Re: Wireless Chips

[Thomas Ilnseher <illth gmx de>]

Am Freitag, den 18.04.2008, 19:10 -0400 schrieb Herbert Taylor:
> I just finished reading the Network manager story in the Red Hat 
> Magazine.  It had a list of chips that work with Linux and a list that 
> don't.
> Are these chips the kind that are in the computer or are they PCMCIA type.
> I have a Dell Inspiron B130, that has a broadcom wireless card.  Haven't 
> found a way to use it on wireless.  
My Acer has a broadcom wireless card too, and it works. You need a very
recent kernel, 2.6.24-r2 or later. The B43 driver is included in this
kernel, but you need firmware.

To get the firmware, have a look here:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43-old

> Does anyone know of a PCMCIA card 
> that would work in its place?  I am using Fedora 8 which works very well 
> on DSL.  

I don't know that kind of pcmcia card. There is another problem that
MFGs tend to build FOO_WLAN_CARD rev1.1 which is well supported in
linux, and FOO_WLAN_CARD rev1.1a which is using an totally different
chipset and doesn't work at all.

from my experience: 
a) try to get the broadcom to work. cheapest solution ($0), and you
don't need to fuck around with an pcmcia card.

b) if a) fails: identify what type of builtin wlan card your dell uses
(mini-PCI or mini-PCIexpress). Get a card with an Intel chipset and
replace the card.

Intel still needs firmware, but their firmware is freely (->beer)
redistributable, so maybe there are packages for FC9, that you just can
install with yum.

> I will be doing some traveling this summer and would like to be 
> able to use the wireless such as in airports, etc.
> 
> Herb Taylor
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-- 
Thomas Ilnseher <illth gmx de>