Is PCMCIA my only option for FC6/XP WLAN?

[pwjohnston]

Linux noob here. I’ve been struggling with this since I got this laptop so I thought would finally ask. About a year ago I got a Dell Inspiron 9300 and put the wlan nic in from my old dell which is a TrueMobile 1180 Internal 802.11b Mini-PCI Card. I played with Knoppix for a while and about 2 or 3 months ago upgraded the HD and now have XP Pro dual booting with FC6 with kernel 2.6.18 and the KDE.

I’ve tried NDISwrapper on my current card, but to no success. That was under Knoppix and I haven’t tried the how to on this forum for FC so I am going to do that next.

I still want to upgrade to at least a 802.11 b/g card so my question still remains, is PCMCIA the only option for WLAN that will work under FC6 and XP? I’ve done a lot of reading and I have heard that the Prism, Orinoco, and Atheros chipsets are the ones with support (eg have drivers writing for them so I don’t have to use the ndiswrapper), BUT I’d like to find one that is MINI-PCI.


I found this list of Prism cards but I have not had any luck finding any for sale. I think maybe there was one on Ebay.

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz

Accton 802.11g WN 4401 mini-PCI Prism GT
Airvast 802.11g WN-360g mini-PCI PrismGT
Alfa 802.11g GWPCI06 mini-PCI Prism GT
Delta Networks 802.11g LM-WM8001 mini-PCI Prism GT ?
(LM-WM801I)
Eazix 802.11g EZWMF05 mini-PCI PrismGT
GemTek 802.11g WL-850 mini-PCI Prism GT
Sparklan 802.11g WL-850F mini-PCI Prism GT
USI 802.11g MP-G-IN-01(3A) mini-PCI Prism GT
Xterasys 802.11g XG-600 mini-PCI PrismGT
Z-Com 802.11g XG600 mini-PCI Prism GT

So here’s what I want list;

MINI-PCI
802.11G
Prism Chipset
Easy to install under FC6
Also works under XP

Recommendations? Links?

[VictorienSardou]

when you install a mini pci-card that wasnt factory installed with the laptop, there is a chance that it isnt compatible with the BIOS.
isnt the dell 9300 sold with the intel IPW2200 mini pci card?

[pwjohnston]

when you install a mini pci-card that wasnt factory installed with the laptop, there is a chance that it isnt compatible with the BIOS.
isnt the dell 9300 sold with the intel IPW2200 mini pci card?

The card I have in now works fine under XP Pro SP2. But it’s an 802.11b and I’ve been wanting to upgrade it for a while.

Would you recommend the Intel Pro2200 because I’ve seen them for cheap on ebay.

Basically I had an Inspiron 5100 and it broke. I had the replacement plan and they sent me a refurbished Inspiron 9300 which did not have the internal mini-pci wlan. So before I sent the old one back I pulled the old wlan card and the driver from the site and it worked fine in XP so I kept it. That’s why it’s the TrueMobile 1180 Internal 802.11b Mini-PCI Card and never had the Intel 2200.

Also, the new machine only has 1 pcmcia port and I really don’t want to hassle with having to put the card in to get access which is why I would get an internal mini-pci if I can. I’m also always afraid I’ll do something dumb and break the card.

Plus, I write music with my laptop so when I’m in XP I sometimes use the pcmcia for my sound card because laptop sound is crap.

[VictorienSardou]

the firmware for the intel pro2200 is in the livna [http://rpm.livna.org] repo and the driver in the kernel so it should be easy to setup in FC6.
http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/6/i386/repodata/repoview/ipw2200-firmware-0-3.0-1.lvn6.html

[pwjohnston]

the firmware for the intel pro2200 is in the livna [http://rpm.livna.org] repo and the driver in the kernel so it should be easy to setup in FC6.
http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/6/i386/repodata/repoview/ipw2200-firmware-0-3.0-1.lvn6.html

Wonderful. Thank you very much.