Re: [gNewSense-users] Wireless Question

[Theodore Ruegsegger]

Matt Crandall  wrote:

> I had a question.  I currently only have wireless net
> access available to me, and as such need the wireless in
> my laptop to work.  I'm using ndiswrapper and the broadcom
> drivers right now (yech!) because that's my internal setup
> (Dell Inspiron 2200 Laptop).  Was thinking about buying a
> PCMCIA wireless card that is more GPL friendly, and was
> looking for recommendations?

http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/net/wireless/cards.html

It lists several chipsets and PCMCIA or USB adapters that
use them. I tested some USB wireless adapters with Kubuntu
Dapper a while back and found two that work well.

* LINKSYS WUSB54G USB wireless b/g adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16833124126
Works just fine; plug it in and enable the interface.  My
device turned out, as I had hoped, to be version 4, which
uses the FSF-endorsed Ralink chipset.

* D-Link DWL-G122 USB wireless b/g adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16833127151
Also works fine, and the version turned out to be rev B1,
which uses the FSF-endorsed Ralink chipset.

The reason I care about versions (not that I can specify the
version when ordering!) is that different versions of the
same device might use entirely different chipsets. The Linux
wireless LAN support page at
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/index.php
spells out which version uses which chipset. In the case of
both these devices, the other versions should also be
supported, using different drivhttp://linux-wless.passys.nl/index.php
ers.

For grins, and since it was cheap and tiny, I also tested:

* Zonet ZEW2501
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16833130115
I couldn't get this to work, but then I noted that I have
the newer version of the chipset, zd1211b rather than
plain old zd1211. This is supported, but would require my
recompiling the driver to enable it, per:
http://zd1211.ath.cx/

Since I have two that work just fine, I'll just wait a
while until the "out of the box" driver works with it. At
that price, I could also give it away to someone afflicted
with a Windows box.

Note that these tests used Kubuntu Dapper, before I ever
heard of gNewSense; if they got any help from a proprietary
driver, I'm not sure I'd know.

HTH,
Ted