WiFi problems on laptop

kawk · External Since: Oct 22, 2006 Posts: 8

I've been having lots of problems with my laptop; screen, video card,
sound card, wireless network, wired network card, modem, to name a
few. Well, I'd love to get all those to work, but the most pressing
for me are the modem and the WiFi card. I can't get the modem to work,
so I'm passing on that. So, I haven't even tried to get the wireless
adapter to work. I haven't even looked in to getting it to work. A
friend of mine suggested a NDIS wrapper, but I don't know what that
is, to be honest.

Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.

Thanks.

kawk · External Since: Oct 22, 2006 Posts: 8

Sorry for the second e-mail, but I forgot to include my system. Here
it is:

AMD Turion ML-32 processor, Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 r3 sarge, kernel
version 2.6.8-11-amd64-k8. I don't really know how to get the model
name of the wireless card, but I suppose I can try a lspci, although
last time I tried a lspci, it said there was no wireless card
installed. This may have something to do with the wireless switch, no?
However, there is one small problem. The wireless switch is a software
switch . . .

Thanks again.

Dances With Crows · External Since: Sep 16, 2006 Posts: 307

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.portable.]
kawk RemoveThis @theprogrammingsite.com staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> I've been having lots of problems with my laptop; screen, video card,
> sound card, wireless network, wired network card, modem,

Does this laptop have a make and model#? Without that information, it
will be totally impossible for anyone to help you. Which version of
which distro are you using? I'd guess Debian, since you x-posted to
aol.debian, but which version? You don't want to use Stable on a
machine with weird hardware, and any laptop that isn't ancient has weird
hardware. Use Testing; it'll help, especially with X.

> I haven't even tried to get the wireless adapter to work.

<ZEN type="cheesy"> The first failure is the failure to try. </ZEN>

> A friend of mine suggested NDIS wrapper, but I don't know what that is

google://"ndiswrapper" should tell you.

> Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.

Help us help you. Provide the laptop make, model#, distro, version of
distro, exact commands you executed, and exact text of any errors
received.

--
A project for developing fully automatically driven cars
(not just those misnamed auto-pilots) has been improved by your
explosive flatulence. --MegaHAL, trained on ASR
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

ray · External Since: Nov 13, 2004 Posts: 3312

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:58:17 -0700, kawk wrote:

> I've been having lots of problems with my laptop; screen, video card,
> sound card, wireless network, wired network card, modem, to name a
> few. Well, I'd love to get all those to work, but the most pressing
> for me are the modem and the WiFi card. I can't get the modem to work,
> so I'm passing on that. So, I haven't even tried to get the wireless
> adapter to work. I haven't even looked in to getting it to work. A
> friend of mine suggested a NDIS wrapper, but I don't know what that
> is, to be honest.
>
> Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.
>
> Thanks.

IMHO the best thing you can do is to get a properly supported wireless
card such as a Dlink WNA2330 with Atheros chipset. Atheros cards work 'out
of the box'. IMHO ndiswrapper and broadcomm cards are a PITA.

Derek Turner · External Since: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 4

kawk.DeleteThis@theprogrammingsite.com wrote:

> Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
Try Mandriva. Their WiFi 'just works', Debian's 'just doesn't' (IME)
though I have to say I prefer the 'look and feel' of Kubuntu, in the end
it's functionality that counts.

Unruh · External Since: May 27, 2005 Posts: 2192

kawk RemoveThis @theprogrammingsite.com writes:

>I've been having lots of problems with my laptop; screen, video card,
>sound card, wireless network, wired network card, modem, to name a
>few. Well, I'd love to get all those to work, but the most pressing
>for me are the modem and the WiFi card. I can't get the modem to work,
>so I'm passing on that. So, I haven't even tried to get the wireless
>adapter to work. I haven't even looked in to getting it to work. A
>friend of mine suggested a NDIS wrapper, but I don't know what that
>is, to be honest.

You do not tell us anything but want help. What problems? What kind of
laptop? what is the wireless card? Which Linux distro? Which version?
We need info in order to help

To answer your last question, the relevant word is
ndiswrapper
(all one word) Google will help you.Note that if you have not even tried
the wireless how do you know it does not work?

>Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.

>Thanks.

