Robert Fisher wrote:
On Friday 02 June 2006 3:46 pm, Rik Tindall wrote:
In the Sydenham situation, solid control of a cardbus modem is the
bedrock of connectivity (until we achieve still more with wireless), and
the 'nearest' distros for the total range of functions required - that
were considered within our skillset - were FreeBSD 6.x and Voyage Debian
3.1.
What does the above paragraph actually mean?
In the leadup to last Thursday's meeting, three distros were run through
setup and tweaking, head to head: more would have been impractical, and
the selection criteria is partly explained below with the rest based
upon having the latest kernel wifi integration available. For a user of
intermediate skill, with only dialup for the outward link, the success
level graded out as - Ubuntu 6.06, FreeBSD 6.1, Voyage 0.2. This ranking
was entirely due to their readiness to drive a pcmcia serial modem, and
to display well onscreen. All seemed to manage the wifi device really
well, but only Ubuntu quickly got us online via dialup for a full wifi
host test.
Like CLUG at St Albans, we need broadband for quicker and easier
Internet. But the medium-term goal we are working towards is to have it
delivered wirelessly.
Are you saying that other distros are beyond your capability?
Not at all. The CLUG has a semi-set of distros that are most popular in
its activities - approx: Gentoo, SuSE, Mandriva, Fedora, Mepis, Knoppix..
So what the Freenix workshops do is to try and ensure that some other
distros get the same level of attention, promotion, and use:
Debian(-based), Ubuntu, *BSDs,.. that's about it.
Our set is smaller, as our express object is to establish a common set
of tools, experience, and beginner-upwards skill, so that we can go on
to apply these to further non-profit or commercial projects next.
CLUG is 100% non-profit, and it shouldn't offend anybody to recognise
that CLUG is an opt-in hobbyist group, and quite anti-commercial in essence.
So having a forum attached where commercial avenues for promoting *nix
can be explored - without hostility - is a plus for *nix advocacy in
total, and a relief of inner tension for the LUG.
I had a small (and a bit frustrating) hiccup connecting to my access point
with Mepis but when pointed to
iwlist
http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/iwlist8.html
it was really easy.
Glad to hear you are getting into *nix wifi. With the emphasis on hostAP
setup - that should prove helpful to Don's community *nix server project
- I have yet to learn much about the scanning and security functions. So
thanks for the tip, and we'll integrate these into next month's wifi
community meeting. I hope you can make it along.
What the **** does "bedrock of connectivity" mean?
Explained on Chris's "CLUG Meeting" thread. Adequately I hope.
Cheers & hth,
--
Rik Tindall, InfoHelp Services <http://www.infohelp.co.nz> on virus-free
Ubuntu GNU/Linux 5.10 free OS, 2.6.12-9-k7 kernel, GNOME 2.12.1 desktop
OpenOffice.org 1.9.129, Mozilla 1.7.12 email client & web browser
GIMP 2.2.8 graphics, gedit 2.12.1 web editor, gFTP 2.0.18 file transfer
