Networking :: Wireless PCMCIA Connection:

Yes I don't want to have to use ndiswrapper.

I wonder what the successful process looks like to get other cards to work.

I'm not technical enough to be of much use but I'll do a bit more forum searching.

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my guess is that it's the kernel modules

Or the kernel version, the compiler version, wireless extension version, etc.

I, too, have a card that lacks a native 2.4 driver and has, at best, limited function in 2.4. You have to accept that your purchase of any particular card can have consequences if you want to use it with any operating system not called Microsoft Windows. You can buy a card with open drivers, you can buy one with closed drivers. If you choose the latter, you have to accept that you may only have limited function from it in any other OS. (Edit: That goes for ANY hardware that has a proprietary MS-Windows driver and zero support for Linux.)

That said, wifi support in Linux 2.6 is MUCH better than in 2.4 and DSL's upcoming tiny core will make it MUCH easier for wireless users to use their respective hardware.

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I, too, have a card that lacks a native 2.4 driver and has, at best, limited function in 2.4. You have to accept that your purchase of any particular card can have consequences if you want to use it with any operating system not called Microsoft Windows. You can buy a card with open drivers, you can buy one with closed drivers. If you choose the latter, you have to accept that you may only have limited function from it in any other OS. (Edit: That goes for ANY hardware that has a proprietary MS-Windows driver and zero support for Linux.)

I'm well aware of this. However, I think this is a different situation. The native kernel modules for these cards are known to work - for a few years now and on a variety of distros. Also, the madwifi drivers are bit different. The driver itself is open source but depends on the proprietary Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) that is available in binary form only. This is the case for almost all modern wireless cards now. The only difference is that most need some form of closed firmware to be uploaded in order to function. You did touch on one good point though, I bet it works with kernel 2.6 (DSL-n). So far, the only distros it seems to work on are using kernel 2.6.x.

It would be good to iknow if any of the currently available wifi cards work with the madwifi drivers and WPA so that anyone who wants to set up DSL and definitely wants a simply setup WPA connection that just works, can go out and buy these from online retailers on in the shops. The list that says what works 'out of the box' doesn't seem to include WPA, from this I went for the WG511T but sadly doesn't work with WPA. Hopefully a WPA gui similar to WEP's iwconfig will appear in DSL soon and then it would be a real advantage to be able to know what cards to go out and buy (for me in the UK, for others by other country) and know it just works.

Lucky13 : "That said, wifi support in Linux 2.6 is MUCH better than in 2.4 and DSL's upcoming tiny core will make it MUCH easier for wireless users to use their respective hardware. "

I'm not aware of DSL's future plans, but are you saying DSL is moving to a 2.6 based core in the near future (v5 ? ) ?

If you had WPA working in another distro, it's easy to copy your conf over to DSL, Again, though, the issue of getting it to work is a function the combination of tools available in DSL: kernel, driver, wireless extension, etc. I don't remember if there are any issues with wpa_supplicant like there are with other pieces of the puzzle.

As far as DSL's future plans, please search the forums for "tiny core." From what Robert has written, it will not be called "DSL 5." It will be 2.6-based, but very barebones.

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