wireless adapter

[Jim March]

Ok...the fact that you're using terms like "wna3100" and "N300" tells
me you fundamentally don't understand the problem.

I'm going to be a little bit harsh here but you need to change the
most basic way you look at hardware.

Netgear doesn't make WiFi chipsets.  They make adapters, yeah, but
they buy the chipset off of somebody else.  The most common WiFi
chipset makers are Intel, Atheros, Broadcom, RaLink and then some
minor ones.

In your case, you want to do the "lspci" command to find out details
of what's internal to the computer, or "lsusb" to get details of
what's (currently) plugged in via USB.  This is a USB device, right?
So lsusb it is.

Well...problem is you're not going to get anywhere in this particular
case.  Why?  Well I've already gone to the next step: I googled
"wna3100" with the word "chipset" and got this page:

http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_WNA3100

...which tells us it's very, very new and there's no Linux support for
the damnthing yet.  It's based on the Broadcom BCM43231 chipset.

I'll show you how to fix this but it'll be easiest if you have
Internet access on the machine you're fixing - Ethernet cable off a
router or the like.  (You CAN do it by grabbing bits off the web on
another rig but it's a pain.)

OK.  So if there's no Linux support, that in turn means you need to
find Windows drivers and NDISwrap 'em - run those under Linux.  That's
IF you can't take this dang thing back and get something with an Intel
or Atheros chipset in it.

Assuming you're stuck with this critter, that same link above has some
Windows driver on it.  Get that started downloading.  Then open a
terminal window and do:

sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

ndisgtk is the graphical easy-to-use front-end for ndiswrapper which
is otherwise a command line tool.  Asking to grab ndisgtk will trigger
pulling in the two other bits you need.  I'm going to show you how to
do this the easy way :).

Right...once that's installed, you'll have a new menu item called
"Windows Wireless Drivers".

Before running that, go back to the download.  Open the .zip file and
pull out the stuff under the "XP" folder.  Dump the entire contents of
that folder into a new directory - call it "wna3100drivers" for now.

Open up "Windows Wireless Drivers".  Insert the card, then do "install
new driver" and point it at the "wna3100drivers" folder you made,
wherever it was you put it.  Click on the right driver - use the ones
with "64" on the end if you're running 64bit Linux.  Great.  Turn the
driver on, pull down your "WiFi picker" menu (aka "Network Manager"),
see if you can spot any networks.  (You probably do NOT want to do
"network configuration" in "Windows Wireless Drivers", that's been
mainly replaced by the newest Network Manager.

In general, this whole "think of the chipset" mentality goes across
all sorts of things.  Example: my video card is the one that came in
my (very weird off-brand) laptop.  If I asked about problems with the
video in my "Compal HL90" laptop people would just go "huh?".  BUT if
I run lspci and ask about an Nvidia 9600M GT video chipset, then yeah,
lots of info...like, fr'instance, Nvidia's 295.40 driver that comes
with Ubuntu Precise sucks donkey balls but the new .49 update (which
can be found as a .DEB package) rocks.

Think in terms of what the parts actually are, not just the surface
brand names.  Those won't usually tell you crap.  In your particular
case it does, but only if you know to google it with the word
"chipset" to find out the underlying reality.

Jim

On May 18, 2012 8:01 PM, "Derek Trotter" <expat.arizonan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Since I'm strapped for cash, my internet access currently is via the library across the street.  I have wireless usb adapter.  It's a netgear adapter.  The box says N300 wireless adapter wna3100.  The kubuntu 12.04 live cd doesn't detect the  adapter.  I have the cd that came with it.  Is there a way to make kubuntu use the windows driver?
>
> Thanks
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