D-Link DWL-610 (DWL-510) Linux configuration

First of all, check what version of Linux you are running, just type uname -r. I have the 2.4.20 kernel, the availible drivers are compiled for 2.4.18 and 2.4.20. My suggestion is just to go with the 2.4.20, less hassle. If you don't have it, go to www.kernel.org and download the 2.4.20 kernel. Configure your kernel and add PCMCIA. You will find it under General Setup, add the PCMCIA/CardBus as a module and add CardBus support. As far as I know the DWL-610 is a CardBus type. Compile and install your kernel and the appropriate modules. You will need the pcmcia-cs package. Read the instructions for setting it up. You won't need the modules in the package however. When you have installed the pcmcia-cs package and your new kernel and modules, you should try to insert the modules. A good thing is to watch the kernel log to see what is going on, tail -f /var/log/kern.log will do the trick. Fire up another terminal window and cd to /lib/modules/2.4.20/pcmcia. insmod pcmcia_core.o insmod yenta_socket.o insmod ds.o When you inserted that last module you should see somthing like: kernel: cs: cb_alloc(bus 2): vendor 0x1186, device 0x3300 kernel: PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0003) Note the vendor and the device id, you will need them later. Download the RTL8180L driver from the RealTek site. You will notice that there are two drivers, one for gcc v2 and the other for gcc v3. This was the tricky part, I have gcc v2.95 so naturally I downloaded the gcc v2 version. Unfortunetly, that driver is compiled for Linux 2.4.18 and that made my kernel panic. The gcc v3 version is compiled for 2.4.20 so I suggest you take that one, that's what I did. I'm not quite sure what exactly differs gcc 2 and 3 but I was able to link in the objectfile without any problems. Unpack the driver and edit the Makefile, make sure your INCLUDEPATH is correct. You will also need to edit line 59 in r8180_pci_init.c. Remember the vendor and device id you saved from watching the kernel log, the first value is the vendor, second is device, change them accordingly. It should look something like this: { 0x1186, 0x3300 /*0x8139*/, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 0 }, Compile the driver, type make at the prompt. Now cross your fingers and do a insmod rtl8180_24x.o. This worked for me and I got the driver to load. Once you got the driver working, you will need the wireless tools package. Download and install, by default they are installed in /usr/local/sbin. To enable your card type: iwpriv wlan0 enable You should see that little sucker start blinking. You will probably want an IP address and a gateway too: ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.2 route add default gw 192.168.0.1 Walk around your house with your laptop, wireless is freedom!