Linux Help

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does anyone know how to get linux to use windows drivers. i want ubuntu, but my wireless wont work with it and its a laptop

There is a program that will help with that,
its a dos for linux, it will help run windows programs,
but I forgot the name.
sorry

while we're at it, anyone know a good dvd-video playing program for linux? I don't need a ripper, I just want to actually play the bloody thing on my linux box...

I got fedora 8 on a box i made out of old components my church gave me...

PS: for the OP: i'm not so sure about windows drivers, but i know that you can get application layer software running on linux using wine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_%28software%29)

yup, thats the program, wine.

I don't think you can use a windows driver on linux. That would be something to ask about on the Ubuntu forums. You should try live booting Knoppix. It was designed to "just work" without an install, so it has very good hardware support intrinsically. If the latest Knoppix can't do it, you're probably out of luck.

@ToadOfSteel, I think the VLC (VideoLAN client) media player can play DVD's. Check your repositories.

@aspergian_mutant, there's a program called DOSbox that can run old dos programs on Linux. (and windows too for that matter), but it emulates the hardware, so it doesn't really interface to the real thing. Wine is just application layer. I don't think it works for device drivers.

@nodice1996: Could NDISWrapper http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/ be what you need? I never used it myself but read about it.

you can't use wine to install drivers.

I know you can not run windows drivers in Linux,
I just thought that perhaps he just wanted to run a program
and he thought he needed the drivers for it,
when alls he may need is those programs.

actually i was having a similar problem earlier... anyhow you can use windows drivers
if its a pci card, MadWifi works well, if its a USB wifi thingie (like i use) then you have use ndiswrapper utility to make windows drivers work. overall it depends on what chipset it has, some are really temperamental...

For DVD playback on Linux (check your repositories) you need the libdvdcss library regardless of the player you use (mplayer or VLC). As for wireless drivers ndiswrapper or MadWiFi is what is recommended for Linux use. What Distribution are you using?

would that include integrated laptop cards???

I guess it depends on the card, eh? Check what type it is and google for its name and Linux.

probably, if it's integrated than MadWiFi is a good bet.
And as the person above implied, google is your best friend for stuff like this, I guarantee you other linux users will have posted on a forum or something with a similar problem.