> > Here is what I did and you can quickly find if there is a driver for > your device at the web site. > > > How to get WiFi working on your lap-top > > It has been hard to get the wifi that works so well on your Windows > XP to work when you select Linux at boot time.This paper will show a > step by step process that will get the modern laptop working. > > I: First, in this example, I must learn the name of my WiFi hardware. > This can be done by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and entering > 'lspci'. > > 00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 > 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) > 00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI7420 CardBus Controller > 00:0f.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4) > 00:12.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. > RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) > > Notice there are two items called Ethernet controller. But notice the > Atheros says it handles 802.11abg which is what WiFi is, So now we know > this laptop has hardware made by Atheros Communications, Inc. > > II: The second step is to find out what Linux software is written for > our hardware. I used a great web page at: > > http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ > > I went to this web page and at the first choice selected Sony. I then > hit Show and in the green band was Atheros and it says I need the > MadWiFi package and directs me to their web page. There you look at the > HowTo page and learn the actual kernel module is called "ath_pci" and > that call will get it working and it will call all the other needed > modules. The next step is to find a kernel with this software in it that > will make my laptop work. > > III: Either find a kernel that has the drivers in module form, or > find a kernel modification that has the MadWiFi package. When done test > the kernel. This can be done by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and > entering 'modprobe ath_pci'. > > I used "service network reboot" and it came back up with two > Internet sources, eth0 and ath0 listed. It showed no eth0 and ath0 was > not turned on. I told it to turn on ath0 and it did and the WiFi > Internet started working. > > IV: > > Listed next is four laptop hardware systems I know about. > > Hardware Software modprobe > > Atheros Comm madwifi ath_pci > > Intel old IEEE80211 ipw2200 > > IntelPro 3945 IEEE80211 ipw3945 > > Broadcom BCM 4318 MAC80211 bcm43xx > > > V: There is a network system available in at least Fedora Core 6 and > Fedora 7 called NetworkManager. You will want to set that up at least on > your laptop. I have it on both computers. Caution! Turn off network if > your using NetworkManager. Be aware that not everyone likes this > software and some say that it will not work well with some WiFi systems. > I can only say it works just fine for me. > > Open a Terminal, become root, and enter cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/ and you > will see a lot of applications listed. Now do: > chkconfig network off > chkconfig NetworkManager on > chkconfig NetworkManagerDispatcher on. > > Look at the two tiny computers near your name on the top edge near > your name and click on them. It will tell you what it is doing. There is > a good way to check overall performance with 'nm-tool'. This can be done > by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and entering 'nm-tool'. > > VI: Follow the same steps I did with my laptop and replace mine with > yours. I hope your laptop is using one of the about 50 hardware packages > in the the web page above. And you wind up quickly with a working Linux > laptop. If your laptop is quite old it is possible this method will not > work. > > Karl Larsen > Chris Mohler > > > > -- > > Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI > Linux User > #450462 http://counter.li.org. > Thanks Karl. I'll have to check that out. In my case it's my desktop and the wireless device is a USB device, so lspci wouldn't work for my scenario (I already know what it is so that's not problem, plus I could get it out of dmesg I suspect and with lsusb certainly). I did find that nsdiwrapper (haven't used it yet) is probably what I need. I've also read about using a Windows driver and wine. If I have to tackle this issue because it's not supported by F7 then I'll certainly look at your notes. Right now I'm trying to find out what is supported out of the box. If it's supported out of the box then I'll undertake my upgrade sooner rather than later. If it's not and I can get a supported pci card pretty cheap I may go that route instead. Or if it's not too time consuming I'll plug at getting my USB wireless device working. But as mentioned earlier right now I don't have time to fuss with it so would only upgrade in the very near future if support is built in. Hence why I'm trying to find the list of wireless devices supported out of the box with F7. After all they were boasting rock solid wireless support with F7. But it failed when I tried it on my work laptop where another distro had it out of the box (was testing a few distros on it). So rock solid may have been a goal but seems like they are not quite there yet. Thanks, Jacques B.
