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Forget the Linux Desktop, it's the Linux Laptop that matters!
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Comments (24)
4 earlier comments in the full thread.
I make sure I only buy gear with Intel or Atheos wifi chipsets. If the chipset isn't clearly advertised on the box of the product (rarely happens with usb wifi sticks for example) then I don't buy it out of principle. 9 out of 10 times it turns out to be a broadcom chipset anyway.
tracyanne, think we know by now that you like mandriva :)
What wireless chipsets are you using? Are you using native Linux drivers?
> ...think we know by now that you like mandriva.
Tracyanne noting she uses Mandriva is sort of like my noting I use Slackware.
Tracyanne noting she uses Mandriva is sort of like my noting I use Slackware.
I got such a good deal on the Airlink101 AWLL-3028 USB wireless key from Fry's ($9) that I took a chance that it would be an entirely different chipset than the AWLL-3026, which works in many distros.
And it was. ... And doesn't work. Haven't tried ndiswrapper yet, but it isn't detected automatically.
Having my Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA card has caused me to have many more good Wi-Fi experiences than bad ... but my main laptop (no built-in wireless) is suffering from bent PCMCIA pins. I should try fixing that -- the part is available and cheap, but cracking open laptops and actually trying to repair them is such a phenomenal pain in the you-know-where. Nice to know that an item that runs $700 or more dollars is really not designed to be fixed.
And it was. ... And doesn't work. Haven't tried ndiswrapper yet, but it isn't detected automatically.
Having my Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA card has caused me to have many more good Wi-Fi experiences than bad ... but my main laptop (no built-in wireless) is suffering from bent PCMCIA pins. I should try fixing that -- the part is available and cheap, but cracking open laptops and actually trying to repair them is such a phenomenal pain in the you-know-where. Nice to know that an item that runs $700 or more dollars is really not designed to be fixed.
Steve -
What chipset does that puppy use?
What chipset does that puppy use?
My Vostro with the Intel chipset works perfectly with anything, my IBM laptop with the Atheros chipset works with anything, and the cheap-o Intellinet PCMCIA card with the Realtek chipset works with anything.
Most addon cards worth a hoot for Linux will have the Atheros chipset, and can be easily found using http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default... At least that's been my experience.
Most addon cards worth a hoot for Linux will have the Atheros chipset, and can be easily found using http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default... At least that's been my experience.
I've had pretty good luck with both Ralink and Realtek chipsets, but...
You've got to be alert that there are "B" versions of both that use different drivers from the main lines. Both "B"s, by the way have linux drivers.
If you want a nice gui use wicd
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/
Beats the hell out of network manager in my experience, most particularly in getting wpa to work properly.
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/
Beats the hell out of network manager in my experience, most particularly in getting wpa to work properly.
I've got a realtek 8185 chipset in my laptop and the kernel driver hard locks the system. But it works really well with ndiswrapper, though sometimes I have to reload the driver when I wake it up from suspend.
I guess I owe my pain free wireless to the Intel wifi chipset in my lappy/
One lappy with Ralink, PCLinuxOS set it up from Live CD and it worked from the install.
One lappy with Broadcom 43XXX PCLinuxOS set it up from Live CD and it worked on
the install.
Quoting:tracyanne, think we know by now that you like mandriva :)
I was merely extending the previous post which mentioned PCLOS, being as they are almost identical.
Quoting:What wireless chipsets are you using? Are you using native Linux drivers?
Native Linux drivers
on the Centoris it's PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, so it's Intel
on the NEC it's PRO/Wireless 2200BG, so it's Intel too
The WiFi card in my Test machine a Compaq dektop is a DLink but I don't know the chip, I'll check it out tonight. It too is running native Linux drivers under Mandriva, I haven't tried it with Sabayon, which is currently running on that machine.
on the NEC it's PRO/Wireless 2200BG, so it's Intel too
The WiFi card in my Test machine a Compaq dektop is a DLink but I don't know the chip, I'll check it out tonight. It too is running native Linux drivers under Mandriva, I haven't tried it with Sabayon, which is currently running on that machine.
I have to use the madwifi driver for the Atheros chipset I'm using.
As noted elsewhere, the Broadcom in Mom's laptop is using the native Linux driver, but only in 2.6.21 and later kernels, and again only with a firmware pack found in the Ubuntu forums. But it does -work-, which is the point I guess.
Wifi on Linux will be solved the day after the manufacturers realize that Wifi on Linux is good for business.
As noted elsewhere, the Broadcom in Mom's laptop is using the native Linux driver, but only in 2.6.21 and later kernels, and again only with a firmware pack found in the Ubuntu forums. But it does -work-, which is the point I guess.
Wifi on Linux will be solved the day after the manufacturers realize that Wifi on Linux is good for business.
Quoting:I've had pretty good luck with both Ralink and Realtek chipsets, but... You've got to be alert that there are "B" versions
Indeed, Ralink is trying to help making free software drivers. It took me like forever to find out D-link xxxx V2 had a different chipset than V1, which is why it took me more than a week to find the right driver (also after trying lots of different Windows drivers ndiswrapper, which failed), and after I finally got the driver working, we couldn't use it because it didn't support WPA (back then)... BTW Dino and others over here (IIRC) told me the situation has changed by now - they do support WPA now, so probably if I were to buy a wifi-card it would be Intel, Atheros or Ralink.
