Journey in Instruction

This post is meant to provide some practical guidance on a problem I think I solved that others may be experiencing.  The problem concerns use of the NdisWrapper on Linux.  If that is what you’re interested in, then please proceed directly to the section labeled Guidance.  However, I first want to take a step back and explain how I arrived at such a technical topic.

My first jobs were pretty technical.  I ran wire to connect a school systems administrative buildings to a network and then spent some time building custom PCs for a small business.  I’ve had a desire recently to get back into the technology with my hands.  For the past few years I’ve wanted to buy some parts from newegg.com and put together a machine.  I finally decided to do it.  I put together some parts for under $300 and the little box with a Celeron Conroe chip hums nicely.  The process of getting that hum going required some help and the exercise reminded me how nice it is to have friends who can help.

My buddy Al gave me some of the less exciting hardware parts and helped give me the confidence to get started.  One of the parts he gave me was a wireless PCI card, which I needed for this new machine as I don’t have any wire run in the house and I wasn’t interested in doing that right now.  I decided to put Debian on the machine after first trying CentOS — CentOS seemed great, but I’ll keep it in mind for a dedicated server.

I installed Debian Linux 5.03 (Lenny) from a DVD.  The Zonet ZEW1602A wireless network card Al gave me wasn’t automatically dedicated on the install.  I dug around a bit and discovered the NdisWrapper how-to guide.  I built the NdisWrapper module using the “from source” instructions in the guide. (That was after trying the default option first to no avail.)  I had to restart the machine to get the wireless network to show up after completing the steps, but the result was a working wireless connection!

I then realized that the main components of the stable distribution didn’t have the latest and greatest packages.  Having run Windows for the longest time, I wanted the latest software I could put my hands on.  I came across rickh’s how-to guide on setting up and maintaining a mixed testing/unstable system.  This seemed scary, but it was the plunge I needed to take.  I dove in and upgraded my stable (Lenny) to the unfamiliar testing (Squeeze) distribution (apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade).  After the numerous packages were installed I was left with a computer without a network connection.  Doh!

I must admit that I initially just contemplated reinstalling the stable Lenny release.  But then I began to feel like I was stuck only delaying the problem for the future when I would need to upgrade.  After looking at the error messages for a bit (network manager applet missing required components or something), I realized that my NdisWrapper module wasn’t working even though it appeared it still had the Zonet driver configured.

I went back and rebuilt the NdisWrapper this time using the Debian Package method from the how-to guide (i.e. via module-assistant).  Things worked great after another reboot.

I’m now up and running with the latest apps including skype, tweetdeck, Sun JDK, Flash, and Open Office all running over my wireless network.  I’m really enjoying this Debian experience and I hope this story helps someone.