Linux with good wireless support
in [UK Linux]
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From: jasee on 11 Jan 2008 10:00 What do people here recommend as a linux version with good wireless support (out of the 'box') I'm looking for a live cd ideally and I've resigned myself top getting yet another wireless pcmcia card as the four I've got don't work. (Fedora cds don't work with me)
From: Andy Burns on 11 Jan 2008 10:24 On 11/01/2008 15:00, jasee wrote: > What do people here recommend as a linux version with good wireless support > (out of the 'box') I'm looking for a live cd ideally and I've resigned > myself top getting yet another wireless pcmcia card as the four I've got > don't work. (Fedora cds don't work with me) I have used Intel 2100b and 2915a/b/g mini-PCI cards quite happily with Fedora (used to have to build my own kernel, recent Fedora releases come with drivers and firmware included).
From: Whiskers on 11 Jan 2008 10:40 On 2008-01-11, jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: > What do people here recommend as a linux version with good wireless support > (out of the 'box') I'm looking for a live cd ideally and I've resigned > myself top getting yet another wireless pcmcia card as the four I've got > don't work. (Fedora cds don't work with me) Fedora CDs don't work at all, or merely haven't enabled you to get wifi working yet? Approaching the problem from a slightly different direction, could you specify which PCMCIA wifi card(s) you want to use? One or other of the web sites attempting to maintain lists of which hardware works with Linux and how to get it working, might well have information that could help. Or someone here might even have personal experience to relate. More radical still would be to research that information before spending money on hardware ;)) A live CD distro might lack the software or flexibility that would make it easier to get your hardware working. I've found Mandriva to be pretty good at recognising and configuring things automatically or with little effort - and the 'paid for' version that includes a number of commercial and other 'non free' packages is the easiest. <http://www.mandriva.com/> (they offer a live CD version if you want to try that). Mandriva 2008 Powerpack (the paid-for version) got the built-in Broadcom wifi on this laptop working with the supplied Linux-native software (and a little fiddling from me); previously I've managed well enough with ndiswrapper and the Windows driver. Another machine I have uses an Atheros wireless card, which works straight out of the box with Mandriva and the included 'Madwifi' driver. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: chris on 11 Jan 2008 11:27 jasee wrote: > What do people here recommend as a linux version with good wireless support > (out of the 'box') I'm looking for a live cd ideally and I've resigned > myself top getting yet another wireless pcmcia card as the four I've got > don't work. (Fedora cds don't work with me) > Mepis has great out of the box hardware support and runs as a LiveCD. I don't have wireless so can't comment personally, but I've noted a lot of people on www.mepislovers.com have had success with wireless using mepis. Plus, the latest version is very up-to-date. The biggest tip I've seen is to remove any authentication you may have set up on the AP until you've got the connection working. Only once the connection is working do re-apply your security settings.
From: jasee on 11 Jan 2008 12:52
chris wrote: > jasee wrote: >> What do people here recommend as a linux version with good wireless >> support (out of the 'box') I'm looking for a live cd ideally and >> I've resigned myself top getting yet another wireless pcmcia card as >> the four I've got don't work. (Fedora cds don't work with me) >> > > Mepis has great out of the box hardware support and runs as a LiveCD. > > I don't have wireless so can't comment personally, but I've noted a > lot of people on www.mepislovers.com have had success with wireless > using mepis. Plus, the latest version is very up-to-date. > > The biggest tip I've seen is to remove any authentication you may have > set up on the AP until you've got the connection working. Only once > the connection is working do re-apply your security settings. Thanks, I'll give it a try; the forum looks well supported. |