Wireless Card Support

raydub · 07-June-06, 10:13 AM

Does anyone know what brand of wireless lan cards for the desktop support redhat or any version of linux?

FunkyStickman · 07-June-06, 02:00 PM

All recent versions of Linux should support the same cards, as it's the kernel that actually contains the device drivers. I know for sure that any Prism2, Orinoco, or Cisco/Aironet based card should work natively. Most cards, however, will need ndiswrapper to get them working... ndiswrapper is a Windows driver wrapper that allows you to use Windows .inf driver files in Linux, mostly for wireless cards. Do a google.com/linux search on "ndiswrapper" and read up on how to use it. I've had success using ndiswrapper with ADMTek cards, Netgear, Linksys, Motorola, and others. I've also used Cisco and Prism cards with the native driver, and they seem to work well, though support is patchy.

What kind were you thinking of buying/using?

raydub · 07-June-06, 02:11 PM

Well, I have an Airlink card and it's about a year old. I don't don't know if it will work or not. what's a good model you reccomend?

FunkyStickman · 07-June-06, 02:48 PM

I'm using a D-Link Airplus card in my laptop right now, using ndiswrapper. Pretty much any cheap card should work, assuming the drivers are not hidden in some installation file on the CD... what you do to set it up is first make sure that ndiswrapper is installed. Type "ndiswrapper" in a terminal, and if it's there it'll give you basic paramaters to use with it. Insert your card's driver CD and find the Win2K drivers directory (or WinXP, NOT Win98!) You want to make sure the .inf file is there, not hidden in a cab file. Ndiswerapper can only use .inf files to install drivers.

I'd say use what you have. It should be able to work, unless something is seriously wrong. What distro are you using? Have you used ndiswrapper before? I'm assuming this is for use on a laptop.

raydub · 07-June-06, 03:03 PM

Well, it's for my desktop, but i'm going to try it on my notebook first. ndiswrapper, i guess i'll try it and see what happens, thanks.

Vertical_Zer0 · 07-June-06, 06:59 PM

There's a great list of compatible wireless cards here. The site is for Ubuntu, but the compatibility matrix is the same regardless of what distro you happen to be using. The page even gives you installation instructions for several chipsets that don't automatically work out of the box.

thedemonxanth · 07-June-06, 09:01 PM

The flat out best cards to use with a linux system right now are any based on the atheros chipset. These are supported by the madwifi-ng drivers. Awesome range, nice cards, great drivers.

Check madwifi.org for all the info you need.

Avoid anything with a broadcom chipset and if you get something prism2, 2.5, or 3 based you may need to update its firmware for the best function.

raydub · 11-June-06, 08:52 PM

Ok, I got ndiswrapper and I am now running Fedora Core 5. I'm trying to get it to extract but the terminal says it can't find it. I have instructions on how to do it and they are simple, but I can't get it to work. Any Ideas?

FunkyStickman · 11-June-06, 09:35 PM

Copy and paste something here for us to go on. We'd be glad to help.

Sleepy_Sentry · 11-June-06, 09:46 PM

Did you cd to the directory of the driver? To do this, type cd and the name of the directory you want to go to (I think, it's been a while since I've used Linux).

raydub · 12-June-06, 10:48 AM

Ok, this is the link I used to get directions on how to work it. The link is in there to donwload the drivers too. If you need me to, I'll have to restart windows and boot in to linux to show you what the teminal is tellling me after I type one of the first commands in. I think my problem is that I don't have the files in the right directory. I'm not sure.

http://www.technetra.com/writings/re...pper_wifi_html

FunkyStickman · 12-June-06, 07:05 PM

First of all, login as root. If you type "which ndiswrapper" and it does nothing, then you don't have it installed. You can compile it from source, but 95% of distros have this already installed, or available as a package. If you're using Fedora, then type "yum install ndiswrapper" to install it.

Next, the howto you linked to is for a specific card, which may not be the same as yours. You know how when you install a Windows driver it looks for an .inf file? That's what you need for ndiswrapper to use.

Insert the driver CD for the wireless card, and let it mount (most desktops will automount the CD). Try this: (your .inf driver file may not be called airplus!)

Code:

stickman@stickman-linux:~> cd /media
stickman@stickman-linux:/media> ls -R *.inf
/bin/ls: *.inf: No such file or directory
stickman@stickman-linux:/media> ls -R *.INF
 /media/cdrecorder/drivers/win2k/AIRPLUS.INF
stickman@stickman-linux:/media>ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrecorder/drivers/win2k/AIRPLUS.INF
airplus        driver installed, hardware present

At this point, the card drivers have been installed, we still have to set up ndiswrapper to use them.

