What network cards DOES Fedora support?

[John_redmond]

I have used RedHat/Fedora since 5.0. Along the way, I have looked at other distributions, but I have always come back.
Now, I am really dependent on wireless connections, so I have been in the rut of dual booting and using XP for all outside connections. But I have had enough of this.
So what are my real options? I have a Netgear WPN311, version 1.0 IDE adapter and presently have Fedora 8 installed.
With Fedora 6 and 7, I fooled around with ndiswrapper and got nowhere. With Fedora 8 I have tried very hard to get somewhere with the Linuxant driver loader. The Linuxant setup looks great:
1. Download a script;
2. Run the script, which starts the installation of an enhanced kernel;
3. Upload the WPN311.inf and WPN311.sys files to LinuxAnt. At this stage the whole system hangs with a frozen keyboard.
4. Reset and relaunch: the system is broken.
5. Reinstall Fedora.
Now, what IS IT with Fedora? Other distributions seem to work with wireless, don't they? I have really had enough. I know about the different chipsets in different releases of the cards, but is there ANY wireless IDE card that is known to work reliably in Fedora, particularly Fedora 8? If there is, this is something that we all need to know about.
I am in deep dispair: help! :confused: :mad:

[stevea]

What it is - is that Fedora only distributes FOSS code. If you need a proprietary driver - then you need to load it form elsewhere.

If you peck around google.com/linux you'll see some people fins the madwifi driver works for this part.
I suggest you search this forum for "madwifi".

[John_redmond]

Thanks stevea. I've looked through the madwifi wiki and I'm pretty sure that the problem can be solved with madwifi. But my question remains: what cards are supported by the default F8 kernel?

I fully support FOSS, but there are times when it is more practical to pay for support. Linuxant charges $20 for successful support, and most of us can cope with such a reasonable charge.

The other (cop-out) option that I am prepared to consider is to buy another PCI card. And, more importantly, it would be useful for others to know about built-in support BEFORE they invest in a card.

Thanks again for your input.

[savage]

I've never had problems with any of Netgear's kit, wireless or wired, I think the wireless card I used was a MA311, wired is a GA311, and I also used the 10/100M/bit version of that.

I've also used Belkin and Linksys network cards without issue, but can't for the life of me remember the model numbers.

Savage

[MrHappy]

Hi John

My first wireless purchase was a wpc54g card from Linksys, after reading on this forum and other websites, it became clear I needed to use ndiswrapper if I wanted to get it working with Fedora. Well I wanted to use live CD's and just plug in and go. So my search for a decent card started, on my travels I found the Ralink chipset to be linux friendly, so the task of finding a wireless card with this chipset started and I discovered that Edimax produced linux friendly wireless cards with the Ralink chipset, thats when I discovered The Linux Emporium, purchased the card and neverlooked back.

I would suggest having a read of these web sites that I have found useful in my struggle to find a wireless PCMCIA card to work in my Notebook, They should help you find the wireless card that's right for you.

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/ I have the "Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA card" purchased from this site, all I needed to get it working with F8 was enable NetworkManager and I was connected :)


http://www.linuxwireless.org/

users > devices is a good place to look if you are looking to buy a card that works with linux

users > drivers is a good place to look if you already have a card, it contains information on how to get them working


http://fedoramobile.org/wireless the description from the web site is "Using Fedora Core with wireless (Wi-Fi) devices." contains tips on how to get various wireless network cards working with fedora, contains details of how to setup NetworkManager as it's not enabled by default in F8

Good Luck in your search.

MrHappy

[John_redmond]

Hi MrHappy

Yours is the first bit of absolutely good news for me on this frustrating topic. I'm sure that your links will be very useful for many users. If I had heard from you 24 hours ago, I would have ordered the Edimax card immediately -- and I may still do so.

The reason why I am hesitating is that I have already ordered a Netgear wirelesss access point to go with my (existing) Netgear router. My reasoning was this:

1. At the time of ordering, it was looking increasingly likely that I was going to have compatibility trouble every time I wanted to upgrade or change my Linux distribution. And this was because the adapter had to match the kernel.

2. Better to move the whole process of wireless handling outside the box. And this is what an access point promises to do: process the wireless input and provide an ethernet connection. The result would be that I could simply plug an ethernet line into the back of the box -- and I could do this with just any Linux distribution without any special configuration. The kernel would then be totally irrelevant.

