will wireless work with Linux
 

I am using an old Compaq, evo n400c with PCMCIA slot, with freespire 2.0 installed. What do I need to do to get a PCMCIA Linkisys WPC54g wireless card to work with Linux? Thanks in advance.

I would try a more modern Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu 9.04 or 9.10. It might get your card working by default.

Just googling a bit, the WPC54g seems to have a BCM94306 chipset, and it looks like people have to use ndiswrapper for that. Plenty of documentation exists about that.

http://arthurdejong.org/wpc54g/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...r/Ndiswrapper/

wlan adapters should work on all distros (well from what i have used so far)
ubuntu
pclinuxos (my personal suggestion but your choice, go with what you feel)
simply mepis
puppy
vector
opensuse
fedora
mandriva
easypeasy

but incase it doesn't work, go out and get a usb wlan adapter, chances are it will work like a charm

What is the version (printed on back) of the card ?

dxqcanada, baronobeefdip, Raum the Old, Thank you for your replies.

dxqcanada: version number is 3.1

I went ahead and bought the wireless card for $10, brand new in box, just could not pass up the deal. It looks like it works, the system sees it under network manager, but I can't connect to the web. I tried firefox to access yahoo and I get a website not found message. Same with google. It looks like I am almost there. Please help! Thanks in advance.

Can you ping an IP address? Try (that is a Google.com IP address) or try pinging your local router or wireless access point IP address.

I just started using antiX on an old Hp omnbook 6000. It's fast and easy to use, got my Netgear wireless adapter working quickly. All in all I'm very happy with it.

Mike

Have a look at the output of lspci and lets see what chipset is in there. If it is a Broadcom chipset, you'll need to install firmware which (because of licensing issues) can't be distributed with Ubuntu. The kernel contains a module for Broadcom chipsets, which is why it looks like it has been recognized, but without the firmware, it won't work.

Thanks to all for your replies.

Hangdog42: lspci output= Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [Air Force One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN controller (rev 02). So, yes, it looks like a broadcom chipset. I am surprised though as I was using Freespire which is supposed to have a lot of the prpietary drivers included. Ok, so how do I install the firmware I need? Would using Ndiswrapper be easier?

MangoMike: Thanks for the info on antiX. I am currently using Mepis, which is what antiX is based on. I will leave that as an option.

Raum the Old: Ping does not work, I tried that right away.

Thanks again!

Hi,

I had the same problem with the same NIC on an Acer laptop (Aspire 5000) running Ubuntu 9.04 32bit. I got it working perfectly using ndiswrapper. Found the 'howto' here on LinuxQuestions.

Kind regards,

Eric

Hi EricTRA: Thank you for your response. I am currently looking into that as an option. I just downloaded the ndswrapper file. Trying to figure out how to use it. As always, I will post all questions here.

Hello Joseph2020,

This is the 'how-to' I followed and that worked for me.

Kind regards,

Eric

If you want to go the ndiswrapper route, the howto ErciTRA points to is a good one. If you want to stick with the native driver, I'm 99% sure that there is some Ubuntu repository with "restricted" packages that would have the firmware. Just remember that ndiswrapper and the native Linux driver cannot be loaded at the same time. They will conflict if they are.

Thank you for your replies

EricTRA: I am trying to fully understand how I do this with ndiwrapper, Your detailed response is appreciated.

Hangdog42: 3 questions I would appreciate if you could answer --> 1) How do I install the firmware I need? 2) Where do I find it? 3) Would using Ndiswrapper be easier?

Thanks again

EricTRA: After looking at the info you sent me, I noticed that in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist there are 2 interesting lines.

what is b43 and ssb...is this telling me a driver is installed?

All replies are welcome
Thank You