Wireless on Linux aint so bad

megamaced

megamaced

Geek Geek Geek!
I bought myself a wireless kit over the weekend, a cheap Dynamode Wireless router plus a Dynamode PCMCIA wireless card for a Windows 2000 laptop and a Dynamode Wireless PCI card for my openSUSE 10.3 desktop. The whole kit only cost me £50 and for the most part I've got what i've paid for! But on the whole it works!
I set up the PCMCIA card on Windows first and got a connection using WPA. Great I thought, now it's time to tackle the Linux box (dread sinking in)! The PCI card I bought had an Marvell chipset which I discoved using lspci. After a quick look on the internet I realised I'd have to use NDISwrapper with it. No problem I thought, I'll give this a go. I've never used NDISwrapper before so this was all new to me. I installed NDISwrapper from the SUSE repositories and installed the Windows XP driver that came on the CD. I launched the YaST network card configuration utility, which had by now detected the Wireless card, and configured a few settings. I then launched NetworkManager, which found the wireless connection, I entered my WPA key and bingo, it worked! I was suprised at just how easy it was!

The only quibble I have is that I have to connect to the Wirless network manually every time I restart. The connection does not automatically connect. Does anyone know how I can configure NetworkManager to automatically connect to the Wireless network? Thanks
 
You could try to create a startup script. I can't remember the exact commands to bring up a wireless network. You could try
Code: 
network-manager
or use
Code: 
ifconfig -essid "ssid"
Anyway, put that in a text file and save it in the folder /etc/init.d/
Then rightclick the icon and go to the tab permissions. Check Executable and click on OK. Now reboot.
 
Using knetworkmanager, the default behavior is to try for a hardwired network first. If it's not present, it'll automatically fall back to wireless.
 

Attachments

  • snapshot1.jpg
    snapshot1.jpg
    271.3 KB · Views: 176
Ubuntu is supporting a :swear: load of wireless cards now... although allot of them are supported using proprietary drivers :/ but surely thats still better than someone giving up on Linux cos there wireless card doesn't work? the open source drivers will come, given time... reversed engineered or black boxed, it always seems to happens eventually :D

on a side note, it does warn you when it uses them and states that open source drivers would be better, but there aren't any!

EDIT: IT DOES WARN YOU WHEN IT IS USING PROPRIETARY DRIVERS
 
I had to remove my 3Com Wired 10/100 PCI card because for some reason, my motherboard would not get passed the BIOS when that and the Wireless card were connected. Maybe it ran out of available IRQs?
Anyhows, that makes my Wireless network the default connection but it still doesn't connect automatically. I guess I will have to find a NetworkManager script somewhere. By the way, the wireless card is on my second machine which runs the openSUSE 10.3 GNOME varient so I am using gNetworkManager!

PS. Would it be easier if I used the traditional IFUP rather then NetworkManager?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top