Thanks, to all. Much quicker responses than I was expecting. It's all working now.
I plugged in the ethernet cable to see if I could get any "net" connection at all. It was fine. Than an alert said it needed to update itself... I clicked OK... it took a while. Then, I clicked on one of those little icons in the upper right... it looked like a network symbol... and good things happened. So maybe it was working all along? If so, sorry for the trouble. I pulled the card out and plugged it back in to see if I would get one of those Windows style alerts that it recognized it...nope. That, and the fact that I wasn't on the net made me think that I was getting the same issue as in my last attempt. Everything is cool. My next question was going to be: So what old computers are the most Linux friendly? What wireless cards are good out-of-the-box? Kelton On Dec 3, 3:03 pm, mahjongg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Then why not just plug in a WiFi USB dongle that IS fully supported > with Linux drivers, there are enough to choose from, and they cost a > pittance these days. Ubuntu has lists of well supported hardware. > > the reason there are still such big problems with WiFi adapters even > these days is that for some of these WiFi chipsets to work, you need > to upload their internal firmware to them, without that they do > nothing, they do not contain the firmware in ROM, only a bootloader. > Problem is, the firmware cannot be distributed freely, and the makers > of the chipsets do not release any technical information on how the > firmware works, (or their chipset for that matter) they even go as far > as encrypting the firmware file that you must upload to the chipset, > so its impossible to reverse engineer the firmware. Its all done to > make sure the competition does not "learn their technology". For > windows this does not matter, because they always write a Windows > "ndis" driver, that takes care of uploading the firmware, and the > normal driver functionality, but for Linux they don't see the profit > in writing a driver, not even in the form of a "non-free" "blackbox" > driver, so they don't have to release technical details. > > The most often used solution is a hack, Linux users use a piece of > software called a "wrapper", which "wraps" a windows driver for the > WiFi hardware, so that it thinks it is running on Windows, then you > can legally use the Windows driver on the driver CD. For WiFi adapters > the wrapper is called an "ndiswrapper". But gOS does not build in this > wrapper, so you need to install it yourself, then you need to figure > out how to extract the Windows driver and firmware from the driver_CD, > and integrate it in the wrapper, typically you need a textfile that > tells "ndis" what the particulars of the binary driver are, and the > binary itself that contains the driver, and the firmware. > > from a technical point of view uploadable firmware is old fashioned, > and was needed when the technology changed rapidly, making regular > firmware updates necessary, newer WiFi chipsets no longer need > uploadable firmware, and the makers are often more willing to work > with Linux programmers to release a Linux compatible driver, some > companies even write the driver themselves. > > On 3 dec, 15:03, CMYanko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > From a Ubuntu standpoint it used to just-work up until 6.10 or 7.04, I > > forget which but it was when they pulled all of the restricted drivers > > from the product. Since then, l have fought with every release to get > > my wireless working, until 8.10 (you're mileage may vary). For me it > > was a NetGear PCMCIA card. > > > If it doesn't work, go get the XP drivers for it and try the Windows > > Wireless drivers approach. Having said that I just tried, > > unsuccessfully, that route with gOS. I eventually did some craziness > > that I wont repeat here now since I don't think people should be > > trying it just yet. > > > On Dec 3, 7:31 am, BehaviorKelton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Man, I'm really wanting this Linux thing to happen for me, but every > > > year I attempt an install... and my old lynksys wireless card doesn't > > > work. > > > > This is a kind of litmus test, I suppose. > > > > I want this to work on my old laptop. I have a new one, but my > > > interest in Linux has to do with the ability to recycle an old > > > computer... getting off the new tech bandwagon.... and I want to learn > > > a bit about the OS. > > > > My Linksys wireless card is: Model #: WPC11 ver. 3 (this is not an > > > exotic card!) > > > MAC #: 000625AAEF1A > > > > My notebook is: Sony Vaio PCG-FX-A53. > > > > I was hoping for something to work "out of the box", but guess not. > > > > So I suppose I'll need to get back behind my computer and plug in to > > > the ethernet cable and get on the net that way in order to find a > > > driver. I gotta tell ya, I had no luck last year! > > > > Any tips on how to solve this. > > > > I have noticed that "My wireless isn't working!" has got to be the > > > most common issue in linux forums. > > > > Kelton --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gOS Linux" group. 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