[PLUG] Ubuntu live cd and wireless

Rogan Creswick creswick at gmail.com
Thu Dec 22 22:53:21 UTC 2005


On 12/22/05, Ted Kubaska <tkubaska at ieee.org> wrote:
> Google points me to a description of this problem which others have
> experienced. http://thefinleys.com/dell_d810/ The fix described there
> involves ndiswrapper and a BIOS change for  my Dell.
>
> This seems a lot to do for "Linux for human beings." Has anyone else come
> across this issue and what have you done?

A number of wireless card makers haven't released the specs for their
products (broadcom  is somewhat notorious for this.. I have a thinkpad
partially because you can't get linux to use the wireless on an iBook
G4).  I'm no expert on ndiswrapper, but as I understand it, it is
essentially a windows emulator for wireless drivers, so you can use
the closed-source drivers with a linux kernel.  I haven't bothered,
because the bother didn't seem worth the savings over an intel / cisco
wireless card.

FWIW, ndiswrapper is *probably* your only choice, short of reverse
engineering the driver, but don't quote me on that :)  You could also
look at usb wifi dongles, or pcmcia cards if you want wifi with a
different type of hassle.

--Rogan

>
>
>  -Ted
>
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