I’ ve used this method to successfully install drivers for several WiFi mini-PCI cards, which usually come integrated into recent laptops. My latest successful install was for an RT2500-based card in an Averatec Athlon XP-M 3250-HX01 computer.
UPDATE : it seems there are kernel drivers (which I was able to install succesfully) available for this specific wifi radio, however the following how-to still applies and can be used for other wifi radios and adapters. The drivers include a WPA implementation, which explains why wpa_supplicant does not support them. See this bug report for updates. Thanks to Jayded for posting about it.
These are the steps I followed:
1. Using the Synaptics package manager, I installed the ndiswrapper-utils and wireless-tools packages. If you can’ t find the first one, make sure the Universe repositories are activated under Settings | Repositories.
2. Open a Root Terminal ( Applications | System Tools | Root Terminal )
3. Follow the instructions starting at step 2 of NDISwrapper Installation instructions
4. Go to Computer | System Configuration | Networking and add the newly configured Wifi interface to your networking setup
I would also suggest using a tool such as Wifi Radar to discover WiFi networks and manage your WiFi connections. Unfortunately I haven’ t found anything supporting more than WEP in the GUI (like WPA, etc.).
In my particular case, I used the drivers suggested at the NDISwrapper site in the list section. I downloaded the archive with the Windows drivers to my home directory, then moved them to a new directory called WiFi and unzipped them there. Then I moved back to my parent directory (/home/magicfab) and followed the instructions step by step. PLEASE NOTE this is only for an Averatec 3250-HX01 with RT2500-base Wifi! However the results should be very similar for other laptops/WiFi setups.
Some laptops have a button to actually turn on / turn off the integrated WiFi radio – don’ t forget to turn it on before your installation or else you’ll end up wondering why nothing seems to work – like has happened to me 
First I make sure I am using the latest kernel for my processor and test to see if NDISwrapper has installed correctly:
Code:
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # uname -a
Linux RoadRunner 2.6.8.1-4-k7 #1 Thu Dec 16 13:19:52 UTC 2004 i686 GNU/Linux
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # ndiswrapper
WARNING:
This tool allows you to use a driver written for the Windows operating
system on Ubuntu. Please note that the use of such drivers is entirely
unsupportable by the Ubuntu team, and not recommended, even if it is
theoretically possible with this tool.
Usage: ndiswrapper OPTION
Manage ndis drivers for ndiswrapper.
-i inffile Install driver described by inffile
-e driver Remove driver
-l List installed drivers
-m Write configuration for modprobe
Then I verify the Windows drivers archive is there, and make sure the Win2k directory has the INF file:
Code:
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # ls
Desktop WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # mkdir WiFi
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # mv WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip WiFi/
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # cd WiFi/
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # ls
WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # unzip WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip
Archive: WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip
inflating: RaLink2_RT2560.exe
creating: Win2K/
inflating: Win2K/rt2500.cat
inflating: Win2K/Rt2500.INF
inflating: Win2K/rt2500.sys
creating: Win9xMe/
inflating: Win9xMe/Rt2500.INF
inflating: Win9xMe/rt25009x.sys
creating: WinXP/
inflating: WinXP/rt2500.cat
inflating: WinXP/Rt2500.INF
inflating: WinXP/rt2500.sys
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # ls
RaLink2_RT2560.exe Win2K Win9xMe WinXP WL54driver2.2.6.0.zip
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # rm *.zip
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # ls
RaLink2_RT2560.exe Win2K Win9xMe WinXP
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab/WiFi # cd ..
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # ls WiFi/Win2K/
rt2500.cat Rt2500.INF rt2500.sys
Now I use ndiswrapper to install the driver files – notice the “No such file or directory message”:
Code:
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # ndiswrapper -i WiFi/Win2K/Rt2500.INF
WARNING:
This tool allows you to use a driver written for the Windows operating
system on Ubuntu. Please note that the use of such drivers is entirely
unsupportable by the Ubuntu team, and not recommended, even if it is
theoretically possible with this tool.
ls: /etc/ndiswrapper: No such file or directory
Installing rt2500
NDISwrapper now reports the hardware as being present, so I use modprobe to load the drivers. Notice how I use grep to check only the ndiswrapper messages issued by dmesg at the end:
Code:
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # ndiswrapper -l
WARNING:
This tool allows you to use a driver written for the Windows operating
system on Ubuntu. Please note that the use of such drivers is entirely
unsupportable by the Ubuntu team, and not recommended, even if it is
theoretically possible with this tool.
Installed ndis drivers:
rt2500 hardware present
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # modprobe ndiswrapper
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # dmesg | grep ndis
ndiswrapper version 0.10 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
ndiswrapper: using irq 11
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:11:09:0b:de:83 using driver rt2500.sys
ndiswrapper device wlan0 supports WPA with AES/CCMP and TKIP ciphers
ndiswrapper: driver rt2500.sys (Ralink Technology, Inc.,06/10/2004, 2.02.06.0000) added
SUCCESS! Now let’s try iwconfig, it should list the WiFi interface:
Code:
root@RoadRunner:/home/magicfab # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=-120 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:136/154 Noise level:0/154
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Notice the interface name is wlan0, so you should issue the following command to associate to your nearest (unprotected, unencrypted) access point:
Code:
dhclient wlan0
Remember to carefully review the install instructions at the NDISwrapper site, they are very detailed and contain more information than this specific example. Of course come back and report your success/problems – enjoy!
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