Wireless in linux - is there any hope ?

Wireless netwrok not working is one of the top problems with linux distros.
Sound generally works, display generally works. But wireless is a mess.
There is a similar problem with winmodems. One company actually sells drivers (linuxant) - but these drivers dont work very well, for example voip seems to be unspported.

In comparison, I've never had any significant problems with wired ethernet.

Is there any hope for the situation to improve in the wireless arena ? If people cant get thier laptops to connect to the network, there isnt hope for linux to take off.

 

Well, depending on the wireless card, Linux support can be great. Intel and Atheros cards work fantastically. So Linux supports wireless just fine. Some wireless manufacturers don't support Linux at all. It's a shame, and doubly so that progress on this issue can only come from one side.

Still, with things like Dell's recent announcement, hopefully we'll see better drivers from manufacturers, if they realise there is actually a market.

Until then, its best to do your research, and buy a compatible card.

 

This comment is the single most important thing you should do before you buy a new machine if you even have an inkling you'll be installing linux on it.

I didn't do this, and am regretting it. I got a Dell D620 with the Broadcom card. It's an absolute pig to get working - even with the new kernel.

As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about Dell supporting linux is that all their hardware will be supported - meaning anyone with a Dell notebook (that's still relatively new) will have a chance of getting everything to work with the minimal amount of fuss.

But to answer your original question, yeah I think wireless in Linux will just get better and better. I remember what it was like 2 years ago when ndiswrapper was the best option and it didn't work half the time. Now most card will "just work".

 

I think notebook_ftw said that his Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 card doesnt work even in the latest release of Ubuntu. Mine doesnt either (with SLED that was released last summer), and this is supposed to be a linux supported card.

On the manufacturer front, are we at their whimsy ? For them to release drivers ?
Or can there be workarounds ?
If there can be workarounds, why isnt this a top priority for devlopers instead of developing eye candy like ed desktops and what not ?

 

My Intel card works just fine in Ubuntu. The only release with which it didn't work "out of the box" was 6.10, and that was because network manager wasn't included by default. The driver is proprietary, and thus not technically included in the kernel, but it is included in nearly all OS' that I have used (with XP, PC-BSD, and SLAX being the only exceptions).

As far as manufacturers go, we're not technically at their whim because we could just choose to buy a wireless card that is supported, as most of us do. But even then, we really are still at their whim because even the Intel card still uses proprietary drivers that must be supported by Intel. What Intel likes to do is make their drivers "mostly free" and then stick a few small proprietary binaries in there and slap the LGPL on it. Atheros chips doing the same thing. But as far as unsupported cards go, we really are just sitting around waiting for the manufacturer. We have workarounds like ndiswrapper, but you can only go so far with native drivers without knowing how the card actually works, and most manufacturers don't seem very willing to give that up as well.

 

My 3945 has had binary drivers installed since Ubuntu 6.06. With 6.06 and 6.10 however, I had to download the network-manager applet to connect to secured networks. Feisty includes this. So does Sabayon Linux. I can't vouch for other distros.

 

Yeah, it's funny that your Intel card isn't supported in SLED, because it worked just fine in openSUSE for me as I recall.

 

Well, SLED is based on a slightly older version of OpenSUSE, so that may be why. SLED is to OpenSUSE what Debian is to Ubuntu.

 

Hmmm... so you're paying for older software and less compatibility? Doesn't seem like the best idea if you ask me.

 

So notebook_ftw, didnt u say that u could not connect your laptop to your school network in linux ?

 

Well the wireless card is supposedly recognised, and in the wireless appplet I see the list of available applets. But when I try to connect to my WPA network, it hangs.
SLED 10 was free. And this was before SUSE stabbed us in the back.
My next distro is going to be debian/Ubuntu - not sure which of the two to choose.

 

SLED is aimed at businesses, because it comes with business support. It's Novell's edition of Red Hat.

That's a problem with his uni's connection settings. Just like the fact that Vista users can't connect on my campus. It's not Vista's fault. It might have something to do with the fact one of the sys admins is a raving Mac fanboy (well, they do pay him lots to be).

 

Yeah, but Linux isn't the problem there. The problem is that my university uses a proprietary wireless setup that only works correctly with Windows. They use a program called Odyssey client from Funk Software that I believe is set up on both ends because it has a really screwy way of working. The encryption is actually open WEP, but it's masked as WPA which is then read by the Odyssey client on the notebook so that you can input your username and password, and then it sends back the WEP key. So if you don't have the client it's really screwy. You can't connect via WPA since it's not really a WPA network, but you can't connect via WEP either since that doesn't give you an option for a username or password.

All other wireless issues have worked fine for me.

EDIT: The wireless client didn't work in Vista either the last time I checked, so I don't know what they're doing there.

 

Your school network administrator is really something. WEP+WAP doesn't increase the security. Just decrease the usability.

 

Yeah, they pretty much suck. Like I said in another thread, they are forcing us to switch over to a Novell Groupwise mail account, which is fine, but I like using a software client on my personal PC (rather than just using a web interface all the time). There is a Groupwise client for Linux, which the university provides, but it's an .rpm file, no doubt Novell's way of "coercing" you into SLED. Of course, this doesn't work so well on anything besides a few distros, none of which are Debian-based. I emailed them telling them about the problem, and they never responded. I wish they would at least give instructions on how to plug Evolution into the server, but without knowing the exact server name, what type of encryption they're using, and what ports, Evolution just locks up every time I try it. I really do need to get something done for Linux users there.

 

it's a university, just bring up things like "openness", "accountability", and how the university is stifling the "learning environment" and you ought to be able to get some hemp/birkenstock-wearing group together to start a poster campaign or something...

oh wait, you're in engineering...

 

If there was problem with linux compatibiliyy, the CS people would a fit in our university

 

I got the same notebook, SimplyMEPIS 6.5 installed fine, wireless configured out of the box. The only problem is still ACPI, although from what I heard, that is a linux thing, not a particular distro's problem.

By the way, researching about a machine is one thing, researching what distro will install fine on what machine is another. One should do both.

 

Just my tuppence...

My experience with linux and wireless has been mixed. I have never been able to connect wirelessly using any kind of pc card or usb wireless- even those which, like the Belkin 6020, are supposed to work..! On the other hand, getting connected on laptops with wireless built in (rt2500 card on a Turion model, and Intel 3945 respectively) has been absurdly easy. And it helps that my favourite distro PCLOS and it's derivatives have a fantastic config centre.