Netgear MA311 + Red Hat 9 (2.4.20-8) 

Description

The goal of this guide is to install a Netgear MA311 802.11b wireless card in a system running Red Hat 9.

Index

1. Install Red Hat 9.0 (2.4.20-8) with no patches or upgrades
2. Load the Red Hat supplied orinoco driver.
3. Edit modules.conf

Install Red Hat 9.0 Linux

•  
• Package Group Selection (Add the following)

·         SQL Database Server - Add "mysql-server" (Click on Details)

·         Development Tools

·         Kernel Development

·         X Software Development

·         Gnome Software Development

·         Select System Tools, but remove "ethereal"

• Finish Setup (Forward)

    Login using root and your password

Start a terminal window.            

Load the built in Orinoco driver

Red Hat 9 comes with a built in Orinoco driver. Red Hat 9 does not load it for the Netgear MA311. I don’t know why. 

Execute the following from your terminal window.

To load the driver:

# modprobe orinoco_pci   (if you are using a plx adapter card then its “modprobe orinoco_plx”)

To check if the driver loaded:

To test that the Orinoco drivers have installed correctly, you should see the following lines after running the “dmesg“ command.

#dmesg

Additionally, to listed  the available features.

# iwpriv eth0

To get associated eth0 with the driver so it will appear in the network configuration GUI.

Open an editor  Red Hat > Accessories > Text editor

Edit the following file:

/etc/modules.conf

Add the following line to /etc/modules.conf

Alias eth0 orinoco_pci

Save the file and exit

Restart the System and the card should load.