How to install Windows Drivers for Wireless devices (Ndiswrapper) in Ubuntu

To install ndiswrapper you will need a copy of the Windows drivers for your network device. This installation procedure is intended only for those cases in which the device is not supported by Ubuntu.

First find out if you have loaded the acx module. Due to the fact that it conflicts with the windows driver if it is found it must be downloaded.

lsmod | grep acx

Download the acx module only if it has been found. It could also be acx_pci or something similar.

Note: Kernel updates will automatically reload the acx module. That's why you repeat the following two commands whenever you perform a kernel update.

sudo rmmod acx sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.15-26-386/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/acx /root/

Install ndiswrapper and drivers

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils sudo ndiswrapper -i /cale_catre_driverul_dispozitivului_wireless/driver-ul_tau.inf sudo ndiswrapper -l sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

To configure ndiswrapper loading at startup

sudo ndiswrapper -m gksudo gedit /etc/modules

Add the following module to the list

ndiswrapper

Now you can configure the wireless device using ifconfig and iwconfig.

eg Assuming that wlan0 is the wireless device.

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "AP" key aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa mode Managed iwconfig

After that you will be able to see the MAC address of the access point and the signal quality.