Code:

stickman@stickman-linux:~>hwinfo --pci
*(SNIP)*
      
21: PCI 200.0: 0280 Network controller
  [Created at pci.300]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_104c_8400
  Unique ID: y9sn.Od_b5bg3CrF
  Parent ID: 8otl.IR44dvWvxb8
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/0000:02:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "D-Link DWL-650+ PC Card cardbus 22Mbs Wireless Adapter [AirPlus]"
  Vendor: pci 0x104c "Texas Instruments"
  Device: pci 0x8400 "ACX 100 22Mbps Wireless Interface"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1186 "D-Link System Inc"
  SubDevice: pci 0x3b00 "DWL-650+ PC Card cardbus 22Mbs Wireless Adapter [AirPlus]"

*(SNIP)*

What we're looking for is a PCI ID number, in the form of 0000:0000. If you look, you can see the D-Link card is at 0000:0200 (it's shown as 0000:02:00 but it's the number we're looking for).

Now we can tell ndiswrapper to use the "airplus" driver with the card at ID 0000:0200 as such:

Code:

stickman@stickman-linux:~>ndiswrapper -d 0000:0200 airplus
Driver 'airplus' is used for '0000:0200'
stickman@stickman-linux:~>ndiswrapper -m
Written 'modprobe.conf'

If you want to start the card without rebooting, type "modprobe ndiswraper" and it should load without any messages. You can then check to see if it worked by typing "iwconfig" which should show you wlan0 as having wireless extensions. Then you just use your regular network config program to set it up, or use "ifconfig" and "iwconfig" to do it manually.

Let me know if this helps at all.

^RUmeY_- · 13-June-06, 02:00 AM

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/

thedemonxanth · 13-June-06, 08:04 PM

Using ndiswrapper is sort of a half-assed approach. A LOT of D-link cards use atheros chips. Using native drivers usually works better. madwifi.org

07-June-06, 10:13 AM		#1 (permalink)
raydub Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Wireless Card Support Does anyone know what brand of wireless lan cards for the desktop support redhat or any version of linux?

11-June-06, 08:52 PM		#8 (permalink)
raydub Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Re: Wireless Card Support Ok, I got ndiswrapper and I am now running Fedora Core 5. I'm trying to get it to extract but the terminal says it can't find it. I have instructions on how to do it and they are simple, but I can't get it to work. Any Ideas?

11-June-06, 09:35 PM		#9 (permalink)
FunkyStickman Linux Warrior	Re: Wireless Card Support Copy and paste something here for us to go on. We'd be glad to help.

11-June-06, 09:46 PM		#10 (permalink)
Sleepy_Sentry Apex Tech Maniac	Re: Wireless Card Support Did you cd to the directory of the driver? To do this, type cd and the name of the directory you want to go to (I think, it's been a while since I've used Linux).

12-June-06, 10:48 AM		#11 (permalink)
raydub Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Re: Wireless Card Support Ok, this is the link I used to get directions on how to work it. The link is in there to donwload the drivers too. If you need me to, I'll have to restart windows and boot in to linux to show you what the teminal is tellling me after I type one of the first commands in. I think my problem is that I don't have the files in the right directory. I'm not sure. http://www.technetra.com/writings/re...pper_wifi_html

07-June-06, 02:00 PM		#2 (permalink)
FunkyStickman Linux Warrior	All recent versions of Linux should support the same cards, as it's the kernel that actually contains the device drivers. I know for sure that any Prism2, Orinoco, or Cisco/Aironet based card should work natively. Most cards, however, will need ndiswrapper to get them working... ndiswrapper is a Windows driver wrapper that allows you to use Windows .inf driver files in Linux, mostly for wireless cards. Do a google.com/linux search on "ndiswrapper" and read up on how to use it. I've had success using ndiswrapper with ADMTek cards, Netgear, Linksys, Motorola, and others. I've also used Cisco and Prism cards with the native driver, and they seem to work well, though support is patchy. What kind were you thinking of buying/using?

07-June-06, 02:11 PM		#3 (permalink)
raydub Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Well, I have an Airlink card and it's about a year old. I don't don't know if it will work or not. what's a good model you reccomend?

