Ubuntu 7.10

Just updated my basement server to Ubuntu 7.10
Linux mybox-desktop 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

The blogger picture upload crashing seems to be gone.

But my wifi driver is not playing well with this kernel. It caused kernel panic when booting up. So I am now hard wired for the time being. On the other hand if I booted from an older kernel, the wifi just worked. Last time I unblacklisted the wifi driver, seems like this time, the kernel really can't stand that driver.

Wifi post, previously.

UPDATE (1/2/2008 and 4/27/2008):
I think ndiswrapper is now built-in in the GNOME menu. So all you have to do is to find the Windows INF file and dump it somewhere to use it. Again, they are making it easier to do wifi. Kudos to the developers.  ehhhhhh.  Not built-in, but I think if from Synaptic, you can type "ndis" to find the package and have it installed.  So, now, installing a Windows wireless driver is just a piece of cake instead of a pain in the butt.  Though this wireless feature doesn't even come out of the box in Hardy Heron, you still need to manually do so, and if you don't have a RJ-45 connection first, no worry, the ndiswrapper packages are on the Hardy Heron LiveCD, so just point your Synaptic manager there and you will be fine.

UPDATE (11/12/2007):

Get wifi working under my Ubuntu 7.10 box with kernel 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP (don't ask me I don't know what they mean, I just follow this thread from the ubuntu forum, the below is pretty much a rehash of the instruction found on that thread, kudos to the original poster m_bridge)

My card is the Trendnet 228PI with rtl8180 (or rtl8180L?) chipset. The module that comes with the distribution would cause kernel panic whenever I try to activate it. (Note: I don't know if WEP is a factor but I didn't test it without WEP)

The solution is to get ndiswrapper to nicely wrap around the driver designed for Windows. Don't say Windows is good for nothing. It's just a myth that Windows crashes left and right, I use XP and 2000, they don't crash. I digress. Remove the offending r8180 module. Configure the wlan, and that's it.

Here is the mini howto/cookbook (as I don't fully comprehend every step) from the thread mentioned above.

I have a RJ-45 wired network connection to do all these while the wireless connection is disabled.

Get ndiswrapper
System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager
search for ndiswrapper, then check and install the found packages, in my case three of them.

Get NET8180.INF
Go to Realtek Taiwan and do some search on rtl8180, I downloaded the one that says for Windows 2000 version 1.73 here. Unzip and put it in some folder /home/me/8180/NET8180.INF

fire up your Terminal

1) see the rtl8180 module got loaded
$ lsmod | grep 818
see something with r8180
2) remove the offending module and blacklist it
$ sudo rmmod r8180
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
add this line at the bottom
blacklist r8180
save the file

3) Reboot machine and make sure the module not loaded anymore
$ lsmod | grep 818
there should be no results

4) Install the Windows driver NET8180.INF
$ sudo ndiswrapper - i /home/me/8180/NET8180.INF
$ sudo ndiswrapper -l
I get net8180 driver installed

5) load ndiswrapper module
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

6) configure your wireless network
click on the little network icon on the upper right hand corner next to the date (assuming you are using the default nautilus desktop, and that's the one I know and use). At this point I removed the appending X to the ESSID that I added in order to make it work in 7.04. No more appending extra character for the ESSID.

7) if the card is working, and it "should" then do the following
$ sudo ndiswrapper -m
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modules
append below at the end and save:
ndiswrapper

8) reboot and it "should" work.