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)