Wifi and Linux (Was: [Gllug] Linux on Desktop )

[Ryan Cartwright]

Martin A. Brooks wrote:
> Christopher Hunter wrote:
>> Wi-fi is a major problem, but it's being worked on!
>>   
> Wifi _isn't_ a major problem, and effort is being poured in to the wrong
> way of solving the perceived problem.
> 
> People buying wireless hardware for Linux need to make sure it's
> compatible _before_ they part with their cash. Instead they get hardware
> that can only be used via driverloader and ndiswrapper.  Whilst both
> these are very neat bits of technology, it solves the wrong problem: 
> buy hardware that works properly with Linux in the first place.

Whilst I agree that users should check the compatibility of hardware
before buying sometimes (often?) the decisions of manufacturers can make
this a real pain - even if you have checked you cannot guarantee the
card you get will work as you expect.

For example I have two Netgear WG511 PCMCIA cards. Both are version 2 of
the card, the first one I bought (having researched first) has a prism
chipset and works well with the prism54 driver. The second one (which I
bought six months later and "knowing" the card worked) has a different
chipset (Marvell) for which there is no free software drivers[1]. I had
to resort to ndiswrapper and the supplied W2K driver - which is not what
I wanted to do[2]. I'd prefer not to but as this card is not used as
often I am putting up with the ndiswrapper workaround for now.

The on-line retailer simply put down that the card was a WG511v2 - which
was more than the other retailers did.

As has been said before what is really/also needed is for chipset and
card manufacturers to either a) publish their specs or b) release their
drivers in an open format. To this I would add that if they are going to
release a version of a card with a new chipset then at least have give
the punters a chance and give it a different version number! 2.1 or 2a
would have done me but both these say "v2" - the only difference is that
the Marvell one has a black casing and says "made in china".

Cheers
Ryan
-- 
Ryan Cartwright
http://www.cafamily.org.uk/oss
[1] that I have found - anyone know of one?
[2] Yes I could have sent it back but it was not faulty (AFAICS) and I
wanted to see if I could get it working on my box. :o)


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