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I decided to use an older computer that's been collecting dust for a few years to learn some Linux, so I wiped the drive and installed Ubuntu. I recently bought a new wireless network card with a USB connection, and I decided to use it with this computer. I found some instructions online and followed them. Short version:
1. Install ndiswrapper.
2. Tell ndiswrapper to use the Windows XP driver for the network interface card.
3. Tell the Linux kernel to use ndiswrapper.
This worked out great, but when I rebooted I no longer had a wlan0 interface. The only solution I've found is to physically disconnect the network card and then plug it back into the USB port. Is there anything I can do to not have to do that every time I start up the computer? Maybe I can tell Ubuntu to "forget" the hardware attached to that USB port and then rediscover it?
I'm writing this on my laptop. I will go to the other computer and add a few more details from there.
Edit: OK, this is weird. I was sure that I tried this yesterday and it didn't work, but now I'm starting to doubt that. When I had started up the computer and logged in, lsmod | grep ndis gave me no hits, so ndiswrapper wasn't installed in the kernel. So I ran sudo modprobe ndiswrapper, and the network started working immediately. I must have tried that several times yesterday. Maybe I'm just going crazy.
OK, let's assume for the moment that all I have to do is to make sure that the linux kernel uses ndiswrapper even after reboots. How do I do that? Do I have to run sudo modprobe ndiswrapper (and somehow provide my password) from a script, or is there a better way?
1. Install ndiswrapper.
2. Tell ndiswrapper to use the Windows XP driver for the network interface card.
3. Tell the Linux kernel to use ndiswrapper.
This worked out great, but when I rebooted I no longer had a wlan0 interface. The only solution I've found is to physically disconnect the network card and then plug it back into the USB port. Is there anything I can do to not have to do that every time I start up the computer? Maybe I can tell Ubuntu to "forget" the hardware attached to that USB port and then rediscover it?
I'm writing this on my laptop. I will go to the other computer and add a few more details from there.
Edit: OK, this is weird. I was sure that I tried this yesterday and it didn't work, but now I'm starting to doubt that. When I had started up the computer and logged in, lsmod | grep ndis gave me no hits, so ndiswrapper wasn't installed in the kernel. So I ran sudo modprobe ndiswrapper, and the network started working immediately. I must have tried that several times yesterday. Maybe I'm just going crazy.
OK, let's assume for the moment that all I have to do is to make sure that the linux kernel uses ndiswrapper even after reboots. How do I do that? Do I have to run sudo modprobe ndiswrapper (and somehow provide my password) from a script, or is there a better way?
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