Linux – Zotac WiFi Drivers – No Linux Support

chipsetdriverslinuxmotherboardwireless-networking

I built my own computer, and the motherboard is a Zotac ITX GeForce 9300. The Wi-Fi adapter doesn't work and the CD it came with has no Linux drivers. I am using the latest stable release of Linux Mint 7.

Are there any Linux drivers for this adapter, or at least generic Wi-Fi drivers that can work on my adapter?

Here are the results of running lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Host Bridge (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 LPC Bridge (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SMBus (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller (rev b1)
00:03.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Device 0a98 (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Co-processor (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:06.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev b1)
00:06.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP79 High Definition Audio (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Bridge (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)
00:0b.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SATA Controller (rev b1)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
00:18.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge (rev b1)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9300 / nForce 730i (rev b1)

Update: Someone said the WiFi module connects to the board via a USB header. Here are the results of running lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0518:0001 EzKEY Corp. USB to PS2 Adaptor v1.09
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 160a:3184
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:00e1 Microsoft Corp. Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 Receiver
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

ndiswrapper doesn't help at all.

Update 2: I installed the VT6656 Linux driver CesarB posted, but I can only access the network and not the Internet. In addition, every time I boot the system doesn't recognize the adapter. I can reinstall the driver with every boot, but it will still only connect to the network.

Best Answer

Your lspci output shows only one Ethernet controller (the wired one, a MCP79 which should be supported by the forcedeth driver). Doing a web search, I found a curious piece of information in a review of your motherboard: "The WiFi module [...] connects to the board via a USB header". If that is true, the information you want will be found not in lspci, but in lsusb.

After finding the correct line in the lsusb output, you can do a search for the ID (which will be something like 1d6b:0002) to find other people discussing the same hardware (people usually post the USB ID in that format when asking for help).

It seems Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu 9.04, which uses a 2.6.28 kernel. You could try a more recent kernel (Ubuntu 9.10, which should be released late this month, uses 2.6.31) to see if there is a driver for your device.

EDIT: Now that you posted the lsusb output, I can see that 160a:3184 is your wireless card. A quick search shows it is a VIA wireless card, apparently called VT6656. It seems there is a driver from VIA for it, and it seems to have been added to the staging tree for cleanup and possible future inclusion in the Linux kernel. See also Ubuntu bug #162671.

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