[Discuss] Wireless on Laptop

[Deryk Barker]

John Blomfield wrote:
> Murray Strome wrote:
>> John Blomfield wrote:
>>> Murray Strome wrote:
>>>> John Blomfield wrote:
>>>>> Murray Strome wrote:
>>>>>> Some time ago, I asked for help in trying to get a Live CD or DVD 
>>>>>> LINUX distribution that would properly recognize and configure my 
>>>>>> wireless card, which is:
>>>>>> Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
>>>>>>
>>>>> I have an Intel Pro/Wireless 2915BG in my laptop and Fedora 8 Live 
>>>>> KDE and Fedora 8 Live Gnome makes it work right out of the box. No 
>>>>> problem.
>>>>>
>>>>> John Blomfield
>>>>>
>>>>>> I had no luck with Knoppix nor with Ubuntu (though Ubuntu at 
>>>>>> least recognized the card).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On a whim, I just downloaded Mandriva One 2008 CD and tried it. 
>>>>>> It worked flawlessly!  Also, my sound card works great with it, 
>>>>>> as does Flash with Firefox.  For what I have tried to this point, 
>>>>>> it appears to be faster than either (K)Ubuntu or Knoppix. 
>>>>>> Admittedly, I haven't tried too many things.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Although I have come to like a lot about Kubuntu, at least for 
>>>>>> now, I will likely be playing with Mandriva on the laptop.
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Steve Nelson wrote
>>>>>>> Hmmmm
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have the same card in my Dell XPS laptop and Kubuntu 
>>>>>>> recognized it out of the box -- I did have to download the 
>>>>>>> restricted drivers, but that is no big deal either.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It seems weird that it didn't work for you with Kubuntu.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Steve
>>>> Steve: Did you INSTALL Kubuntu, or were you using the Live CD/DVD?  
>>>> That might be the difference.  I have not tried Fedora.
>>>> John: With Live KDE Fedora, is it relatively easy to make it 
>>>> "persistent", i.e. use an external drive to save all configuration 
>>>> changes, install new software, update old software, and save 
>>>> documents etc. in /home/<user>?  If so, I might give it a try when 
>>>> I get time.
>>>>
>>> I have installed Fedora 8 using a Live KDE CD on three computers so 
>>> far, including and laptop but I have been experimenting with just 
>>> running the Live KDE (not installed ) prior to taking it on my 
>>> travels.  In fact I created a Live version on a 2G Pen Flash Drive 
>>> and the pen provides some "persistent" storage,  In the case of the 
>>> Live CD you can save data also by using a USB Pen Drive or 
>>> presumably a USB external drive, just mount the drives in the normal 
>>> way and copy files to them.  I am not sure about whether you would 
>>> be able to access a eSATA external drive?  If you are using a Live 
>>> CD I don't think it would be possible to update any software because 
>>> the "old" packages are on the read only CD and can't be changed but 
>>> on a Pen Drive it may be possible?  My laptop BIOS treats the Pen 
>>> Drive like another Hard Drive and not as a "removable drive".  In 
>>> the boot sequence you have to set the Pen Drive as the 1st Hard 
>>> Drive to get it to boot, it will not recognize the Pen Drive as USB 
>>> media.  All this is very BIOS dependent; my main computer is now 3 
>>> to 4 years old and its BIOS will not boot from a Pen Drive, it just 
>>> does not recognize it at boot time either as USB or HD.
>>>
>>> I have also been looking at Fedora's "livecd-tools" which enable you 
>>> to create a custom CD iso which you can then burn on a CD or Pen 
>>> Drive as a Live image or a normal Install image.  livecd-tools 
>>> creates the iso by downloading the packages you want using Red Hat's 
>>> kickstart file format for administrator network installs etc.  This 
>>> of course means you get the latest packages at the time of 
>>> creation.  The tools ensure that all the dependencies are taken care 
>>> of and there are sample kickstart files to ensure you get a basic 
>>> working system that you can add to or subtract from.
>>>
>>> John Blomfield
>>>
>> I have downloaded Fedora Core 8 Live DVD.  I cannot figure out how to 
>> set up the wireless card.  If I look at network configuration, and 
>> try to activate the wireless card, it fails.  If I go to the wireless 
>> settings tab, I cannot find anything to enable me to detect my 
>> wireless settings.  I couldn't find any clear instructions in the 
>> Fedora help, nor on the Fedora website.
>> I am probably looking in the wrong places!  Could you (or someone) 
>> please point me in the correct direction?
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Murray
>>
> I assume you are talking about the Live KDE CD ( not DVD? ).  If so 
> then the wireless network is managed by knetworkmanager which is a KDE 
> wrap for NetworkManager.  There should be a small icon on the bottom 
> right hand side of the panel.  It looks like a staircase!  
Only if you are connected. If not it looks like a lock(?) with a cross 
over it.
> Right click on the icon and a popup will give you some options to 
> enable wireless. If you double click on the icon it will pop up a 
> dialog to list available wireless networks and configuration of 
> encription etc.  I also add an applet to the panel that gives 
> information about connection signal strength etc and shows if you are 
> connect properly.
But if you don't have the appropriate modules loaded you won't get any 
wireless options.