How to install wifi card Dlink - Centos 5

[ilugd]

Hi, I have a Dlink card on my computer and i am not quite sure of its make. How do I find out what model the card is and how do i get and install the drivers?
I am running centos 5.

I just a few days ago installed vlc, mplayer and enabled ntfs support, so i am quite new to linux. I don't know much of the commands. How do we find out hardware details?

[praka123]

wireless support is still lacking in Linux .afaik u can try using windows drivers in Linux using "ndiswrapper".just google for it.afaik intel things are only supported.
command for displaying available pci devices is:
lspci or hwinfo(if installed)

[QwertyManiac]

Offtopic but why use CentOS when you're starting off with Linux? Ubuntu is very very cool and offers excellent Wi-Fi support with its other easy features. That's the way you should go for learning the quick and easy way!

And check the output of lspci and also under System > Preferences > Hardware Information

[ilugd]

ok, lspci output
Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface

So I need a driver for this right?
went to the yum gui and go some drivers. There were actually two of them. They are from rpmforge i guess. I have installed those. I still don't get the texas wifi card list in the network configuration. What am i doing wrong.

@qwertymaniac, Ubuntu would have been fine. One of my friends is a rhel admin and he recommended this. I guess I just installed this to get him off my back. Hope he doesn't read this though.

I understand centos already has the required drivers for this. I don't really want to go the ndiswrapper line.

[infra_red_dude]

i'm sorry i'm not well versed wid centos (not used this os and its been a long time since i've used fedore/redhat). however, one sure thing is that ubuntu has the best wireless support out of the box. the gnome network manager (also in centos gnome) will configure it out of the box. i can give you instructions in configuring wireless in ubuntu (even i haf a dlink card but wid the less common ralink chipset).

just type the command "iwconfig". it will list all the networking interfaces. you'll get to know the wireless status. try these steps out:

$: iwconfig

it should list the card without connecting to any SSID.

so type:

$: iwconfig ra0 essid -network name-

$: iwconfig

to check it.

$: ifconfig - it won't be listed > ra0

$: ifconfig ra0 up - activate ra0 (leds will blink - youll be connected to AP, OPEN AP, NO KEY and Encription, I used MAC address filtering for my Wireless, So I dont use encryption)

$: ifconfig - check for ra0 again (there wont be ip address i think... i didnt get it at first)...

$: dhclient ra0 - to activate DHCP client to get an IP from the router... (router needs to have DHCP server activated)....

$: ifconfig - to check again...

$: ping www.google.com - you should get reply...

[ilugd]

shouldn't atleast the drivers be installed before this will work? where is iwconfig by the way? it is not in sbin atleast.
Please don't remind me about ubuntu again. I don't like it as it looks like a lot of eyecandy. I like centos as it is and I don't want to change. I just want to get my wifi card to work.
I figure that i needn't use ndiswrapper at all since the driver in yum had the comment that it was for texas 111 series wifi cards. Now i just need to figure out how it works.
on a sidenote, why does yum run only in one instance. I want to find what the name of that driver was an yum is locked up in downloading wine. Another instance says something about a yum.pid file being locked. Is there a way to bypass that?

[infra_red_dude]

oh i thot you'd installed all wifi related wifi package. in debian based systems the pack which contains iwconfig is 'wireless-tools'

[mehulved]

Originally Posted by infra_red_dude

i'm sorry i'm not well versed wid centos (not used this os and its been a long time since i've used fedore/redhat). however, one sure thing is that ubuntu has the best wireless support out of the box.

I believe it's rather sabayon that has best wireless support out of the box.

[infra_red_dude]

dunno about sabayon but i've never faced any problems wid ubuntu - almost any kinda wireless card has worked in there.

[[xubz]]

Originally Posted by mehulved

I believe it's rather sabayon that has best wireless support out of the box.

Well, AFAIK, Sabayon is OpenSource, but does not follow purely just GPL like other Distros. GPL states that many binary/proprietary drivers should not be bundled/available automatically with its Distros..

So you know, Its usually disabled until you manually Install it.

[ilugd]

wireless services seem to be installed as i am able to find the wireless tab in network preferences. But the driver is not available. Anywhere i can find out about configuring this stuff? any websites? I am tired of googling. the lan here sucks.

[infra_red_dude]

driver not available? but you said its installed. why break ur head searching stuff? use ndiswrapper.

[gary4gar]

Originally Posted by infra_red_dude

driver not available? but you said its installed. why break ur head searching stuff? use ndiswrapper.

His card is supported natively
drivers can be found at:http://acx100.sourceforge.net/
i

@ilugd
s this your card type?
http://www.dlink.co.uk/pages/products/dwlg650plus.asp

[ilugd]

wow, looks complicated. Let me try this tonight.