On Sat, Apr 16, 2005 at 03:40:21PM -0700, Don Russell wrote: > Are there any wireless PC Cards (for laptops), preferably 54g cards that > have Linux drivers? Everything I find refers to using Windows drivers > with ndiswrapper or similar. I already have a Linksys WPC54g card I > can't get working, so... > > I bought a Linksys WPC11 card because it has native Linux drivers for > it. (I really want a 54g card, but at least the WPC11 card has Linux > drivers from Linksys) > > HOWEVER, when I got the darn thing home and opened it, there was an > explanation saying "The WPC11 Ver 4 card is a high performance wireless > card and therefore would not work with Windows NT..." (and other stuff). > > (Well, I had to laugh at the wording.. but that's another story) > > Unfortunately the WPC11 Ver 4 does *not* have Linux drivers like the > WPC11 ver 3 card. > > The good news is there was an addendum packaged with the card that > explained the ver4 card could be exchanged for a ver3 card and all would > be well. > > The phone number they gave was for "customer service"... but they knew > NOTHING about being able to exchange the card and after many phone calls > and many e-mails, I finally just returned the card to the store and got > my money back. (I'd have exchanged it at the store, but the store only > had ver 4 cards) > > Anyway... > > I'm really not up to installing the ndiswrapper stuff, and from I can > tell that requires kernel source updates... I don't want to patch the > kernel every time there's an update. Fedora has a very short release > cycle, I don't want to be doing that sort of thing every few months. > More frequently actually, because the kernel gets periodic updates > between Fedora releases too. > > Also, I don't want to support the ndiswrapper concept... if I wanted to > run Windows software, that's what I'd run.... and as long as the > manufactures of these cards know their Windows drivers can be used on > Linux, why should they release Linux drivers? > > I encourage ndiswrapper users to contact the customer support people for > their wireless cards card and ask about Linux drivers.... MAYBE if > enough people ask, they'll do it. Cards using the Ralink rt2500 chipset should be able to work with native open source linux drivers. See http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com. I'm using an ASUS WL107G using this chip and the serialmonley driver. Drivers are still under heavy development but I managed to get it working with 128 bit WEP. However WPA seems to crash my Fedora setup (rawhide). -Marcel -- ======-------- Marcel J.E. Mol MESA Consulting B.V. =======--------- ph. +31-(0)6-54724868 P.O. Box 112 =======--------- marcel@xxxxxxx 2630 AC Nootdorp __==== www.mesa.nl ---____U_n_i_x______I_n_t_e_r_n_e_t____ The Netherlands ____ They couldn't think of a number, Linux user 1148 -- counter.li.org so they gave me a name! -- Rupert Hine -- www.ruperthine.com
