Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

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puddleglum
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Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by puddleglum »

Most of us are on 64 bit GNU/Linux these days and ndiswrapper only works with MS Windows drivers older than Vista. There were few 64 bit XP drivers to begin with and those, I'm sure, are showing their age by now.

So why do we even have ndiswrapper any more? Is it even a viable solution today? If it can't be made to work with Vista/Win7 drivers it is dead in the water. In my searching around the net it appears to only be available today to give false hope to people trying to get their currently owned, GNU/Linux unsupported, devices to function. In the end they either find a GNU/Linux solution, buy something else or give up on Linux altogether.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
DAMIEN1307

Re: Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

hi puddleglum...if you, like me, have no need for ndiswrapper, you can purge it with this terminal command...DAMIEN

sudo apt purge ndiswrapper
puddleglum
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Re: Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by puddleglum »

Hi Damien;

I work with elderly/fixed income people many of whom don't want or can't afford to buy a new computer right now. A lot of these are MS Vista computers that still work but the OS is no longer supported by MS. I've been re-purposing these still functional computers with Linux so the owners can continue to use them. These old machines still work for what they use them for.

This being the case, I'm using existing hardware and not all of it is supported or can be made to work with Linux. In the old 32 bit XP era ndiswrapper provided a possible solution in some cases. That no longer appears to be the case today. I still have a need for ndiswrapper or a product like it but it doesn't appear to exist. A search around the net for recent ndiswrapper postings produced hits where the OP wasn't able to make their device work with ndiswrapper. That has been my experience as well.
DAMIEN1307

Re: Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

hi puddle...the ndiswrapper was originally used to aid older wifi on old M$ systems like XP to work on linux. it never did work all that well to begin with...after XP type computers, ndiswrapper became superfluous...ive recently converted over the past year, 14 vista systems that were on lenovo's to various linux distros and have always removed it without any fallout from doing so...most of these units have been desktops without wifi built in anyways though...there hasnt been a time yet, at least for me, when dealing with laptops where i have had any issue with wifi drivers on computers built from 2010 to present but maybe ive just been lucky...i no longer even consider 32 bit laptops/netbooks etc that are running intel atom n150 processors of 1.66 ghz with only 1 gig of ram because they are now really just too, too slow and lethargic with the newest linux distro's...if your dealing with at least intel duo core processors with at least 2 gigs of ram, use either Mate or xfce mint editions or even peppermint 9 distro...they will all work decently...if you have higher spec machines, such as quad core processors, with at least 4 gigs ram, then cinnamon edition works very nicely...when searching for wifi drivers, always look for them first in the built in "driver manager" in LM (in peppermint it is called "additional drivers")...and see if it has a driver selected as recommended to choose from and just choose it and reboot to see if it works...there are times i have read here in the forums that the only thing that does work for the wifi on old machines (especially those equipped with "broadcom" wifi), is to purchase an inexpensive wifi dongle that plugs into the USB port of the laptop and they tend to just work...since there wasnt an actual question to answer from your last post to me here, im hoping i ascertained your thoughts here and hope this is of some small help to you...DAMIEN
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jimallyn
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Re: Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by jimallyn »

I used ndiswrapper a year or two ago to get wifi going on my sister's computer. It is still available because some people might need it.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
Hoser Rob
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Re: Is ndiswrapper a viable solution any more?

Post by Hoser Rob »

It was never all that viable ... it's far too unreliable. If it did work reliably I suspect we'd all be using it.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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