laptop and wireless
in [Linux Hardware]
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From: General Schvantzkoph on 24 May 2010 16:55 On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:47:58 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote: > On Mon, 24 May 2010 12:16:01 -0500, Richard Kimber wrote: > >> Hi: >> >> I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. Given that I've had endless >> problems with the wireless on my old one (Acer Aspire 5002), I wondered >> if anyone had a recommendation for a brand of laptop on which the >> wireless "just works". I'll be using Ubuntu 10.04. I have been >> looking at a Samsung: >> >> Samsung R730 17.3-inch Notebook (PDC T4300 2.1 GHz Processor, 4 GB RAM, >> 320 GB HDD HDD, DVDRW, 6 Cell Battery, HD+, HDMI, Webcam, Windows 7 >> Home Premium, Red/Silver) >> >> ... but I get the impression people have had wireless problems with >> that. >> >> Thanks. > > Make sure you get an Intel wireless chipset, Intel is fully committed to > providing open source drivers, Intel chipsets always work. One more thing, put Fedora 12 or 13 on a USB key and try the laptop in a store, if Fedora autoconfigures the WiFi you will know that the chipset is supported in the kernel. The reason that I say to use Fedora and not Ubuntu is that Fedora is strict about including only open source drivers so it works in Fedora it will work in any distro with a similar rev kernel.
From: Dan C on 24 May 2010 21:54 On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:14:40 +0000, Jerry Peters wrote: > Richard Kimber <richardkimber(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >> Hi: >> >> I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. Given that I've had endless >> problems with the wireless on my old one (Acer Aspire 5002), I wondered >> if anyone had a recommendation for a brand of laptop on which the >> wireless "just works". I'll be using Ubuntu 10.04. I have been >> looking at a Samsung: >> >> Samsung R730 17.3-inch Notebook (PDC T4300 2.1 GHz Processor, 4 GB RAM, >> 320 GB HDD HDD, DVDRW, 6 Cell Battery, HD+, HDMI, Webcam, Windows 7 >> Home Premium, Red/Silver) >> >> ... but I get the impression people have had wireless problems with >> that. >> >> Thanks. > > You need to know what wireless chipset the laptop uses and if there's > good support in the kernel. Find out the wireless chipset used and > search on that. > I've had good luck with the ath5k driver for Atheros 5xxx chipsets. > AFAIK, Intel is also OK, but Broadcom is questionable (no vendor > support). Not true about Broadcom. I have it in this laptop, and am using this driver supplied by Broadcom. Works great. Here: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php Please don't make claims about something you don't know about... -- "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". "Bother!" said Pooh, as a vole stole his honey Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/ Thanks, Obama: http://brandybuck.site40.net/pics/politica/thanks.jpg
From: General Schvantzkoph on 25 May 2010 09:21 On Tue, 25 May 2010 01:54:46 +0000, Dan C wrote: > On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:14:40 +0000, Jerry Peters wrote: > >> Richard Kimber <richardkimber(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >>> Hi: >>> >>> I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. Given that I've had endless >>> problems with the wireless on my old one (Acer Aspire 5002), I >>> wondered if anyone had a recommendation for a brand of laptop on which >>> the wireless "just works". I'll be using Ubuntu 10.04. I have been >>> looking at a Samsung: >>> >>> Samsung R730 17.3-inch Notebook (PDC T4300 2.1 GHz Processor, 4 GB >>> RAM, 320 GB HDD HDD, DVDRW, 6 Cell Battery, HD+, HDMI, Webcam, Windows >>> 7 Home Premium, Red/Silver) >>> >>> ... but I get the impression people have had wireless problems with >>> that. >>> >>> Thanks. >> >> You need to know what wireless chipset the laptop uses and if there's >> good support in the kernel. Find out the wireless chipset used and >> search on that. >> I've had good luck with the ath5k driver for Atheros 5xxx chipsets. >> AFAIK, Intel is also OK, but Broadcom is questionable (no vendor >> support). > > Not true about Broadcom. I have it in this laptop, and am using this > driver supplied by Broadcom. Works great. > > Here: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php > > Please don't make claims about something you don't know about... That's not an open source driver so it's going to be a pain to use. The Intel drivers are in the kernel so there are no extra steps to get an Intel WiFi chip to work. With a binary driver, like Broadcoms, you have to do a reinstall every time you upgrade your kernel. Even if you are using a package from a third party repo to handle this it's still not as clean as having kernel support because you are at the mercy of the packagers who might not keep up with the kernel revisions. All things being equal, or close to equal, you are always better off choosing a device that has a kernel driver. Unlike graphics chips, where the alternative to using a binary driver is a 90% loss of performance, we are fortunate to have a couple of wireless choices, Intel and Atheros, which are fully supported in the kernel and uncompromised performance.
