Need help getting wirless internet connection to work.
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Need help getting wirless internet connection to work.
Alright, well I've finally been getting my friends laptop (which I installed Linux on) the way I want it... with programs I know and use on my Gentoo system so I can help him if he needs help. This of course brings me to the one part of Linux I've never gotten to work right, wireless.
So any place to start? I "ifconfig -a" and it doesn't show any wireless connections which I figured it wouldn't (never have gotten Linux to even show wireless let alone use it). This is rather vital that he gets this up and running, he'll be using this computer at college so he needs wireless.
Steps/help would be great. I can't remember the command to look up all hardware (which would tell me the exact wireless card) so that'd be a good place to start. With all the other Linux systems I've screwed around with it always seems to be get the drivers and install them using nsdwrapper (if I remember the name right) which has never worked for me in the past even using cards other people have gotten to work, but I figure I'll be doing it again.
So yeah, how should I go about doing this to where it'll auto detect? It's going to be a mobil computer, so he'll need the auto detect.
By the way, a reverse-engineered opensource linux driver might and might not work for your card (and even if it works, it will probably not support all your card's features): http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/
Thats your wireless card. With that chipset you have the choice of bcm43xx (a native linux driver) or ndiswrapper, which lets you use a Windows driver. To use bcm43xx, you'll need to compile your own kernel. Ndiswrapper you can compile as standalone.
I've got that same chipset and I keep both drivers handy. The bcm43xx is still in development and a little flaky, so having ndiswrapper around is a good idea, even if you use bcm43xx.
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If you do go the bcm43xx route, you also need to upgrade udev and hotplug using the packages in Slackware - current. A stock 10.2 install doesn't work with bcm43xx.
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Dang, AlienBob beat me to the punch. My fat fingered typing strikes again.
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Ditched it, got a Belkin w/Ralink chip...Better native drivers. The bcm drivers don't even support G speeds, and getting encryption to work is a nightmare, not to mention getting the files in the first place....
The bcm drivers don't even support G speeds, and getting encryption to work is a nightmare, not to mention getting the files in the first place....
You're right on the money about the G speeds, but encryption is a breeze with wpa_supplicant. And there are no longer any files to hunt down except fwcutter and a recent Windows driver. Everything else is now in the kernel.
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