a linux HOW-TO for ndiswrapper, linksys WMP54G wireless card install

... that eventually even WORKED!

I'm really not sure how "global" the how-to is; it worked on my Fedora
core 3 system for a linksys WMP54G wireless card at 54MBPS. I think
most of what I did will work with other distros assuming they have a
pretty recent kernel. 2.6 or better is preferred.

I mainly wrote it so if I have to go through this again, it's all there
in one place (instead of one bookmark for ndiswrapper, one for wireless
tools, one for network conf, etc).. And it will remind of several
"discoveries" I made which i found were undocumented elsewhere.

My site is not for profit. Although I offer to do web work from it,
none has actually ever arrived on my doorstep. So I gave up on that
idea. But it's a nice place for me to post tekie stuff now.

My provider may place ads there sometimes. Small price to pay for free
hosting I think. Anyhow, I have never and likely never will make dime
one from this site. Just letting you know that this isn't related to
any commercial endeavor (like that other ndiswrapper competition who's
name pops up everywhere).

I have a few how-to's there that some people have emailed and told me
they were helpful. And it's those emails that makes it worth the effort
to post them. If it's helpful I appreciate the comments.

If you see mistakes or have suggestions, I'm more than happy to hear
them. If you want to flame me please don't. I'm no genius (I'm no
Randall); this was an honest attempt to document what eventually worked
for me in getting my WLAN up. The intent being maybe someone else can
get their net up in a day or two as opposed to more like a week for me.
And I'm glad to improve it, assuming I can verify what you recommend
actually works.

This how-to does NOT include network security or WEP. I may add that
later (once I get it working!)..

Here are some system details:

[root@tux tux]# uname -a
Linux 2.6.10-1.766_FC3 #1 Wed Feb 9 23:06:42 EST 2005 i686 athlon i386
GNU/Linux

Linksys WMP54G card and a Linksys WRT54G router @ 54MBPS

-ts

Recent news: my WLAN no longer works that was a short-lived network
(about 1 day). If anyone has advice on where to find what's causing
the error please tell me where to look? I don't see anything in dmesg
except .

wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

Yesterday my system locked up. I rebooted. During reboot, WLAN won't
start anymore. If I go to NETWORK tool it says WLAN is ACTIVE, but I
can't ping from it. The link quality is 0/100. Other WLAN devices on
this net are fine. The LINK LIGHT on the device is OFF.

If I DEACTIVATE it, and attempt to ACTIVATE, the system locks up
everytime requiring a reboot. Same thing happends if I try a
/etc/init.d/network restart, locks up and I have to reboot.

This is complete system lockup not just X crashing. ALT_CTL-F1 won't
even work.

S