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<p>Check to see if your wireless adapter is on a list of supported devices</p>
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<p>Most Linux distributions keep a list of wireless devices that they have support for. Sometimes, these lists provide extra information on how to get the drivers for certain adapters working properly. Go to the list for your distribution (for example, <link href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported">Ubuntu</link>, <link href="http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers">Fedora</link> or <link href="http://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Network_(Wireless)">openSuSE</link>) and see if your make and model of wireless adapter is listed. You may be able to use some of the information there to get your wireless drivers working.</p>
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<p>Look for restricted (binary) drivers</p>
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<p>Many Linux distributions only come with device drivers which are <em>free</em> and <em>open source</em>. This is because they cannot distribute drivers which are proprietary, or closed-source. If the correct driver for your wireless adapter is only available in a non-free, or "binary-only" version, it may not be installed by default. If this is the case, look on the wireless adapter manufacturer's website to see if they have any Linux drivers.</p>
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<p>Some Linux distributions have a tool that can download restricted drivers for you. If your distribution has one of these, use it to see if it can find any wireless drivers for you.</p>
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<p>Use the Windows drivers for your adapter</p>
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<p>In general, you cannot use a device driver designed for one operating system (like Windows) on another operating system (like Linux). This is because they have different ways of handling devices. For wireless adapters, however, you can install a compatibility layer called <em>NDISwrapper</em> which lets you use some Windows wireless drivers on Linux. This is useful because wireless adapters almost always have Windows drivers available for them, whereas Linux drivers are sometimes not available. You can learn more about how to use NDISwrapper <link href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Main_Page">here</link>. Note that not all wireless drivers can be used through NDISwrapper.</p>
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gnome-help/C/net-wireless-troubleshooting-device-drivers.page