Now, all this is still conjecture and I am not totally confident. If it REALLY is that easy, why is it not the normal approach? The access point costs a little more than an IDE card, and there is a separate module outside the box, but these seem small considerations compared to the amount of angst reported by frustrated Linux users.

I will report back on my success, or otherwise, with the access point.

Many thanks for your helpful response,
John

PS I have now followed up your three suggested links. They are terrific: not only do they give SPECIFIC advice, but I now understand some of the problems with reverse engineering, which are implicit in stevea's comments on FOSS (post #2).

J.

[bbfuller]

Hello John_redmond

From what you write, it appears that you have wireless broadband provided in the Sydney area and therefore you are trying to pick it up at your home site and pass it on to your computer.

That sort of scenario is not very widespread at present and although it will probably expand it may never become economically viable in lesser populated areas.

If you can receive broadband that way then certainly it is possible to connect your computer to your access point by wire, but that is what most of us are trying to avoid doing.

In the normal scenario, broadband comes in at the phone socket - or cable distribution socket - and we are then left with the problem of how to get it to the different parts of the house where the computers are.

That's what a lot of us use wireless for and that's why we need the linux compatible devices in our computers.

Incidentally, once you get a Linux compatible wireless card and it is supported in the kernel, it's probably not going to become unsupported any time soon.

[John_redmond]

Hello bbfuller

I should have explained myself more clearly. I have optical cable broadband to my site with a wireless router connected. There are multiple PCs around the site and ethernet cabling is not really practical. My own computer, for example, is in a separate building. Hence the wireless arrangement. My impression is that this is a pretty common wireless scenario.

I take your point that, once a card is supported by a kernel, it is likely to remain supported. But, if it is necessary to replace or patch a kernel, that is another matter.

Thanks for your input.

[scottro]

After days of frustration with one of those low end laptop ATH5007EG cards, I bought a Linksys WUSB54GC USB wireless stick. Works out of the box.

[John_redmond]

Hello scottro

Great news! With responses like yours, this thread is starting to build into a useful resource for users wanting to get started with wireless.

Thanks, John

[scottro]

My hope is that madwif will soon fully support that Atheros 5007EG. It seems they're closing in on it. :)

[John_redmond]

Hello scottro

Yes, I agree: there are so many Atheros cards out there. But there is the problem of the amount of stack space required, which will probably compicate things. I know that I am coming on very strong on this point, but total built-in support is what users really want.

May your hopes be fulfilled,
John

[johnnymack]

John,

F8 now has the ath5k driver installed and running for some atheros chipsets, not all tho. Give that a try before trying madwifi-ng. I wasn't successful with ath5k for my desktop adapter, a D-Link WDA-2320 which F8 reported as a "ath5k phy0: Atheros AR5213A chip found (MAC: 0x79, PHY: 0x45)". Iy your AR5004 doesn't work with that, you could go with madwifi-ng.

I know that older Atheros madwifi drivers aren't native in Fedora, yet getting the madwifi_ng tarball, and building it for your kernel is sooo easy... just a couple of makes, a reboot, and you're ready. I'd recommend downloading madwifi-0.9.3.3 tarball and install it. You will feel proud of yourself if you use what you already have, and dig out some new knowledge along the way, reaching the goal of building a proper linux solution. have a go at it, mate.

PS, I used to live in Sydney about 13 yrs ago.. in N. Sydney actually, on Ryde St. I do miss it at times.

regards,

jm

[John_redmond]

Hello JM

Greetings from Sydney. Actually, I live in Eastwood, which is only a couple of miles from the suburb of Ryde. Coincidences, eh?

Yours is just the sort of information that Fedora users need to know before starting with wireless. From my general poking around, I am getting the impression that Atheros chipsets are the ones to be cautious about with Fedora. I have promised not to divulge my source, but I was told (very authoritatively) that Broadcom chipsets are the safest bet for Fedora wireless. Perhaps there are users out there who can comment?

At present, I am waiting for delivery of a wireless access point (see post #6). So, for the moment, I am committed to that course of action. When more useful information, such as yours, accumulates, I intend to collate the tips in this thread to make it easier for others to make their own wireless decisions.

Best wishes,
John

[scottro]

Well, the newer ones, especially the 5007EG is giving a lot of people problems. Personally, I think it would be worth the effort to not only avoid them, but send the laptop maker an email telling them you considered their product, but apparently their wireless adapters are so difficult to get working with LInux that you chose something else. The Acer 4720z (here, it's sometimes called 4720-4721) is one of them. A low end Compaq being offered at BestBuy for under $500 is another.

