NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › new laptops and Linux wireless
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

new laptops and Linux wireless

post #1 of 27
7/22/06 at 1:08am
Thread Starter 
Hi guys.
I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on what laptop(s)
might be good to get if I want to run nothing but Linux and not
have to deal with issues getting the wireless to work.
From what I understand, the wireless on the Intel 2200BG
will work out of the box, but the new laptops now all have
the core Duo processor that comes with 3945ABG integrated
wireless. I'm not experienced at doing kernel level debugging
so I would prefer not to have to deal with time consuming
issues. This has me in somewhat of a quandry.
There seems to be a project going on to develop Linux
wireless support for the 3945,

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/,

but without knowing for sure that the wireless
will work running Linux on new laptops with the
core Duo processor, perhaps its better to settle for
one with the Pentium M instead ? I doubt you'd
be giving up that much in processing speed.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 27
7/22/06 at 2:19am
If you dont need access point mode, and just need to connect via wireless, then about any x86 laptop can work when combined with ndiswrapper to load the windows drivers.

Google ndiswrapper for more info.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 27
7/22/06 at 2:26am
ndiswrapper is a joke.... i could never get a good stable signal with it..it would drop every 5 minutes.

that said if ipw2200 is not an option, i have an Atheros card which uses madwifi drivers....atheros cards are already known to probably have some of the best signal strenghts, so adding it to the easy-to-configure madwifi driver should give you a good package.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 27
7/22/06 at 3:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
ndiswrapper is a joke.... i could never get a good stable signal with it..it would drop every 5 minutes.

that said if ipw2200 is not an option, i have an Atheros card which uses madwifi drivers....atheros cards are already known to probably have some of the best signal strenghts, so adding it to the easy-to-configure madwifi driver should give you a good package.

Theres also linuxant, which sells driver loaders - but I don't see on their website
that they're offering driver loader for the ipw3945 yet. Looks like they do have
support for all the Atheros drivers, so if the laptop used Atheros drivers, that
would work. Some of the company websites, ie Dell, dont list
exactly what type of wireless theyre using. The easiest thing to do probably
is to just go with a laptop where you know for sure it has ipw2200, which
means Pentium M instead of core duo, which unless Im going to be
writing multithreaded applications, wont matter anyway. The core Duo may
also be more prone to overheating. Thanks for the advice.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 27
7/22/06 at 3:51am
Thread Starter 
I just saw that with some of the Toshibas, ie the Satellite P100, you can actually
customize it so that you opt for the Atheros wireless LAN instead of
the ipw3945. Do anybody think this would be an issue since its not
the centrino mobile technology ? (This one does use the new core-duo
processor. )
Here's a quote of the blurb about the wifi:

Quote:
\t
Mini-PCI/WiFi

Short for wireless fidelity and is meant to be used generically when referring of any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. The term is promulgated by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Any products tested and approved as "Wi-Fi Certified" by the Wi-Fi Alliance are certified as interoperable with each other, even if they are from different manufacturers. A user with a "Wi-Fi Certified" product can use any brand of access point with any other brand of client hardware that also is certified.

So it seems like this would be an option. Just get this with the Atheros wireless LAN
instead and then purchase the driver loader from linuxant, which is relatively cheap.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 27
7/22/06 at 5:53am
Ubuntu works fine with my Intel 3945 wireless adapter.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 27
7/22/06 at 2:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
ndiswrapper is a joke.... i could never get a good stable signal with it..it would drop every 5 minutes.

that said if ipw2200 is not an option, i have an Atheros card which uses madwifi drivers....atheros cards are already known to probably have some of the best signal strenghts, so adding it to the easy-to-configure madwifi driver should give you a good package.


Sure thats ndiswrapper and not the driver used?