I'd look at the "FSF recommended hardware list" before buying anyway;
http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/
I am using the Intel pro wireless 2200bg driver. I have the choice to use ndiswrapper but I don't.
> I have the choice to use ndiswrapper but I don't.
I suppose that I would use ndiswrapper if there were no viable alternative. After all, it's like running the occasional Windows program under wine.
But -- I don't have to, so I don't.
Wifi in linux is less a nightmare all the time.
I suppose that I would use ndiswrapper if there were no viable alternative. After all, it's like running the occasional Windows program under wine.
But -- I don't have to, so I don't.
Wifi in linux is less a nightmare all the time.
I have a quick story about linux wifi.
My wife just got a promotion at work and with it came a fancy new winxp laptop. She brought it home yesterday and we tried to connect to the network. It wouldn't connect. It has an intel wireless nic, don't remember which one. I tried various techniques, using both windows and the intel utility to try to connect, but no luck. I did some research online and found that to connect to a WPA2 network with winxp you need a hotfix, which was not installed on the computer, so we took it over and plugged it into the router downloaded the hotfix, restarted the thing, and still no love. I then installed all the newest drivers and utilities from Dells website, no go again.
I then called a windows expert I know, he said that the problem is probably with the encryption key. I was somewhat unsure about this because my linux laptop connects just fine every time. He suggested that the router may not allow a computer to connect through a secure connection with out first connecting without any encryption. Again this seemed doubtful, but I thought I would humor him and turn off the encryption and see what happens.
With out encryption the work laptop would connect, but once enabled again still nothing. I did some more searching and it seems that winxp has a hard time connecting to WPA2 encrypted networks. My friend asked if it was a vista machine, because they sometimes wont connect to a WPA encrypted network.
So it seems that while linux still has a few bumps in its wireless abilities, they are being fixed at an amazing rate, where the great MS still hasn't figured out how to do it.
For my linux laptop to connect to my WPA encrypted network I just had to enter the key into the supplicant file. Then it connected the first time without problem, and everytime since.
My wife just got a promotion at work and with it came a fancy new winxp laptop. She brought it home yesterday and we tried to connect to the network. It wouldn't connect. It has an intel wireless nic, don't remember which one. I tried various techniques, using both windows and the intel utility to try to connect, but no luck. I did some research online and found that to connect to a WPA2 network with winxp you need a hotfix, which was not installed on the computer, so we took it over and plugged it into the router downloaded the hotfix, restarted the thing, and still no love. I then installed all the newest drivers and utilities from Dells website, no go again.
I then called a windows expert I know, he said that the problem is probably with the encryption key. I was somewhat unsure about this because my linux laptop connects just fine every time. He suggested that the router may not allow a computer to connect through a secure connection with out first connecting without any encryption. Again this seemed doubtful, but I thought I would humor him and turn off the encryption and see what happens.
With out encryption the work laptop would connect, but once enabled again still nothing. I did some more searching and it seems that winxp has a hard time connecting to WPA2 encrypted networks. My friend asked if it was a vista machine, because they sometimes wont connect to a WPA encrypted network.
So it seems that while linux still has a few bumps in its wireless abilities, they are being fixed at an amazing rate, where the great MS still hasn't figured out how to do it.
For my linux laptop to connect to my WPA encrypted network I just had to enter the key into the supplicant file. Then it connected the first time without problem, and everytime since.
boomboom -
You hit on another general fact of life for Linux v. Windows...
More often than not, given the diversity of hardware devices and the fact that manufacturers provide drivers for Windows, Windows really does "just work".
When, however, it doesn't, it provides crap for clues and much of the support network turns shallow in a hurry.
Nothing more frustrating than a Windows box that doesn't do what it should.
You hit on another general fact of life for Linux v. Windows...
More often than not, given the diversity of hardware devices and the fact that manufacturers provide drivers for Windows, Windows really does "just work".
When, however, it doesn't, it provides crap for clues and much of the support network turns shallow in a hurry.
Nothing more frustrating than a Windows box that doesn't do what it should.
Rather than fight, when I purchased my new gateway laptop, I also purchased a Dlink airplus Xtreme G (dwl-g650) that I know works with linux. It travels with me and get plugged in whenever I boot the laptop.
I have 2. One with the laptop and 1 with my set of linux live CD's that I travel with (that recognize that card). I've never had a problem connecting up. Most of my live CDs' are debian based, recent PclinuxOS, Fedora 7. SuSe, Slackware don't even see the card so I don't bother with them.
My Favourite distro, Simply Mepis, works flawlesly. I wish that it was possible to save the setup when booting a live cd (like knoppix).
I guess my point is quit fiddling around with the built wifi cards, quit playing around with the ndiswrapper. If you want to work with linux, go buy something that works with linux.
Sh.t or get of the pot as we say up here.
Nick
I have 2. One with the laptop and 1 with my set of linux live CD's that I travel with (that recognize that card). I've never had a problem connecting up. Most of my live CDs' are debian based, recent PclinuxOS, Fedora 7. SuSe, Slackware don't even see the card so I don't bother with them.
My Favourite distro, Simply Mepis, works flawlesly. I wish that it was possible to save the setup when booting a live cd (like knoppix).
I guess my point is quit fiddling around with the built wifi cards, quit playing around with the ndiswrapper. If you want to work with linux, go buy something that works with linux.
Sh.t or get of the pot as we say up here.
Nick
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