Rex Ballard · External Since: Feb 22, 2006 Posts: 947

On Mar 14, 1:58 pm, k....RemoveThis@theprogrammingsite.com wrote:
> I've been having lots of problems with my laptop;
First problem - you are using Debian. There is a good chance that
your video cards have proprietary binary-only drivers available, but
you need to install them. Debian doesn't include them - as a function
of policy. Ubuntu, SUSE, and Red Hat do support them.

> video card,
ATI and NVIdia have binary extensions and support. You can download
them manually, and if your laptop has the links to be LSB3 compatible,
then you can run the install shell script. Everything get compiled,
patched and moduled.

> screen,

The default driver will be a VESA vga compatible driver. At best you
might be able to get 1024x768, more likely 800x600 by default.

> sound card,

Again, SUSE, Red Hat, or Ubuntu will have the extra drivers for most
such boards. Ubuntu will default to a basic sound card.

> wireless network,

Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these
are hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against
Debian policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel
chipset based card.

> wired network card,

This one is usually pretty easy. There aren't that many chipsets, but
if you have a broadcom card, with 1Gb/sec speeds, you need the binary
interface kit. Again, a good commercial distribution does this
automatically.

> modem,

> to name a
> few. Well, I'd love to get all those to work, but the most pressing
> for me are the modem and the WiFi card. I can't get the modem to work,
> so I'm passing on that. So, I haven't even tried to get the wireless
> adapter to work. I haven't even looked in to getting it to work. A
> friend of mine suggested a NDIS wrapper, but I don't know what that
> is, to be honest.
>
> Anything that helps me start on this would be appeciated.
>
> Thanks.

Darren Salt · External Since: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 352

I demand that Rex Ballard may or may not have written...

> On Mar 14, 1:58 pm, k... DeleteThis @theprogrammingsite.com wrote:
>> I've been having lots of problems with my laptop;

> First problem - you are using Debian. There is a good chance that your
> video cards have proprietary binary-only drivers available, but you need to
> install them. Debian doesn't include them - as a function of policy.

Strictly true - they're in non-free.

[snip]
>> screen,

> The default driver will be a VESA vga compatible driver. At best you might
> be able to get 1024x768, more likely 800x600 by default.

vesafb on my laptop gives 1280x800. intelfb (which, AIUI, is what I *should*
choose for i945) doesn't seem to recognise the hardware...

>> sound card,

> Again, SUSE, Red Hat, or Ubuntu will have the extra drivers for most
> such boards. Ubuntu will default to a basic sound card.

I have the impression that you're using Debian sarge as a reference. Right
now, I'd not bother installing that - I'd go straight for etch.

>> wireless network,

> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these are
> hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against Debian
> policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel chipset based
> card.

I find that ipw3945 works well, but is "impure" in that there's a binary-only
user-space daemon. No kernel taint, at least Smile

iwlwifi is better in that respect - but (when I last looked) was much pickier
about association - I think that more of the parameters have to be specified.

OTOH, I set up a Belkin card (which uses a Ralink chip) - while building the
ra61 module is easy enough (I'm used to compiling my own kernels) I had to
patch wpasupplicant and build the ra61 module separately. Ralink are... less
than useful when it comes to supplying patches...

>> wired network card,

> This one is usually pretty easy. There aren't that many chipsets, but if
> you have a broadcom card, with 1Gb/sec speeds, you need the binary
> interface kit. Again, a good commercial distribution does this
> automatically.

Do you mean bcm5700-source?

[snip]
--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Burn less waste. Use less packaging. Waste less. USE FEWER RESOURCES.

Exercise caution in your daily affairs.

Unruh · External Since: May 27, 2005 Posts: 2192

Darren Salt <news DeleteThis @youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid> writes:

>>> wireless network,

>> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
>> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these are
>> hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against Debian
>> policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel chipset based
>> card.

>I find that ipw3945 works well, but is "impure" in that there's a binary-only
>user-space daemon. No kernel taint, at least Smile

I think that is the firmware which is proprietary. Ie, it is a program
installed on the wifi card, not in userspace, which controls things like
the frequency, etc of the card.