Personally while I havent used wireless much, last I used ndiswrapper I had not problem with it, stability or signal strength.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 27
7/22/06 at 5:50pm
possitive it was ndiswrapper. i used the same exact driver on my windows partition @ the time and in windows it was flawless, under linux its another story...until i switched to the linux native madwifi where it started working as it should.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 27
7/22/06 at 10:23pm
Ndiswrapper works great with my broadcom BCM4306 wireless. But ONLY if I use Suse or Kanotix. It did not work in Ubuntu at all. It would occasionally see my access point, but would lose it before connecting. Other distros gave similar problems. I am typing this from my emachines m6805 using ndiswrapper and Suse 9.3 now. It works flawlessly, but I have wanted so much to try Ubuntu (no distro is acceptable without wireless), that I ordered a new PCI wireless card by MSI that reportedly works "out of the box" with Linux. It should get here Tuesday.

This is the one I have ordered ( MSI MP54G4):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833158115
I'll let everyone know how it goes next week. Maybe I'll get to run Ubuntu after all.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 27
7/23/06 at 12:47am
Hmm it would be interesting is some distros had conflicts between their kernel and ndiswrapper....

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 27
7/23/06 at 1:47am
well, if i am not mistaken ubuntu has its own ndiswrapper build....so i am sure they should have taken care of possible conflicts
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 27
7/23/06 at 3:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ExplodingLemur
Ubuntu works fine with my Intel 3945 wireless adapter.

So what additional things did you have to do after getting your laptop to get the
ipw3945 adaptor to work with ubuntu ? If you look at this page

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/

from Intel, there's an ongoing project to enable Linux support for the
3945 adaptor, but isnt clear that a bug free version is out yet.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 27
7/23/06 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakamo
So what additional things did you have to do after getting your laptop to get the ipw3945 adaptor to work with ubuntu ?

All I had to do was install the Gnome network manager tool for WPA support, and I was up. Didn't have to mess with the ipw3945 module at all, it was loaded automatically.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 27
7/25/06 at 12:36am
Ububty Dapper 6.06 has the native Linux drivre for the 3945 (ipw3945) in the base OS. Worked for me (Dell e1705) out of the box.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 27
7/25/06 at 1:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by adewolf
Ububty Dapper 6.06 has the native Linux drivre for the 3945 (ipw3945) in the base OS.

yes ubunty FTW
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 27
7/25/06 at 2:01am
OOPS LOL
UbuntUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 27
7/25/06 at 3:51am
Thread Starter 
Well, thats encouraging news. I have no experience with configuring Linux,
so Im nervous about getting a laptop where I'm not sure if the wireless
will work out of the box with Linux. (I was thinking I might have to go
with a laptop that had the slightly older Pentium M that came with
the ipw2200. )
Now this opens up the possibilities to getting something
like the Asus A6J, which has the new core duo with the ipw3945
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 27
7/25/06 at 11:30am
If you go with gnome you also may want to try Gnome Network Manager (http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/) It's not going to help compatibility, but it is nice when you get things working.

Makes connecting to wireless networks very easy.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 27
7/25/06 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigtrouble77
If you go with gnome you also may want to try Gnome Network Manager (http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/) It's not going to help compatibility, but it is nice when you get things working.

Makes connecting to wireless networks very easy.


i hate that program and stay away from it like the black plague. i tried it in Arch and Ubuntu and before installing it, just using the gnome network applet i managed my wifi just fine...as soon as that program showed up, my connection became unstable, and often wouldn't even connect and be ready to run on boot.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 27
7/25/06 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
i hate that program and stay away from it like the black plague. i tried it in Arch and Ubuntu and before installing it, just using the gnome network applet i managed my wifi just fine...as soon as that program showed up, my connection became unstable, and often wouldn't even connect and be ready to run on boot.
Perhaps it's your laptop? I've never heard of anyone having as many wifi issues as you do. You admitted that ndiswrapper doesn't even work. To be honest, I have not had trouble with either ndiswrapper or the gnome network manager. Gnome network Manager will not work until you comment out the entries for your "physical" network cards (interfaces) in /etc/network/interfaces.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Linux & Other OS's
NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › new laptops and Linux wireless