.unsupported/kernel/net/wireless and do a "depmod -a" to remove all information from the module list. Otherwise, "dmesg" only says "Module loaded", but the XP/2000 driver will never be loaded and the LEDs remain in deep darkness. After moving around the Prism54 kernel modules do a fresh installation of Ndiswrapper and your Windows drivers and you should be sweet after following the wiki installation manual. Drop me an email if you need more info: ndiswrapper at holgilein . de

- CentOs 4.1 Tested with Edimax 7126 (RTL8180 ) Compiled fine after adding Kernel-devel package. It seems to be quite stable with the default-4k-stack-2.6.9-11EL-kernel(running for 2 mounth now ).

- CentOs 4.4 cheap Xterasys card (RTL8180L) : works well

Debian Sarge/Etch

See the InstallDebian, InstallDebianSarge or InstallDebianEtch page for installing Ndiswrapper on the corresponding distribution. To bring up the interface automatically on card insert see StartNetworkOnInsert. Check out the DebianNoCompiles guide for how to get ndiswrapper running on the latest Sarge with no compiling needed.

EzPlanetOne

EzPlanetOne includes ndiswrapper driver release 1.1 with kernel 2.6.10 at 5th April 2005. Previous releases 1.0 and 1.0rc2 were included in kernels 2.6.10 and 2.6.9 also available for download. The driver is built into the standard kernel for i586/i686. An additional ndiswrapper package, installed by default, includes the userspace ndiswrapper installer. Wireless configuration is done through the standard Network configuration tool after having installed the NDIS driver as per Installation

Gentoo

• Using the standard emerge: The Gentoo ebuild will install all required files. Any problems or issues ask in gentoo-laptop, Cardoe is the ndiswrapper packager. To install enter the following command in a console as root:

emerge ndiswrapper

• Compiling the very latest versions: If you ever wanted to compile and set it all up yourself without emerge If you want to install a version not listed in portage If you just want to install the very latest cvs or release without waiting for the ebuild see Gentoo.

Knoppix

The oncoming release of Knoppix 3.7 has ndiswrapper built-in. For other versions see the Debian Way.

RedHat/Fedora

On a clean install of Fedora Core 6, make sure you have the latest compiler and libraries for gcc. A ‘yum update’ should work if you can get a cable to your machine if only to do an update. If this is not possible, go to http://rpm.pbone.net, download gcc-4.2.0-5.xxx.rpm, glibc-2.6-3.xxx.rpm, glibc-devel-2.6-3.xxx.rpm, glibc-headers-2.6-3.xxx.rpm, and libgomp-4.1.2-3.xxx.rpm (xxx being your particular architecture) and install them.

Also, the Fedora kernel does not allow stack size greater than 4k; download and recompile the latest kernel (I used 2.6.21.4) from http://www.kernel.org making sure to check ‘allow stack size greater than 4k’ under ‘kernel hacking’ during configuration. The README with the kernel gives instructions on exactly what to do. The kernel installation will even update GRUB, just be sure to reboot the new kernel. To boot the new kernel by default, as root edit the grub.conf in /boot/grub. After this follow the installation instructions for NDISwrapper as usual.

This worked for me without a hitch under Fedora Core 6, I plan to try it out with a clean Fedora 7 install.

Slackware 10.1

kernel: 2.4 network card: cisco linksys wireless-g

no need to update kernel to 2.6 ndiswrapper works fine under 2.4 just make sure you download v 1.1 and not 1.2 .... follow all the directions on the main page and you’ll be online in no time flat!

SuSE

For detailed instructions on Suse Professional 9.x , see the Suse Professional 9.x page, for hints on 64 bit Suse Professional 9.1, see the Suse Professional 9.1 64 bit page. Setup instructions on Suse Professional 9.2 are now at the Suse Professional 9.2 page. These instructions were tested on Suse Professional 10.1 as well. These instructions also verified for openSuSE 10.2

Ubuntu

Follow instructions in Ubuntu wiki at http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/SetupNdiswrapperHowto.

Ultima

http://ultimalinux.com Ultima Linux 8 and newer include a pre-built NdisWrapper module as part of the Linux 2.6 kernel series. If you’ve done a complete installation setup should be pretty straightforward, and should be almost identical to that needed for Slackware, except that you don’t have to build anything from source. See the http://ultimalinux.com/ultimalinux/wiki/index.php/NdisWrapper_How-To NdisWrapper How-To on the Ultima Linux wiki for detailed setup instructions.

Xandros

Check this http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=9090amphighlight/ forum