[sclug] Linux desktop alternative

[Pieter Claassen]

Hi Tony,

Wireless Ethernet and Linux is fine as long as you have a bit a patience and
luck.

As far as cards are concerned, I suggest get an actiontec USB wireless card
(the main issue here is that I know the prism2 based card works), however,
you should check out the wlan page http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/
which will lead you to other pages with more info. There is loads of info on
this.

If you compiled your own kernel and are happy to do this again, then no
problem at all and you can install from the source. The linux-wlan-ng driver
needs to be compiled with the source tree of your booted kernel. This is
very important otherwise it won't work.

However, if you are a Debian user, then you are in luck (as long as you
don't use the ALSA sound system because there is no binary distro for the
2.4.20 pre-compiled kernel) because there is a precompiled set of modules
for the 2.4.20-5 kernel. All you do is get the linux-wlan-modules-2.4.20.deb
and the linux-wlan-utils.deb packages and install them. Then it will go
fine. Config is a little tricky, but make sure you install the two scripts
in /usr/share/doc/linux-wlan-ng/examples in /etc/init.d/wlan and
/etc/wlan.conf and hack the wlan.conf file to do your setup. I think you can
push your setup through the interfaces file as well.

Debian has a divergent approach to the management of the cards as it is done
through the /etc/network/interfaces file where you put all your normal
networking info. Note that there is a bug in the
/etc/network/if-post-down.d/linux-wlan-ngxx script in that it tries to yank
the prism2_pci module as opposed to the prism2_usb module after use. Having
this module loaded will make your machine crash on shutdown.

Also, note that it seems normal for the system to crash if you unplug the
card while the module is still loaded.

Also, watch out for hotplug as it seems to be a problem (I am not sure
anymore since it might have been the if-post-down bug)

If you want to go this way, call me because I have sorted this out and can
get it going eyes wide shut.

Then the second question.

I suggest the following setup

cable-modem ------->hub<--------------belkin AP (it works and is cheap)(does
anybody know how to get the ap management software to run on Linux?)
                                                                    ^
                                                                    |
                                                                   actiontec
802
The AP normally leases an IP from your DHCP server and works out of the box
with no security. You will have to change this.

Cheers,
Pieter


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Sumner" <whittycat at ntlworld.com>
To: "Pieter Claassen" <pieter at openauth.co.uk>
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [sclug] Linux desktop alternative


> On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:29:40AM -0000, Pieter Claassen wrote:
>
> > 4. Linux is cheaper, easier and more flexible to support remotely.
>
> Some years back I read that Racal were about to upgrade the OS on all
> their PCs and the MS licence fee was to cost them 1 million pounds. So
> they bought one copy of Red Hat.
>
> > 2. Ethernet and wireless networking enabled.
>
> I want to move my PC to another room in the house and I thought that
> instead of running an ethernet cable (or ask ntl to re-instal the
> cable modem) a neat idea might be to set up a wireless link. All I
> need is a gadget to attach to the cable modem that transmits and
> presumably a wireless ehternet card on the PC. Would you be able to
> give me some advice on how to do this? Can I connect an ethernet cable
> from the CM to a hub or does there have to be a computer in between?
>
> > I am giving a demonstration of the system on the 18th of March in
> > Bracknell Please let me know if anybody is interested in attending.
>
> Sounds good, yes I would like to go.
>
> > Do you believe that Linux can compete with MS on the desktop?
>
> Yes, definitely. One small reservation. Lots of people use MS Office
> and one of them sent me an Excel spreadsheet. I read this into Star
> Office OK, modified it and sent it back. She said that Excel would not
> read it. Is the current version of Star Office really compatible
> both ways?
>
> > Does any of you use Linux exclusively on your desktop and if not, why
not?
>
> Um. Freecell is much nicer in W98. Also gphoto does not support my
> camera (Konica K100) and W98 does. I suppose gphoto will catch up on
> day.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tony Sumner
>
>