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(Vanity)Linux and Wireless Networks Help/Advice sought(Vanity)
me | 10/30/2005 | me

Posted on 10/30/2005 9:09:41 PM PST by birbear

I just inherited a Dell Inspiron 2500 notebook (Pentium 3, 700mhz, 192megs of RAM).

It's currently running WinXP Home, but it's dog-slow. I'm thinking of throwing some type of Linux on it, rather than reinstalling XP, just so I have a Linux machine to learn on and play with.

My question is about wireless networks. I just threw a Linksys wireless card in the slot thingy (PCMCIA?) and it found my home network just fine. Will I have any problems with this hardware if I switch to Linux?

Thanks a lot!

Bir


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KEYWORDS: linux
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Any help from my FRiends would be appreciated.
1 posted on 10/30/2005 9:09:42 PM PST by birbear
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To: birbear; N3WBI3

Ping to you, since you're an OSS stud!


2 posted on 10/30/2005 9:10:48 PM PST by birbear (Admit it. you clicked on the "I have already previewed" button without actually previewing the post.)
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To: birbear

no Linux people on tonight?


3 posted on 10/30/2005 9:18:49 PM PST by birbear (Admit it. you clicked on the "I have already previewed" button without actually previewing the post.)
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To: birbear
Try creating a live Linux bootable CD from an ISO file (Knoppix or Ubuntu come to mind) and start the laptop up with that.

They probably won't automatically configure your Linksys card as readily as XP does, but the live CD lets you play around with Linux's settings without installing it on your HD.

4 posted on 10/30/2005 9:20:02 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~™)
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To: birbear

Everything you ever wanted to know, and then some:

http://hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html


5 posted on 10/30/2005 9:20:02 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow (g_r)
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To: birbear

You might try knoppix.net and run from the CD....


6 posted on 10/30/2005 9:20:25 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Eternity? Smoking or nonsmoking?)
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To: birbear

Also, what model Linksys card is it?


7 posted on 10/30/2005 9:21:18 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow (g_r)
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To: Senator Bedfellow
It's crap like that page that will keep Linux off the majority of home computers.

I'm not a tech guy. I just want stuff that works.
8 posted on 10/30/2005 9:25:46 PM PST by birbear (Admit it. you clicked on the "I have already previewed" button without actually previewing the post.)
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To: birbear; rdb3

BTTT


9 posted on 10/30/2005 9:26:14 PM PST by Fiddlstix (Tagline Repair Service. Let us fix those broken Taglines. Inquire within(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: birbear

LOL - fair enough. Okay, what model Linksys card?


10 posted on 10/30/2005 9:27:39 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow (g_r)
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To: Senator Bedfellow
It's this one: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1125638812437&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

The WPC54G
11 posted on 10/30/2005 9:28:23 PM PST by birbear (Admit it. you clicked on the "I have already previewed" button without actually previewing the post.)
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To: birbear
Once in a while you will find a wireless card that isn't supported (or properly supported) by open source drivers. I have one like that. In that case, you can go to a commercial vendor like linuxant.com and purchase a driver.

If you are starting the whole thing from scratch, it is best to select the wireless card according to what's supported in the O.S. distribution you're going to use.

I have Mandriva 10.1 with KDE 3.4 on a Pentium II 400 Mhz laptop and it isn't bad at all for browsing (Firefox and Opera). In fact, some days I don't bother turning on the desktop even though the processor is supposedly six times as fast. KDE 3.4 helped a lot compared to earlier versions.

With an older laptop, however, you would quickly run out of patience trying to run OpenOffice, etc.

12 posted on 10/30/2005 9:28:53 PM PST by steve86 (@)
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To: birbear
Good card, I have one myself. There are no Linux drivers for that card, as for all cards based on the Broadcom chipset. However, it will work on Linux with ndiswrapper, a piece of software that essentially fools a Windows driver into running on a Linux system. ndiswrapper typically works very well, but it can be moderately complicated to configure. However, it can be done, and quite successfully. How's that? ;)
13 posted on 10/30/2005 9:32:09 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow (g_r)
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To: birbear

bir,

some of the distrobutions start the network before they start pcmcia (one of my major pet peeves with fedora) so you can either bring it up after boot 'service network start' or change the order of files in /etc/init.d

google on setting the order if youre in a hurry, if not Ill give you an example later but Im really busy this moment (taking breaks here and there during a dr test) Im 18 hours without food so any time I get will be spent towards that end ;)

Sorry and Ill get you a better answer in a day or two


14 posted on 10/30/2005 9:34:28 PM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: birbear

What linux lacks... User friendly doc's I here you there..

Try knoppix, its realy nice out of the box when you have tried it pm me..


15 posted on 10/30/2005 9:37:47 PM PST by N3WBI3 (If SCO wants to go fishing they should buy a permit and find a lake like the rest of us..)
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To: birbear
The best way to check out how well your hardware plays with Linux (hint-most stuff does these days), is to download and burn a copy of Knoppix. Once you have the CD, boot the sucker off the knoppix disk, and play with the programs. One word of warning: If you don't have a lot of ram, knoppix is going to be dog slow. That's because it builds a ramdisk to temporarily store files and data. Knoppix won't touch your existing hard disk unless you specifically tell it to.
16 posted on 10/30/2005 9:49:22 PM PST by zeugma (Warning: Self-referential object does not reference itself.)
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To: birbear

I loaded an ISO of Chubby Puppy LINUX and it seems to run fine on my box. You can burn this to a CD with ISOBurn.

Puppy seems to run fine on most everything I have around the house, including some older Packard Bell boxes.

Koppix is fine as well.

If you are having trouble with LINUX, try looking up and reading a HOW TO for the app or action you are trying to get to run.

Learning can be fun.


17 posted on 10/30/2005 10:24:07 PM PST by ASOC (The result of choosing between the lesser of two evils still leaves you with - evil.)
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To: birbear
I have just done something very similar. I highly recommend this distribution:

Ubuntu Linux Before you do ANYTHING, download the "Live CD" version, boot from the CD and see how well it runs. This will allow you to see all the hardware compatibility.

If it doesn't find the wireless card right away, don't worry - use the product from these people -

Linuxant

Their Driverloader product will help you set it up.

Should you require any further assistance, I'll be happy to share my knowledge.

I should point out that putting Linux on my laptop (it's an HP Compaq nx7000), revitalised its performance.

Regards, Ivan

18 posted on 10/30/2005 10:27:50 PM PST by MadIvan (You underestimate the power of the Dark Side - http://www.sithorder.com/)
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To: birbear

I just downloaded DSL (Damn Small Linux) 50MB. Sure is faster than Knoppix on my system. I am trying to figure out how to boot from my USB flashdrive.


19 posted on 10/30/2005 10:34:25 PM PST by Seven_0 (You cannot fool all of the people, ever!)
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To: Senator Bedfellow

Bookmark


20 posted on 10/31/2005 3:21:56 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel)
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