Wireless in Linux

[pjerky]

Ok everybody, I am looking to make the big move from Windows to Linux. I am very familiar with the various linux distributions for the most part and I think the Linux desktop is finally to the point that I can be comfortable moving over. The concern I have is wireless. I want to do the first migration to my laptop, but I gotta know how well it works. I don't want to have to fight it everywhere I go. I just want to be able to connect almost as easy as Windows XP allows me to.

Is it is to use and configure wireless networking on a linux laptop?
I have a Belkin 54g card and a Broadcom54g card. I have heard that the Broadcoms are a pain for linux and I have yet to get it to work on my Knoppix Live DVD. The Belkin is new. Can anyone give me a quick rundown on the state of wireless networking in Linux.

Thanks,
Patrick

[aysiu]

Re: Wireless in Linux

Basically... it all depends.

Sometimes, it works straight out of the box.
Sometimes, it can be a pain to configure.
Other times, it can't be configured at all.

If Knoppix doesn't detect it, that's a bad sign.

Maybe check out this site?
http://www.linux-laptop.net/

[askrieger]

Re: Wireless in Linux

Please take a look at this page on the Ubuntu Community Help wiki. The good news is that Belkin is well represented. The bad news is that Broadcom isn't. If all else fails, you could replace your wireless card with one that does work.

[lingenfr]

Re: Wireless in Linux

If you look at the chip vice the nic brand name, you will see that alot of the Linksys devices have Broadcom chips. Both the PCI and the USB Linksys devices that I set up were not too bad. I had to use ndiswrapper. You have to load the firmware and the driver, but I followed the how-to and both worked fine. If you have your windows driver CD, I recommend using those drivers rather than downloading from the web. It took me a few tries to get the right drivers from my Linksys 54G PCI card. When you use adept to install ndiswrapper, I would forget ndisgtk, the GUI. It is for gnome and it really is not much help. It is easier just to go from the command line. Here are two how-tos. I did not try using the built-in driver and fw-cutter. I just used ndiswrapper. Note the differences between Gnome and KDE, just have to translate.

Here is the one I generally followed:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=285809

Here is the other one. You might want to try it first and then go to the other one. Up to you:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185174

Fear not, Broadcom is good. Good luck.