Wireless USB for Powerbook

[cclein]

Anyone successfully running a wireless usb dongle on a powerbook?

What are the chances that the dongle is supported by NetworkManager?

Thanks

[Doug_M]

I'm interested in recommendations along this line too as I have an iBook which of course has the unsupported Airport Extreme and no PCCard slots. I'm hoping I can buy a relatively cheap USB WiFi device to solve the problem.

I have a Netgear Compact Flash WiFi card that I use in my PDA. I tried plugging it in via a USB card reader but no luck. In OS X it was "recognized" as an unknown USB drive (no icon on the desktop of course). I don't think Linux (FC4) picked it up either as a dmesg check didn't reveal anything other than the card reader itself.

Regards,
Doug

[websavages]

With wireless usb, the trick is to buy one with a supported chipset.

do a google search for the exact usb dongle you are looking at.

linuxant (ndiswrapper) support a whole bunch. the sourceforge acx100 project support the acx100/acx111 chipset. madwifi, again at sourceforge, support another chipset.

so i'm afraid you'll have to do some research

Cheers ws

[Doug_M]

Using this site: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ I've found one at FutureShop that "should" be compatible. The Hawking HWU54G requires drivers from a SourceForge project ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/zd1211/ ). A look at the forum postings on that SourceForge site confirms people are using it in PPC Linux. The NdisWrapper project is x86 only. I'm going to try and pick up the Hawking HWU54G tomorrow. I'll post my results.

Regards,
Doug

[websavages]

Ddn't know ndiswrapper was x86 only, you learn something new everyday!

Cheers ws

[Doug_M]

Ok, so I'm posting this using my new Hawking HWU54G USB wifi key. I used the driver from zd1211.sourceforge.net. Iit didn't work with kernel 2.6.12-1.1398_FC4 (compiled though) but works with the older kernel 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4. I can't seem to connect to my own access point though. I'm connected to a neighbor's AP. They aren't using WEP.

In /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 I have the following:

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=no
WIRELESS=yes
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
WIRELESS_ESSID="XXXXX"
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX
WIRELESS_RATE=54M

I have real values where the X's are. So when I run "dhclient wlan0" I expect the above parameters in ifcfg-wlan0 to "take effect". Instead, I get connected to my neighbors wide-open AP.

Anyway, at the driver web site they state that zd1211 is a mess and that they've started fresh with zd1211ng, but it is a ways off from working. So I guess I'll just have to "borrow" my neighbors connection for now.

Regards,
Doug

[websavages]

Or perhaps, dare i say it, disable wep on your AP and use mac address filtering?

Cheers ws

[cclein]

Have you tried using Network Manager to control the wireless link?

Chris

[cclein]

I've spent so much time screwing around with different USB wifi devices I'm going to reinstall, I screwed the partitioning anyways. Will attempt this again I've got a similar USB device, a XWL-11GUZX from X-Micro that might do the trick and was really cheap off ebay. Will let you know how it goes. Tried an old MA111 and that worked but was incompatible with NetworkManager. It'd be great if you tried that Hawking adapter with Network Manager and let us know how it worked out.

Cheers,

Chris

[Doug_M]

The device doesn't show up in the network manager. Maybe I'm not using it right. I'm anxiously waiting for the release of the new zd1211ng driver (and possible eventual merge with the kernel!). At least I can surf to some degree!

[benjamintracy]

I am running FDC4 on iBook 800 MHz g3. I have a Airlink AWLL4030. It has the Atheros Super G chipset. Unfortunately it has has USB 1.1. I have tried Madwifi but can't find a PPC version. Any suggestions