NAME
ndiswrapper - Linux kernel module and user space tool to load and run
Windows XP drivers for wireless cards
SYNOPSIS
ndiswrapper
DESCRIPTION
ndiswrapper is two parts: user space tool that is used to install
Windows XP drivers and kernel module to load the Windows XP drivers.
Both are called ndiswrapper.
ndiswrapper - tool
The user space tool (/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper) is used whenever a new
Windows XP driver is to be installed. This program takes the following
options:
OPTIONS
-i <inf file>
installs new Windows XP driver, where <inf file> is full path to
INF file for that driver.
-l lists the currently installed drivers.
-e <driver>
removes an installed Windows XP driver named <driver>.
-m writes an alias for wlan0 (default wireless device) into module
configuration file so that ndiswrapper kernel module is loaded
automatically when this interface is used.
ndiswrapper - kernel module
The kernel module loads the installed Windows drivers and executes them
so that the wireless cards can be used in Linux. The module takes the
following options:
OPTIONS
if_name=<basename>
The default basename for the interface is wlan%d, so that the
wireless cards will be configured as wlan0, wlan1, ... (%d is
replaced with lowest available number). You may use any other
basename or fixed name, such as eth%d, ndis2 etc.
proc_uid=<uid>
The module creates files in /proc/net/ndiswrapper that provide
some useful information. These files are created so that they
can be read only by root by default. If some other user needs to
access these files without having to login as root, then replace
<uid> with the user ID of that user.
proc_gid=<gid>
The module creates files in /proc/net/ndiswrapper that provide
some useful information. These files are created so that they
can be read only by people in root group by default. If users
from other groups need to access these files, then replace <gid>
with the group ID of those users.
ndiswrapper kernel module uses loadndisdriver user space tool to
load all the Windows drivers. This tool is not to be used under
normal circumstances. Only when ndiswrapper module is already
loaded and a new Windows XP driver is installed (by ndiswrapper
user space tool) and you want the kernel module to load that
driver without having to unload the module that you need to use
it.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Giridhar Pemmasani <ndiswrapper-
general@lists.sourceforge.net>, for the Debian project (but may be used
by others).
June 25, 2004 NDISWRAPPER(8)