Min Chen writes:
« HTML content follows »On 11/27/05, Michael A. Peters <<URL:mailto:mpeters@xxxxxxx>mpeters@xxxxxxx > wrote:On Sun, 2005-11-27 at 16:00 -0800, Min Chen wrote: > Hi -- > > Fedora newbie just bought this PC card for hp omnibook 6000 notebook > installed with Fedora 4.What card?It's Compusa 54 MB 802.11g wireless PCMCIA card.
All that means that it's some unknown card manufactured in East Asia, that Compusa slapped their corporate logo on, this week.
Next week, Compusa will take another, cheaper wireless card from another East Asian manufacturer, slap their logo on, and sell it as "Compusa 54MB 802.11g wireless PCMCIA card".
Furthermore, overall the 802.11g support on Linux is pretty much nonexistent. 802.11g cards use downloadable firmware code, which manufacturers typically refuse to release as open source. There's been some posts on the linux-kernel mailing list that suggest that there might be some open source drivers for Broadcom-based 802.11g chipset, either reverse-engineered or actually developed with Broadcom's cooperation (I think I remember reading both kinds of rumors), released soon. In the best possible scenario, I wouldn't expect them to show up any sooner than FC 6 or FC 7.
Anyway, the right way to buy any kind of Linux-compatible hardware is to obtain a list of known Linux-compatible hardware in advance, then, when going shopping, take the list with you and make sure that you buy only the hardware on your list.
Sorry, but your 802.11g card is most likely a doorstop. There's only a the most remote chance that, if you determine your card's chipset, you might get lucky and be able to cobble something together, mostly with duct tape. Use the 'lspci' command to read your card's chipset. If you don't have lspci command installed, install the pciutils RPM. After you get your chipset IDed, go to Google and hope to get lucky.
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