On Tue, 2008-01-29 at 00:32 +0000, Timothy Murphy wrote: > Da Rock wrote: > > >>>>> Useful no doubt, but no answer to the question that was actually > >>>>> raised, which was how one could find the chipset in a WiFi device. > >>>> > >>>>> Try looking at the wifi(wireless) card. I mean take it in your hand > >>>>> and look at it. Do you notice anything? > >>>> > >>>> I have two PCMCIA WiFi cards in my hand. > >>>> One is named "Orinoco Gold" and the other "Vivanco WLAN PCC 54". > >>>> I notice two things about them: > >>>> > >>>> 1) Neither has any mention of the chipset it contains > >>>> > >>>> 2) Neither has any obvious way of seeing what is in the card, > >>>> short of destroying it. > >>>> > >>>> What did you think I would notice, as a matter of interest? > >> > >>> 1. You should see a version or product number (may be in small print, so > >>> put on your glasses and look). 2. You should see a serial number. > >> > >> Sigh. > >> I do see the product number on the card > >> (not the firmware version, since I have upgraded this). > >> I do see the serial number. > >> > >> I DO NOT SEE THE CHIPSET. > >> > > > > Well then, thats what you should look up. > > Sigh. > I don't want to know the chipset in any card I have, > as they all work perfectly well with drivers in the kernel. > > The question at issue was: How can you tell the chipset of a WiFi card. > The reply I was given was that it is written on the card. > I simply pointed out that this is not true. > I have never seen a WiFi card with the chipset given on it. You would have to open the card's case to see it if the maker's website isn't helpful based on the model or serial number of the card. You can often find an appropriate driver by doing either an "lspci -n" (if the wireless is built in or on a PCMCIA card) or "lsusb -n" (if it's a USB card). Look for the manufacturer's ID and product ID, then google for them. Example: An "lspci" on my laptop reveals this: 02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 4229 (rev 61) So PCI device 02:00.0 is my wireless NIC. An "lspci -n | grep 02:00.0" then reveals the details: 02:00.0 0280: 8086:4229 (rev 61) If I google for 8086:4229 (the manufacturer ID:product ID), I find a bunch of stuff telling me I need the iwl4965 driver layered on top of the mac80211 and cfg80211 drivers. Note that this will work for MANY different cards--not just wireless NICs. I figured out which drivers I needed for various webcams and the like by doing the exact same thing. And to all the folk who contribute to the various wikis and websites that collect this info, a big, heartfelt THANK YOU! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer rstevens@xxxxxxxxxxxx - - CDN Systems, Internap, Inc. http://www.internap.com - - - - All generalizations are false. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
