Differences between version 6 and predecessor to the previous major change of WirelessChipsets.
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| Newer page: | version 6 | Last edited on Sunday, January 16, 2005 6:57:54 pm | by GreigMcGill | Revert |
| Older page: | version 3 | Last edited on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 6:13:44 pm | by MattBrown | Revert |
@@ -10,14 +10,31 @@
* HermesWirelessChipset by Agere
!! 802.11g Chipsets (Often these support both b and g)
* [PrismGTWirelessChipset] by Intersil
+* Atheros chipset
!! 802.11a Chipsets (Often these support a, b and g)
Please fill in here
!! Which Chipset should I use?
An excellent question, it depends on what you want to do.
-The best cards for general 802.11b use are the Proxim Gold cards which contain a HermesWirelessChipset, these are well supported by Linux via a number of drivers. They will work in both AdHoc and Managed modes but they cannot do HostAP. If you want a card that can do HostAP (act as an AccessPoint), then you need to buy a card with a PrismWirelessChipset
+The best cards for general 802.11b use are the Proxim Gold cards which contain a HermesWirelessChipset, these are well supported by Linux via a number of drivers. They will work in both AdHoc and Managed modes but they cannot do HostAP. If you want a card that can do HostAP (act as an AccessPoint), then you need to buy a card with a PrismWirelessChipset.
+
+DickSmith's sell a CardBus wireless card (product number XH8225) that uses the Atheros chipset. These can be made to work under linux, but it is fiddly (see below) -- it doesn't come with the required linux drivers, and their website has a snapshot of the driver from CVS but it is too old to compile against kernel 2.6.9. Unless you are comfortable compiling a kernel from source, maybe you shouldn't consider buying one of these cards.
+
+Alternatively, you could run [Ubuntu], and install linux-restricted-modules, and bingo, instant support. The [MadWIFI|http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/] project provides distro agnostic support, also. -- GreigMcGill
+
+----
+!!! Linux Kernel Support
+
+The following is from LinuxKernel 2.6.9, but should be similar for similarly-versioned numbers
+
+Check you have support (modules or built-in) for the following:
+* CONFIG_NET_RADIO (Device Drivers -> Networking Support -> Wireless LAN)
+
+# If you have a Hermes chipset-based card or a Prism chipset-based card, then you should enable the relevant option under the same section, carefully choosing the appropriate ISA/PCI or PCMCIA/CardBus support for your card.
+# If you are using an 'Atheros' chipset-based card, you will need to download and compile an external module (not part of the vanilla linux kernel) from http://madwifi.sourceforge.net. But you should still have a kernel with CONFIG_NET_RADIO support compiled in. When this module is loaded, <tt>ifconfig -a</tt> should show a device called "ath0". Note that this driver also has a binary-only component which will taint your kernel.
+
----
-CategoryWireless
+Part of
CategoryWireless
