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.TH NDISWRAPPER 8 "June 25, 2004"
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.SH NAME
ndiswrapper \- Linux kernel module and user space tool to load and run
Windows XP drivers for wireless cards
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ndiswrapper
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBndiswrapper\fP 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
.B ndiswrapper.
.br

.br
.SH ndiswrapper - tool
.br
.\" TeX users may be more comfortable with the \fB<whatever>\fP and
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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:
.br
.PP
.B OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-i <inf file>
installs new Windows XP driver, where <inf file> is full path to INF file for
that driver.
.TP
.B \-l
lists the currently installed drivers.
.TP
.B \-e <driver>
removes an installed Windows XP driver named <driver>.
.TP
.B \-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.

.PP
.SH ndiswrapper - kernel module
.br
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:
.PP
.B OPTIONS
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.br

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.
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Giridhar Pemmasani <ndiswrapper-general@lists.sourceforge.net>,
for the Debian project (but may be used by others).