Importance of Linux PCI ID Repository
3-4 days back I brought a new DLink 510 PCI wireless card for my home pc (If I want to work for more than 2-3 hours I prefer to use desktop instead of my laptop so I brought a new PCI wireless card). I brought this card because it is known to work with both ndiswrapper and it has open source GPL driver 
After installing the card, it was not detected by Linux. Next, I had downloaded ndiswrapper and installed it. But, when I try to use driver provided by DLink cd it failed and crashed the system. Then I tried open source driver as descried here and here. But card refused to work again.
All this time lspci was giving me following output:
$ lspciOutput:
0000:01:00.0 Network controller: RaLink: Unknown device 0302
Something was wrong because I never spend more than 2 hours for Linux driver installation. Then I decided to update my Linux PCI ID database. You can download latest version here at the Linux PCI ID repository.
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids
# cp /tmp/pci.ids /var/lib/pciutils/pci.ids
Update: If you are using Debian stable copy file to /usr/share/misc/ directory:
# cp pci.ids /usr/share/misc/
Now lspci reported correct chipset:
$ lspci
Output:
0000:01:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g
Now I did understand the problem. New wireless DLink PCI card DWL 510 does not use chipset RTL8180L from RealTek. This is a new chipset (RT61) from ralinktech and not supported by ndiswrapper 
However, ralinktech has driver for kernel 2.6/2.4 for RT61 card. Next time I will write about answer a few questions about your experience to help us improve nixCraft.
Well, sorry, it’s me again. Since this wireless card is the only contact I have with the internet directly, I have to download everyting (e.g. pci.ids) onto a flash drive and walk it over to my machine and install from there. Whilst attempting to copy the file, I discovered there is no pciutils, but when I attempted to install the pciutils package (from my cdrom install disk package pool) apt-get install said that it was already the newest version. ?? I’ll try to purge and reinstall, but any advice would be great since yours is spot on. Sorry if I come across needing quite a bit of hand holding for this. but just about every thing during this process that could be screwed up has been. Which is good, that’s how you learn right? I’m jsut out of my depth with most of this, but I am learning so I can help folks with similar problems down the road. You, Nix, have been invaluable though. You by far have the best advice on this subject and I am thankful.
some clarification: Whilst attempting to copy the file, I discovered there is no pciutils,
You can copy the pci.ids file to /usr/share/misc/ directory. Use following command to get exact existing location of pci.ids file:
dpkg -L pciutils | grep pci.ids
/usr/share/misc/pci.ids
wget http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids
cp pci.ids /usr/share/misc/pci.ids
lspci
When I wrote this post I was using Debian unstable. It appears that Debian stable use different location for same file.
Hi,
I have problem installing debian sarge. The installer does not detect the network card and the SATA disk. It spits ‘No Partition Media Found’ exception.
I gave boot option as linux26 and just before ‘detecing hardware’ section, I opened another terminal and checked for the /usr/share/misc directory to update the pci.ids file. But I couldnt find misc directory itself.
Kindly advice where could I find the pci-id file so that I can update the pci-id and give it a try.
Thanks alot
Katyusha,
While installing Linux if you don’t see STAT hard drive then go to your BIOS setup. Change the SATA configuration in the BIOS (i.e. legacy ATA mode) so drives are seen as individually, not in RAID setup. In my personal experience, this solves problem 95% times.
HTH
Nix,
As you said I just altered the BIOS setup making IDE configuration to SATA+PATA and the installer automatically detected the SATA disk.
Thanks for your advice.
Katyusha
Hi Nix,
I have installed Sarge in my system. Now the problem is that it does not recognise my ethernet card. I have updated the pci.ids file with the latest. lspci now correctly displays the device info as,
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Now kindly advice me how to get the card installed. The Kernels 2.6.8. and the card is ‘Intel Pro/1000 PL Network Connection’.
Thanks Again.
Katyusha
Katyusha,
I think you need to use e1000 driver for Intel Gig Lan card/Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver. Use modprob command to install driver:
modprobe e1000
Use lsmod command to verify that driver is loaded
lsmod
Assign ip using ifconfig
ifconfig -a
ifconfig eth0 IP up
ping router
You can also download and compile driver from Intel website. http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/1000/
Hope this helps!