A couple of weeks back, my wireless card on my laptop first started dropping more than half the packets and then stopped working. Since the laptop is 4 years old, I was not too keen to spend to replace the wireless card (if stock was available). I had a DWL-G132, D-Link Wireless G USB adapter lying around from my old desktop and this was my best bet. In fact, I was so confident that it would work out of the box in Linux but I was disappointed. After a few searches, I realized that I could make the adapter work using ndiswrapper. Luckily, within a few minutes the wireless adapter was up and running.

Here's the process to make your adapter work on Linux:

  • Install ndiswrapper. I used the yum package from the rpmfusion repository. You may use apt-get on Ubuntu.

  • Download the drivers from the D-Link site for Windows.

  • Let's remove the ndiswrapper from the kernel from the time being using:

    # modprobe -r ndiswrapper
    
  • In the zip file downloaded from the D-Link site (under the Drivers/2KXP folder):

    # ndiswrapper -i netA5AGU.inf
    # ndiswrapper -i ar5523.bin
    
  • Load the ndiswrapper module back into the kernel:

    # modprobe ndiswrapper
    

You should start seeing the LEDs on the adapter blinking (if not, repeat the process). You should observe a new wireless device on your NetworkManager and you can associate Wifi networks and get connected to the internet.


Installing drivers for Samsung ML-1676 on Linux

Sat 10 September 2011 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Today, I purchased a Samsung ML-1676 Monochrome Laser Printer. I was under the impression that most printers are now supported out of the box but I was wrong. This model of the printer uses a proprietary language called the Samsung Printing Language (SPL) and hence drivers are not included in …

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Sharing X display over VNC

Thu 21 July 2011 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Designing for browsers is hard! There are a multitude of browsers that have to be supported and each have their quirks. While there are tools to make this task easy, recently Sai (chief designer at Agiliq) had to checkout how a client's project looked in Chromium and Firefox on Linux …

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Use the Windows key as Ctrl Key on Linux

Tue 11 May 2010 by Thejaswi Puthraya

The Ctrl key on the Samsung R517 laptop is placed awkwardly for comfortable use with Emacs. Off late due to the strain of hitting the Ctrl key often, I started to feel a mild tingling on my pinky. I was anxious if this was the first stage of the infamous …

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Writing a keylogger in Linux is very easy!

Mon 21 September 2009 by Thejaswi Puthraya

I strongly believe that an employer shouldn't monitor an employee's usage of internet and computing resources at work. But when the employer has circumstantial evidence to prove that an employee is using computing resources to benefit a competitor, then it is a different matter altogether.

Recently, my cousin requested me …

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Split a large CSV into smaller CSVs

Mon 29 December 2008 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Split a large CSV file into smaller CSVs

At work, we sometimes have to deal with huge CSV files and it is difficult to open these files in memory because there is a limit of the buffer size.

So the best way would be to split the file into smaller …

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Install Fedora from a USB disk without a DVD

Fri 26 December 2008 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Install Fedora from a USB disk without a DVD

Fedora has a release schedule of 6 months ie they release a new version every 6 months. 6 months is too short but there are a lot of new features that are packed into every release that it makes it very …

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Handle ACPI events in Linux

Thu 25 December 2008 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Handle ACPI Events in Linux

Off late, I have been working totally in runlevel 3 to replicate the setup and feel at work. The only grudge I have with runlevel 3 is that there is no easy way to figure out the battery level of the laptop.

So I googled …

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Inotify, watch your filesystem

Wed 05 November 2008 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Inotify, watch your filesystem

Inotify, is a Linux kernel system call that helps you monitor the file system for various events.

Here is how I use it:

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GNU Screen : A must for remote developers

Sun 02 November 2008 by Thejaswi Puthraya

GNU Screen : A must for remote developers

Did you ever come across a scenario where you were in the middle of some important work on the terminal and realized that you were out of time and wished you could continue it say from home or from another machine?

Or another …

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