07-June-06, 02:48 PM		#4 (permalink)
FunkyStickman Linux Warrior	I'm using a D-Link Airplus card in my laptop right now, using ndiswrapper. Pretty much any cheap card should work, assuming the drivers are not hidden in some installation file on the CD... what you do to set it up is first make sure that ndiswrapper is installed. Type "ndiswrapper" in a terminal, and if it's there it'll give you basic paramaters to use with it. Insert your card's driver CD and find the Win2K drivers directory (or WinXP, NOT Win98!) You want to make sure the .inf file is there, not hidden in a cab file. Ndiswerapper can only use .inf files to install drivers. I'd say use what you have. It should be able to work, unless something is seriously wrong. What distro are you using? Have you used ndiswrapper before? I'm assuming this is for use on a laptop.

07-June-06, 03:03 PM		#5 (permalink)
raydub Apex Master Tech Apprentice	Well, it's for my desktop, but i'm going to try it on my notebook first. ndiswrapper, i guess i'll try it and see what happens, thanks.

07-June-06, 06:59 PM		#6 (permalink)
Vertical_Zer0 Apex Advanced Techie	There's a great list of compatible wireless cards here. The site is for Ubuntu, but the compatibility matrix is the same regardless of what distro you happen to be using. The page even gives you installation instructions for several chipsets that don't automatically work out of the box.

07-June-06, 09:01 PM		#7 (permalink)
thedemonxanth Apex Tech Fanatic Supreme	The flat out best cards to use with a linux system right now are any based on the atheros chipset. These are supported by the madwifi-ng drivers. Awesome range, nice cards, great drivers. Check madwifi.org for all the info you need. Avoid anything with a broadcom chipset and if you get something prism2, 2.5, or 3 based you may need to update its firmware for the best function.

12-June-06, 07:05 PM		#12 (permalink)
FunkyStickman Linux Warrior	Re: Wireless Card Support First of all, login as root. If you type "which ndiswrapper" and it does nothing, then you don't have it installed. You can compile it from source, but 95% of distros have this already installed, or available as a package. If you're using Fedora, then type "yum install ndiswrapper" to install it. Next, the howto you linked to is for a specific card, which may not be the same as yours. You know how when you install a Windows driver it looks for an .inf file? That's what you need for ndiswrapper to use. Insert the driver CD for the wireless card, and let it mount (most desktops will automount the CD). Try this: (your .inf driver file may not be called airplus!) Code: stickman@stickman-linux:~> cd /media stickman@stickman-linux:/media> ls -R .inf /bin/ls: .inf: No such file or directory stickman@stickman-linux:/media> ls -R .INF /media/cdrecorder/drivers/win2k/AIRPLUS.INF stickman@stickman-linux:/media>ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrecorder/drivers/win2k/AIRPLUS.INF airplus driver installed, hardware present At this point, the card drivers have been installed, we still have to set up ndiswrapper to use them. Code: stickman@stickman-linux:~>hwinfo --pci (SNIP)* 21: PCI 200.0: 0280 Network controller [Created at pci.300] UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_104c_8400 Unique ID: y9sn.Od_b5bg3CrF Parent ID: 8otl.IR44dvWvxb8 SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/0000:02:00.0 SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0 Hardware Class: network Model: "D-Link DWL-650+ PC Card cardbus 22Mbs Wireless Adapter [AirPlus]" Vendor: pci 0x104c "Texas Instruments" Device: pci 0x8400 "ACX 100 22Mbps Wireless Interface" SubVendor: pci 0x1186 "D-Link System Inc" SubDevice: pci 0x3b00 "DWL-650+ PC Card cardbus 22Mbs Wireless Adapter [AirPlus]" (SNIP) What we're looking for is a PCI ID number, in the form of 0000:0000. If you look, you can see the D-Link card is at 0000:0200 (it's shown as 0000:02:00 but it's the number we're looking for). Now we can tell ndiswrapper to use the "airplus" driver with the card at ID 0000:0200 as such: Code: stickman@stickman-linux:~>ndiswrapper -d 0000:0200 airplus Driver 'airplus' is used for '0000:0200' stickman@stickman-linux:~>ndiswrapper -m Written 'modprobe.conf' If you want to start the card without rebooting, type "modprobe ndiswraper" and it should load without any messages. You can then check to see if it worked by typing "iwconfig" which should show you wlan0 as having wireless extensions. Then you just use your regular network config program to set it up, or use "ifconfig" and "iwconfig" to do it manually. Let me know if this helps at all.

13-June-06, 02:00 AM		#13 (permalink)
^RUmeY_- Apex Techie II	Re: Wireless Card Support http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/

13-June-06, 08:04 PM		#14 (permalink)
thedemonxanth Apex Tech Fanatic Supreme	Re: Wireless Card Support Using ndiswrapper is sort of a half-assed approach. A LOT of D-link cards use atheros chips. Using native drivers usually works better. madwifi.org

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