Laptops :: IBM Thinkpad 380...Dsl support for PCMCIA Wireless

Hey....

Just got Dsl (latest ver) installed to Hda1 on my IBM 380ed laptop after cleaning off the HD and re-formatting, etc. Installed fine with fb800x600 boot for the display. I'm such a noob yet and am still gingerly finding my way around the desktop, but had a couple of questions relating to net connectivity via wireless cards, as I plan to use this stripped down machine just for mobile surfing and email while working.

There are a lot of the "recommended" PCMCIA wireless cards available on Ebay -- Orinoco Gold, etc.etc. but I'm curious --- I'm assuming that the latest kernel Dsl will support them, but will this old clunky Thinkpad 380 support these cards? There was something about cardbus not being supported, etc. ?? Oh, by the way, when I look at PCMCIA Card Control in System, and click on the status tab, they recognize the two cards I have (one is a net card) and they say ready.....is this positive news?

Anyone else have a 380 and have luck with wireless?

Also, I happen to have an old PCMCIA 56k modem card that actually used to work with this laptop when it had win98....Any reason it should not work now for dial tone connectivity?

Thanks in advance !!

My experience has been with two old laptops - a Compaq 1530D and an HP 5700CT and a DWL-G650 Wireless card (Atheros Madwifi drivers).

Both refused to work with the wireless card under DSL 2.2 or later but under DSL 2.1b worked fine. This is probably because of the Cardmgr in DSL 2.1b which is version 3.2.5 while later DSL's have reverted to Cardmgr version 3.2.2.

I also tried standard wired ethernet cards and these worked OK on either version of DSL. A newer laptop (Compaq N610c) worked fine with the wireless and wired ethernets on DSL 2.4.

Give 2.1b a try first would be my recommendation if you want to use wireless with old laptops.

Regards,

Jonam

Thanks, Jonam.....I'll try that. Kind of loathe to install another Dsl as it was like pulling teeth to find the proper comination of events to allow it to install to my HD the first time, but I suppose that now I know how to do it, it shouldn't be all that bad.

Actually, I was just wondering if anyone had any luck at all with the Thinkpad 380ed, specifically? I'd like to get an anecdotal thumbs up before I commit some cash to a wireless card.

Also, perhaps (somewhat) unrelated....I'm attempting to configure my 56k modem/dial up settings and when I attempt to connect, it gives me error messages, in/out error, etc. It's not automatically detecting my port for the modem -- I have to do it manually from a list, but I've tried every port. No luck....ideas?

thanks!

simpletech,

You can have a look at this website which has a lot of links to others who have tried Linux on your type of laptop.

http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ibm.html

Sorry I can't help you with your modem problem as I haven't set one up.

Regards,

Jonam

Good suggestion --

Quote

http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ibm.html

Also consider "Linux PCMCIA/CF/CardBus Card Survey" as your issues are more with support for the modem and wireless cards, rather than the lappy. Lots of compatibility info here.

A "no driver" required laptop modem, from the compatibility list, is like an external, controller-based modem for a desktop. A real no-brainer.

However, it is likely that your old modem is a "Winmodem" that required code in the Windows driver to replace the missing hardware controller. Winmodems are problematic, at best, with any Linux. Still, there is a small chance that it may be supported. Winmodem overview

I think I would start by finding modem and wireless cards that are well-supported by Linux, preferably widely used models. (Widely used translates to lots of info on the web plus easy and cheap to find.)

I'd then try to see whether there is any experience running the cards under DSL, or running them under the same Linux kernels with other distros.

Search engines can be tremendously hepful with these kinds of problems.

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