Jerry Peters · External Since: Apr 06, 2004 Posts: 80

Unruh <unruh-spam RemoveThis @physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> Darren Salt <news RemoveThis @youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid> writes:
>
>
>>>> wireless network,
>
>>> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
>>> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these are
>>> hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against Debian
>>> policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel chipset based
>>> card.
>
>>I find that ipw3945 works well, but is "impure" in that there's a binary-only
>>user-space daemon. No kernel taint, at least Smile

>
> I think that is the firmware which is proprietary. Ie, it is a program
> installed on the wifi card, not in userspace, which controls things like
> the frequency, etc of the card.

No, there's a userspace daemon to control things like xmit power,
available channels and other regulated things.

There's also a re-write of the ipw3945 driver in progress that doesn't
need the daemon, IIRC it's being done by INTEL, apparently they've
decided that this would not violate FCC (& other government) regs.

Jerry

Darren Salt · External Since: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 352

I demand that Jerry Peters may or may not have written...

> Unruh <unruh-spam.RemoveThis@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>> Darren Salt <news.RemoveThis@youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid> writes:
[snip]
>>> I find that ipw3945 works well, but is "impure" in that there's a
>>> binary-only user-space daemon. No kernel taint, at least Smile

>> I think that is the firmware which is proprietary.
>> I.e., it is a program installed on the wifi card, not in userspace, which
>> controls things like the frequency, etc of the card.

That'd be firmware-ipw3945 (in non-free), whereas I'm referring to
ipw3945d....

> No, there's a userspace daemon to control things like xmit power, available
> channels and other regulated things.

> There's also a re-write of the ipw3945 driver in progress that doesn't need
> the daemon, IIRC it's being done by INTEL, apparently they've decided that
> this would not violate FCC (& other government) regs.

I did mention that, but for some reason it got snipped in the follow-up
message. It requires newer firmware which includes the functionality of the
user-space daemon; see http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi for more
info.

--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Output less CO2 => avoid massive flooding. TIME IS RUNNING OUT *FAST*.

Unix hacks go to /usr/local/pub/red-lion for a pint.

mark south · External Since: Oct 06, 2006 Posts: 83

On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:21:22 -0700, Rex Ballard wrote:

>> wireless network,
>
> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these
> are hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against
> Debian policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel
> chipset based card.

Or a RaLink 2500 series. Or several others.

Intel does not have a monopoly on open source.

Unruh · External Since: May 27, 2005 Posts: 2192

mark south <marksouth.TakeThisOut@null.invalid> writes:

>On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:21:22 -0700, Rex Ballard wrote:

>>> wireless network,
>>
>> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
>> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these
>> are hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against
>> Debian policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel
>> chipset based card.

>Or a RaLink 2500 series. Or several others.

>Intel does not have a monopoly on open source.

madwifi is, AFAIK a native driver.Ie, it is not "binary only" except for
the firmware which on all cards is binary only. (the claim is that the FCC
mandates that so that users cannot mess with the frequencies and destroy
aircraft communication for example)

Note that the intel cards also have binary only firmware and the 3945 in
addition has a binary only control driver.

Jerry Peters · External Since: Apr 06, 2004 Posts: 80

Unruh <unruh-spam RemoveThis @physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> mark south <marksouth RemoveThis @null.invalid> writes:
>
>>On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:21:22 -0700, Rex Ballard wrote:
>
>>>> wireless network,
>>>
>>> Atheros cards (a/b/g) need madwifi.
>>> Many cards need ndiswrapper. Either solution works well, but these
>>> are hybrid interfaces to "binary only" solutions - again - against
>>> Debian policy. If you want "pure OSS" you need to get an intel
>>> chipset based card.
>
>>Or a RaLink 2500 series. Or several others.
>
>>Intel does not have a monopoly on open source.
>
> madwifi is, AFAIK a native driver.Ie, it is not "binary only" except for
> the firmware which on all cards is binary only. (the claim is that the FCC
> mandates that so that users cannot mess with the frequencies and destroy
> aircraft communication for example)

Nope, there's a binary only HAL which sits between the driver and
the device which controls frequency and power limits. There's a BSD
driver with an open source HAL, and I believe there's a project to
port it to Linux.

ZYDAS (now owned by Atheros) has USB devices with open source drivers.
And there's currently a semi-working re-write in the 2.6 kernels
called zd1211rw.

Jerry