HOWTO: Atheros 5007EG wireless on Ubuntu using ndiswrapper

This tutorial is based on one from here: http://sidrit.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/hardy-on-acer-aspire-5315/

Check out his blog for tons more Ubuntu tips.

If you use apt-get this method probably requires a working wired Internet connection. Even if you don’t have one you could still do this manually by getting the files from Ubuntu’s online repository from another computer at http://packages.ubuntu.com.

Prerequisites:

The Windows XP driver for the card:
http://www.mediafire.com/?emektlygdif – Dead link. I’ll try to get it back up soon (if I can find the files)
Vista drivers don’t work. The download includes both 32 and 64-bit versions.

Install ndiswrapper:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

Now, the choice is yours. Either use another program to install graphically, or hand-hack it by using the terminal.

GUI Method: If you want you can install ndisgtk along with the rest which is a GUI frontend to ndiswrapper. Just add it to the end of the list above. All you have to do is start it with

sudo ndisgtk

Click “Install New Driver” and browse to where you unzipped net5211.inf. Your hardware shows up on the left side and ndisgtk determines if the hardware for a particular driver is present. It makes things easier, though I think you still need to blacklist them (see further down).

Terminal Method:

1. Unzip the downloaded driver and load it:

sudo ndiswrapper -i /path/to/net5211.inf

2. Disable the (nonworking) driver from the Restricted Drivers Manager
3. Add ‘ndiswrapper’ (no quotes) at the end of /etc/modules to run at start up.

   Use whatever editor you want, I prefer gedit:

   gksudo gedit /etc/modules

   I didn’t do this step but it may help.

4. Blacklist the current driver so one doesn’t conflict the other:

echo "blacklist ath_pci" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Reboot and hopefullysay greetz to the online world. You should be able to detect wireless signals now. If not, be sure your wireless is enabled, and be wary of security credentials for other networks.

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