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?
--
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Preston Lancashire

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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....





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>>>>> "Mitch" == Nifty Fedora Mitch <niftyfedora@niftyegg.com> writes:

Mitch> 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?

Mitch> Wireless is a tangle.

Mitch> Is your machine a laptop? What wireless bands,

No, it isn't.

Mitch> frequencies, types etc are important. You are in the UK so
Mitch> my US centric history may miss the mark so here are some
Mitch> general thoughts.

Mitch> Have you done a net search and found:

Mitch> http://fedoramobile.org/wireless/

No. I'll take a look. Thanks.

Mitch> Wireless is the primary reason I have a 32 bit version of
Mitch> fedora on this laptop and not a 64 bit version....

I think I'll stick to 32-bit on this machine - it has less than 1GB
RAM anyway, and performance is not important.
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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

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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

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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@redhat.com
[mailto:fedora-list-bounces@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Bill Davidsen
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:52 PM
To: fedora-list@redhat.com
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

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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....


Let's try again...

My Acer say:
05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller
(rev 01)

Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Unknown device e003

and that doesn't work, even loading the b43, or b43legacy, or b44
driver. So now I have a lovely postable desktop, until I find a USB
wireless which works.


And until I find one I will have to try to get the WinXP driver working
in ndiswrapper. If there was a USB or PCMCIA which worked right I would
just forget about built-in, it's about 85% non-working and slightly more
working partially.


My fault for not going Intel, the ipw2200 stuff used in "Celeron" works
quite well.







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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....


Let's try again...

My Acer say:
05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller
(rev 01)

Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Unknown device e003

and that doesn't work, even loading the b43, or b43legacy, or b44
driver. So now I have a lovely postable desktop, until I find a USB
wireless which works.


And until I find one I will have to try to get the WinXP driver working
in ndiswrapper. If there was a USB or PCMCIA which worked right I would
just forget about built-in, it's about 85% non-working and slightly more
working partially.


My fault for not going Intel, the ipw2200 stuff used in "Celeron" works
quite well.







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Bill Davidsen <davidsen <at> tmr.com> writes:
> My Acer say:
> 05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller
> (rev 01)
> Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Unknown device e003
>
> and that doesn't work, even loading the b43, or b43legacy, or b44
> driver. So now I have a lovely postable desktop, until I find a USB
> wireless which works.

Did you download the (unfortunately non-redistributable) firmware correctly?
Please install b43-fwcutter if you don't have it yet and
read /usr/share/doc/b43-fwcutter-011/README.Fedora (and follow the instructions
in it).

Kevin Kofler

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I bought a card that said Fedora on the box.

Well, i couldn't follow the install instructions (they were for FC4
but referenced a directory on the CD that didn't exist).

It's a Ralink rt73, so I followed the instructions at
http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/rt2x00-wireless-lan-chipset
(but I downloaded the rt73 CVS snapshot)

and everything goes fine until in the dialog when I press the new
button, and select wireless card - the only card shown is "Other
wireless card".

Trying to use that takes me to ethernet stuff.

So I abandoned that, and did an lsmod - rt73 is loaded OK.

Clearly i'm almost there. Probably I can do this by editing config
files now. But how?

Any help much appreciated.
--
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Preston Lancashire

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