Wifi in Linux

[dysfunction]

Does anyone else know what a pain this can be? I found that my card, a Trendware TEW-228PI, which did not have Linx drivers, was based on the Realtek 8180 chipset, for which Linux drivers WERE available. However, I soon found out that said linux drivers were only available for kernel 2.4 and below (I have 2.6.10). Then I found that there were drivers for 2.6.x, but for some reason I could not seem to build them on Ubuntu. So I went the ndiswrapper method, but I had to get the dependencies one by one- by trying to install each package, finding out that it had MORE dependencies,switching into Windows to download THOSE packages, then tring to install them back in Ubuntum until I finally had everything installed. Then I got the driver installed with ndiswrapper, but then I had to get the wireless tols package, whih in turn had three more dependencies for which I had to boot into Windows again. But at last I am finally browsing this page in Linux, on Ubuntu with kernel 2.6.10-5 and KDE 3.4. And may I say, for anyone who has not tried the Synaptic package manager, it's beautiful!

[blueskies]

wifi in linux is somewhat more complicated than windows (ie, a little more work than point and click). In general I've found that wireless is so much more of a hassle than a convinience. I'll stick to that good old ethernet cable, thank you very much.

[Andy_J]

I have no problems with my computer, just had to plug it in via ethernet (why don't you do that instead of rebooting?) to emerge ndiswrapper (which really shouldn't have any dependencies that aren't already on your computer) then point it at my Windows driver. I made my own little initscript for it; the stock gentoo ones were overly complex.

My cardbus cisco card, which I need (in Linux; Windows driver supports it in Windows ONLY) for LEAP, was a slight bit harder to get to work, but only for the PITA LEAP they use at my university. I compiled in the driver for the card into the kernel and made an initscript to authenticate me to the network. It really wasn't that hard once I figured out how to do it.

The only major difference between wifi in Windows and wifi in Linux is that in Windows, they dumb it down with a fugly interface, and in Linux you handle the nitty gritty details yourself.

[blueskies]

The only major difference between wifi in Windows and wifi in Linux is that in Windows, they dumb it down with a fugly interface, and in Linux you handle the nitty gritty details yourself.

replace 'wifi' with 'just about everything'.

Though I've been using Windows again lately. I like the nitty gritty stuff, and geeking out with Linux, but sometimes I just need to get my work done, and I don't want to spend an hour figuring out how to do it in Linux, then spending the time actually doing the work.

[Andy_J]

Yeah, that's my problem too... I don't use gentoo near as often as I'd like -- simply because it'd take so long to get it to the point where I can do what I want/have to do without much bother.

[koolmansam375]

heh my wifis easy to set up

Code: Select all

modprobe rt2500 (already done at boot anyways :-D)
iwconfig ra0 essid <network name>
ifconfig ra0 up

wait five seconds....then

dhcpcd ra0

and im browsing away!




and currently im distro hopping -.- between slack and arch.

[Andy_J]

modprobe ndiswrapper during init, then my initscript does iwconfig wlan0 essid edwardELRIC enc <whatever it is>, then the net.wlan0 script kicks in a bit later... I think, that or I just call dhcpcd wlan0 manually in my script. Whatever.

[dysfunction]

@Andysoft: yeah, that's essentially what I do.

[Patori]

*laughs evilly* WIFI? In Linux? Impossible! Especially when I don't haqve internet :'(