linux compatible chipset wireless card

mcrae · 2007-01-13 15:58:46

Okay,
I'm sick to death of my Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 01)
I'm just curious if there is any company that is looking to cater to the linux market. I'd like my wallet to show my thanks:)
It's not that ndiswrapper is hard to use but even when done I simply can't get it to work and yes I've searched the forum and gone through 4 or 5 different setups........I'm not asking for help on this because plenty has been offered on this board.

My question is: Is there a company that is making pci and pcmcia cards that are linux compatible without having to install some compatibility layer (correct term?) like ndiswrapper? A company that is giving the source code to us so we can have true drivers for our product?

Don't misunderstand this post - I'm not complaining about linux - I just want to support the companies that would like our business.

Thanks,
McRae

pelle.k · 2007-01-13 18:02:48

All cards based on the intel ipw2200 chipset, should be pretty painless to setup under most linux/bsd distros, and even niche OS:es like beos/haiku. (just add water, i mean firmware to /lib/firmware)

Either way, intel is the company you are looking for

mcrae · 2007-01-13 19:01:32

pelle.k

Good deal. Thanks, I'm googling around today - so i'll add that to the key word mix;)

Thanks again,
McRae

dtw · 2007-01-14 16:33:25

Atheros chipsets are also quite well supported. I recently bought a tp-link card with an 108 atheros chipset - quite pleased with it

manmower · 2007-01-14 17:00:45

Atheros/madwifi is what I use, works flawlessly, although I needed a wired connection to download the driver first. If you want real painless wireless networking I'd go with something that is supported in the kernel. AFAIK this is true for the cards that use the "orinoco" module, which I believe are cards with the Prism 2 or higher chipset.

Winblowz · 2007-01-14 17:35:19

I would definitely go for the Atheros/madwifi chipset. I own a Netgear WG311T card and it works awesome in Linux. I think it is possible to install Arch with the regular install cd, then chroot into the installation after it is done (with a different live-cd that includes madwifi), and install the madwifi drivers.

iphitus · 2007-01-15 04:53:30

atheros/madwifi.

Or ralink tech based. Ralink actually made GPL'ed linux drivers.

IDK · 2007-01-15 17:58:17

atheros/madwifi here again. I have yet to have any problems with my card.

arew264 · 2007-01-15 23:28:05

One thing I have heard is that we shouldn't blame Broadcom for poor driver support because the actual frequencies their cards run on are controlled by the drivers, which means that if they released linux drivers, they could be hacked into letting you access government and police radio frequencies. That would lead to legal problems which is why their are no drivers from Broadcom for linux.

This is what I have heard anyway.

iphitus · 2007-01-16 05:21:41

arew264 wrote:

One thing I have heard is that we shouldn't blame Broadcom for poor driver support because the actual frequencies their cards run on are controlled by the drivers, which means that if they released linux drivers, they could be hacked into letting you access government and police radio frequencies. That would lead to legal problems which is why their are no drivers from Broadcom for linux.

Unfortunately, that's bulldust, we have every reason to blame Broadcom for their lack of support.

The current drivers utilise the firmware files from the windows driver. And it's in those firmware files that the frequencies live. So no, Broadcom COULD have released a driver, just like the one being developed. This is also how intel, Ralink, TI and other vendors work. All of which have licenses that forbid modification, thus if someone does hack them, they're doing so illegally, and the respective manufacturers can't be held at fault. Heck, the firmware in the broadcom windows drivers, already falls under an equivalent license, so they wouldn't need to even change that.

They could even build one like Madwifi, which has a closed source file which is included at compile time that contains the frequencies. Or just not build shit software based wireless cards, and develop proper ones that work more at a hardware level like the rt2500.

That's not a valid excuse from Broadcom part, not even remotely valid.

James

rayjgu3 · 2007-01-16 10:46:00

well if you dont mind using 802.11b then i say grab cisco's air-pcm350
its what i have. you wont have to deal with ndiswrapper as the modules are
airo & airo_cs which will give you eth1 & wifi0
i have had my card over a year now & am very happy with it i also have a lynksys G card which got shelved cause the range on the air-pcm350 is way better

STiAT · 2007-01-16 12:46:09

madwifi here again. I personally like madwifi, works flawlessly, though, 108 won't work, but 54mbit also is fine for my purpose.

ipw2200 also works fine, my notebook actually uses this driver.

arew264 · 2007-01-16 23:11:23

Ah, so broadcom really is crap, I'll keep that in mind .

Anyone know who makes the chipsets for Compaq integrated wireless?

IDK · 2007-01-16 23:36:25

Here is a quick question.

Whats better for wireless security software prism2 or madwifi? I've been playing with nmap and aircrack and my madwifi works fine but I wanted to try out void11 and I read that it only supports prism2.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-01-13 15:58:46

linux compatible chipset wireless card

#2 2007-01-13 18:02:48

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#3 2007-01-13 19:01:32

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#4 2007-01-14 16:33:25

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#5 2007-01-14 17:00:45

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#6 2007-01-14 17:35:19

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#7 2007-01-15 04:53:30

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#8 2007-01-15 17:58:17

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#9 2007-01-15 23:28:05

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#10 2007-01-16 05:21:41

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#11 2007-01-16 10:46:00

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#12 2007-01-16 12:46:09

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#13 2007-01-16 23:11:23

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

#14 2007-01-16 23:36:25

Re: linux compatible chipset wireless card

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