It would give me (especially after days trying to get this card to work) SUCH pleasure to see some article that Acer is telling Atheros make your cards Linux compatible or find another buyer. :)

[bbfuller]

Hello John_redmond

I have a broadcom 4318 in a laptop and can say that I've always managed to get it going, firstly with ndiswrapper. Since the advent of the new b43 driver in Fedora 8 I've been able to dispense with ndiswrapper and just use the b43-fwcutter program to extract the require firmware from a downloaded file. I assume that qualifies as out of the box. At least it is no more trouble than installing a driver in Windows.

However, I think if you do a search of the Forum for "Broadcom" and restrict your reading to the last six months you will find that my experience is anything but typical.

That may at least in part be to do with the NetworkManager in Fedora though which was certainly a bit unfriendly in its early versions.

For me, and I accept here that my experience has not been matched by everybody, the other laptop that I have access to with an Intel 3945abg wireless card did work out of the box. I installed no extra software whatever just configured it.

[scottro]

Ok, I've finally gotten my Atheros card working. I have my own howto (which is pretty similar to all the others) at http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/rhwireless.html, towards the bottom of the page.

I'm not sure what I did differently. It's possible that I didn't clean out the old modules after one failure with it or another, it's also entirely possible that, since the wireless button on this Acer doesn't show the LED lights with Linux that I disabled, rather than enabled, it. (Now that it's working, I've found I often have to hit the switch a few times for it to change something. This is just a button that looks the same whether it's on or off--the user is supposed to be able to tell by an LED light going on.)

[John_redmond]

Hello scottro (ref post #15)

Strong stuff! From the amount of time and anger that I have invested, I agree totally. Manufacturers must be forced, for their own good, to recognise that Windows is not the only operating system out there. In an extremely small way, with direct and specific comments from users like you, this thread might just develop into a consumer weapon against the multinationals.

In a different way, manufacturers of wireless adapters have to be persuaded of the business opportunity in providing Linux-friendly drivers.

Thanks,
John

[Wangberg]

Hi John

My first wireless purchase was a wpc54g card from Linksys, after reading on this forum and other websites, it became clear I needed to use ndiswrapper if I wanted to get it working with Fedora. Well I wanted to use live CD's and just plug in and go. So my search for a decent card started, on my travels I found the Ralink chipset to be linux friendly, so the task of finding a wireless card with this chipset started and I discovered that Edimax produced linux friendly wireless cards with the Ralink chipset, thats when I discovered The Linux Emporium, purchased the card and neverlooked back.

I would suggest having a read of these web sites that I have found useful in my struggle to find a wireless PCMCIA card to work in my Notebook, They should help you find the wireless card that's right for you.

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/ I have the "Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA card" purchased from this site, all I needed to get it working with F8 was enable NetworkManager and I was connected :)


http://www.linuxwireless.org/

users > devices is a good place to look if you are looking to buy a card that works with linux

users > drivers is a good place to look if you already have a card, it contains information on how to get them working


http://fedoramobile.org/wireless the description from the web site is "Using Fedora Core with wireless (Wi-Fi) devices." contains tips on how to get various wireless network cards working with fedora, contains details of how to setup NetworkManager as it's not enabled by default in F8

Good Luck in your search.

MrHappy

i'm totally at wits end with Fedora and wireless. however, i'm hesitant to buy a wireless PCI card where the distributor is giving no model numbers or indicators as to which specific card i will be putting into my box. Chipsets mean little to me as many cards can have the same chipsets...i want to know what card this is.

[Wangberg]

i'm totally at wits end with Fedora and wireless. however, i'm hesitant to buy a wireless PCI card where the distributor is giving no model numbers or indicators as to which specific card i will be putting into my box. Chipsets mean little to me as many cards can have the same chipsets...i want to know what card this is.

It looks like it is the EW-7128g. I just ordered it from www.newegg.com. A lot of good reviews from other linux users, also, only $29.00 compared to the linux emporium which is upwards of $50 since they are based out of the UK.

i'll let you all know if it works after installed!

[Wangberg]

It looks like it is the EW-7128g. I just ordered it from www.newegg.com. A lot of good reviews from other linux users, also, only $29.00 compared to the linux emporium which is upwards of $50 since they are based out of the UK.

i'll let you all know if it works after installed!

I am blown away. This card works out of the box with some configuration in network manager...2 thumbs up