hi... for my $0.02.... i would argue for getting a cheap ~$40 linksys G usb wireless dongle... i have a laptop, amd x64, running fedora8, and after trying for a few days to get the madwifi/atheros stuff working, i got the usb dongle, plugged it in, and lo and behold.. up/running in a matter of 5 mins!!! good luck... -----Original Message----- From: fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:fedora-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Bill Davidsen Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:52 PM To: fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Wireless LAN cards for Fedora? Nifty Fedora Mitch wrote: > On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 06:23:10AM +0100, Colin Paul Adams wrote: >> I want to connect an AMD64 machine (currently running 32-bit Fedora >> Core 6, although I might upgrade to Fedora 9 64-bit or 32-bit) to a >> wireless LAN. Can I just buy any cheap wireless LAN card, or are there >> gotchas to be aware of? > > Wireless is a tangle. > > Not all work and not all parts have the same devices on the inside > despite having nearly the same make and model on the outside. > > Is your machine a laptop? > What wireless bands, frequencies, types etc are important. > You are in the UK so my US centric history may miss the mark > so here are some general thoughts. > > Have you done a net search and found: > > http://fedoramobile.org/wireless/ > > you will find four types of card and some 32bit .vs. 64 bit issues > to double the problem space. > > unsupported and unsupportable > reverse engineered > ndiswrapper over windows driver > fully disclosed public driver. > > Shop for hardware in the fully disclosed public driver class that maps to your wireless > needs. Look at vendor sites and write letters and email asking for > Linux support if you cannot find it. Linux users do need some > help from the wireless vendors.... some are stepping up so do look > and do fill out the "was this helpful" survey.... Do it from > each new DHCP address you get and from each 'hotspot' you visit... > and all the throw away email addresses you have ;-) > > If you can find a supported/works USB wireless device you will find that > to be the quickest to test. About 20% of the USB devices just work. > A USB device can be very handy on the 'next' laptop. I have some that > don't but were only $9. > > "lspci" tells me that this laptop has a: > > 03:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02) > > The driver is the b43 driver. > "A Linux driver for the Broadcom b43 wireless chips. Broadcom never released details about these chips > so this driver is based upon reverse engineered ..." > http://fedorasolved.org/mobile/fc-wireless/bcm43xx-yum-extras > > Wireless is the primary reason I have a 32 bit version of fedora > on this laptop and not a 64 bit version.... > Mine says: 05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01) Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Unknown device e003 -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list