[nylug-talk] A good guide to install wireless cards?

[Paul Robbins]

Matt,
Say you have another proprietary OS that you are trying to install a new
piece of hardware on.  In this example, let's say a wireless card.  The
process would be to install the drivers for that card.  Now the way you
install the drivers may be very different for every different type of card.
The steps aren't going to be the same. Try and find a website that says "How
to install ANY driver for ANY wireless card on X operating system."  Not
going to happen. So the best we can do at this time is to try and find out
what drivers you need (based on specific hardware) and to assist you in the
process.  If you are running on FC6, then yum gives you the option to have a
lot of those "drivers" or driver sets installed without a lot of problem.
But we can't just say, "Type x, then y, then z" for all wireless cards.

On 2/14/07, matt b <linuxmania1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> "Peter C. Norton" <spacey-nylug at lenin.net> wrote:
>
>   >You're in the morass of wireless driver territory. Many 802.11a/b/g
> cards didn't
>   > release specs, or released some part, or require proprietary firmware,
> etc.
>
>   Thanks for the reply Peter. Yep I've been to madwifi, and yep I
> bought  a card (actually got a couple of them.) But that's definitely one
> of  the top answers to Q: how to I install my wireless card (A: buy a
> new  one!)
>
>   Since I have a card that is supported I shouldn't have to deal with
> too  much morass, however whether or not some manufacturers release
> specs  etc should not effect the general installation method for wifi
> cards  under Linux. You may not be able to complete one or more of the
> steps,  but that doesn't change the procedures you use to install a wifi
> card  (just means you have to additional steps, or as noted, buy a
> supported  card.)
>
>   So, the jury's still out on a basic step by step general   installation
> method.  In the meantime I have an orinoco silver  inserted into a laptop
> running FC6 and have seen now hundreds of pages  for all those morass type
> issues and not a single one that has helped  me get this vanilla case
> working.
>
>   Basically what I have been looking for is an elaboration of
> Peter's  step # 2: "install the card"
>
>   For example lspci tells me its Atheros AR5211. Great. Now what
> module  do I actually install? I've looked though /lib/modules/2.6.x/kernel
> and  don't see which one coresponds.
>
>   Of course I know from experience that this card is a good one and
> works  great if you happen to have it inserted when you did your
> original  installation. (So something knows which module to install!)
>
>   Really hoping to have this thing up today!
>
>   Matt
>
>
>
>
>
>   One way to do things easily for a pcmcia card is this:
>
>   1) Go to http://madwifi.org/. Find a card that's cheap. Buy it
>   2) Install it.
>   3) If your distro's pretty recent, the card should come up as ath0,
>      and you'll use the recommend configuration (gui tool,
>      /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-something, etc. method to
>      enter the essid and other important info)
>   4) ifup ath0 and you're golden
>
>   maybe:
>
>   5) Find a guide for configuring the appropriate security for you
>      access point. Follow it.
>
>   -Peter
>
>   --
>   The 5 year plan:
>   In five years we'll make up another plan.
>   Or just re-use this one.
>
>
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