WiFi Why For?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| ColonelPanik Jan 09, 2008 8:35 AM EDT |
Put Debian Etch on my AcerPower 1000 desktop. No wireless but it is a desktop so no problem now.
Just booted a PCLinuxOS disk, ran it Live. Yep, it set up my Broadcom 43xx on the fly.
My question is: WHY? I have an old Averatec with a Ralink card, no wireless in Debian or Ubuntu (out of the box) PCLinuxOS set it up in LIVE CD and it worked with the install. WHY? |
| Bob_Robertson Jan 09, 2008 8:41 AM EDT |
Because Broadcom has a binary firmware driver. You can get it as a .DEB from the Ubuntu forums, but because it is proprietary it's not included in the Debian base distribution. Also, Etch doesn't have a recent enough kernel. The Broadcom driver only works in the 2.6.21 and later kernels. |
| jdixon Jan 09, 2008 8:43 AM EDT |
As a guess, PCLinuxOS includes ndiswrapper and some of the more common Windows drivers. |
| ColonelPanik Jan 09, 2008 8:45 AM EDT |
Well this Colonel isn't to recent either. Thank you. I am not going to live long enough to get these
computers right. So PCLOS has non-proprietary drivers? |
| Bob_Robertson Jan 09, 2008 9:02 AM EDT |
CP, not to worry. The only reason I know this is because I tried to get my Mom's new laptop to work with Etch, and Broadcom would not work no way no how. |
| ColonelPanik Jan 09, 2008 9:59 AM EDT |
http://www.debiantutorials.org/content/view/153/213/ Broadcom working in Etch. I am going to the vet. now so will try later. |
| extradudeguy Jan 09, 2008 10:03 AM EDT |
CP writes: "I have an old Averatec with a Ralink card, no wireless in Debian or Ubuntu (out of the box) PCLinuxOS.... " Speaking on the Ubuntu front, Ubuntu Gutsy and RaLink wireless devices like the Edimax EW-7318Ug, Edimax EW-7318USg and EW-7608PG will work fine, despite the "hot air" coming from most forums - no compiling. ;) For the PCMCIA card's /like/ the Edimax EW-7608PG that use rt61PCI in Ubuntu Gutsy by default. Here are some things that can make this really easy. After running lshw -C network to make sure you are seeing something "like" this, be it not exactly: (at the bottom of the lshw list) *-network description: Wireless interface product: RT2600 802.11 MIMO vendor: RaLink physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: wmaster0 version: 00 serial: 00:0e:2e:89:4d:a7 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt61pci ip=192.168.0.108 latency=64 module=rt61pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g Assuming you do indeed, see module=rt61pci in the list, give this a shot - you might surprise yourself. ;) (Tested with Ubuntu, not anything else) 1) Double check your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and verify nothing relating to rt61pci is listed there. 2) Get your /etc/network/interfaces file to this point: #Nothing else here auto lo iface lo inet loopback 3) Then just do a sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart . Doing this with Gutsy will also lead to success with WPA2 as well, but there are somethings I did to ensure this success: My router (a DLINK Gamer’s Lounge) is set up as follows: DHCP: on Enable Auto Channel Scan : checked on (This means that I do not select the channel, the router does) Super G: off Transmission mode: 802.11g only Transmission Rate : Auto network visibility: visible WPA settings- Wireless security mode: WPA-Personal WPA Mode: WPA 2 only Group key interval: 3600 Preshared key: both letters and numbers, only eight characters --------------- A bit off-topic here, but helpful nonetheless as I get this question a lot: For Ralink USB dongles like the ones listed above, a little blacklisting of the right modules can do wonders. Not a problem for you in this case, but is shocking how many people struggle with them. In short, if anyone has a USB dongle that claims to be rtusb2500USB, don't believe it. Blacklist it and modeprobe rt73usb instead, this works more often than most people realize. echo 'blacklist rt2500usb' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist Then sudo modprobe rt73usb and finally, sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart ----- If the Ralink card is rt2500 by chance, just use NM in Gutsy, should work fine without any changes to anything. If not, edit your interfaces file and restart the network. As for Broadcom, the company and the chipset itself are evil - why support them? Just my two cents... |
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