From: Dan C on 25 May 2010 11:31 On Tue, 25 May 2010 13:21:16 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote: > On Tue, 25 May 2010 01:54:46 +0000, Dan C wrote: > >> On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:14:40 +0000, Jerry Peters wrote: >> >>> Richard Kimber <richardkimber(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >>>> Hi: >>>> >>>> I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. Given that I've had endless >>>> problems with the wireless on my old one (Acer Aspire 5002), I >>>> wondered if anyone had a recommendation for a brand of laptop on >>>> which the wireless "just works". I'll be using Ubuntu 10.04. I have >>>> been looking at a Samsung: >>>> >>>> Samsung R730 17.3-inch Notebook (PDC T4300 2.1 GHz Processor, 4 GB >>>> RAM, 320 GB HDD HDD, DVDRW, 6 Cell Battery, HD+, HDMI, Webcam, >>>> Windows 7 Home Premium, Red/Silver) >>>> >>>> ... but I get the impression people have had wireless problems with >>>> that. >>>> >>>> Thanks. >>> >>> You need to know what wireless chipset the laptop uses and if there's >>> good support in the kernel. Find out the wireless chipset used and >>> search on that. >>> I've had good luck with the ath5k driver for Atheros 5xxx chipsets. >>> AFAIK, Intel is also OK, but Broadcom is questionable (no vendor >>> support). >> >> Not true about Broadcom. I have it in this laptop, and am using this >> driver supplied by Broadcom. Works great. >> >> Here: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php >> >> Please don't make claims about something you don't know about... > > That's not an open source driver so it's going to be a pain to use. The It seems quite simple to use, to me. Works great. > Intel drivers are in the kernel so there are no extra steps to get an > Intel WiFi chip to work. With a binary driver, like Broadcoms, you have > to do a reinstall every time you upgrade your kernel. Even if you are True, but how often do you upgrade the kernel? Even then, it's a 5- minute process to reinstall the Broadcom. > All things being equal, or close to equal, you are always better off > choosing a device that has a kernel driver. "Better off"? Not sure what that is supposed to mean. If you have a Broadcom wifi chip, I'd think you'd be "better off" using this driver than not having any connectivity at all, eh? > Unlike graphics chips, where > the alternative to using a binary driver is a 90% loss of performance, > we are fortunate to have a couple of wireless choices, Intel and > Atheros, which are fully supported in the kernel and uncompromised > performance. Understood. My point was that there are still other choices as well, that work perfectly. Also, the OP claimed that there was "no vendor support", which I responded to because that simply isn't true. -- "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". "Bother!" said Pooh, as he found Piglet in bed with Eeyore. Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/ Thanks, Obama: http://brandybuck.site40.net/pics/politica/thanks.jpg
From: Frank Steinmetzger on 25 May 2010 11:33
Richard Kimber wrote: > Hi: > > I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. [...] > > Samsung R730 17.3-inch Notebook (PDC T4300 2.1 GHz Processor, 4 GB RAM, > 320 GB HDD HDD, DVDRW, 6 Cell Battery, HD+, HDMI, Webcam, Windows 7 Home > Premium, Red/Silver) Many recent Samsung models have issues with their Fn-keys. My 3 year old P50 works nicely for the most important stuff, but a friend's portable (a few months old) doesn't allow for the background brightness to be changed via Fn+up/down. Said brightness is done via hardware in mine, it even works during POST. But the newer stuff seems to do this via software response only. If this is important to you, you should check that, too. -- Gruß | Greetings | Qapla' Wenn Pferde Katzen wären, könnte man Bäume hochreiten. |