[TriLUG] A good PCMCIA wireless card for Redhat linux....

[Steve Litt]

On Wednesday 14 February 2007 15:53, dsandif wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been battling with Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 trying to get a Cisco
> Aironet 350 and a Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g wireless adapter to work on
> it. After much reading and fighting, it sounds like the latter card is
> still fairly too new for RHEL 4 not to mention that Cisco only has
> drivers for windows for it so I pulled it and popped in the 350. Tried
> to follow the directions based on what Cisco says to:
>
> dohttp://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo_350/350card
>s/linux/instlcfg/icglchp3.htm#wp1041126
>
> But to no avail. The sh ./cwinstall script they made wouldn't run even
> after making sure it was in the proper directory, so I did a ./install
> instead and got a couple of dependences, got them installed, re-ran
> ./install and got more errors than I could begin to wrap my brain
> around. Went and checked /vary/log/messages for any error messages or
> notes and couldn't make any sense of it other that the fact that the
> card wasn't working. Setting up wireless in Linux isn’t easy to begin
> with and setting up wireless on Redhat is even worse. It could just be
> my frustration talking here but
> after battling with this for three days, I’ve just about had it. I
> calmed down a bit enough to got do a check for hardware compatibility of
> wireless cards and even though it was from 2004, I didn't see either
> of my cards on the list which makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time
> with Cisco. Looked at ndswrapper and still considering it. Are there
> better PCMCIA wireless nics out there that won't drive you to near
> insanity trying to set them up? I am actively searching the web as I
> send this message so I know I'll get dozens of hits on this, but I did
> want to see what the Linux community has to say about this, thxs.
>
> D-

I tried cardbus cards from Linksys and Belkin -- no joy no matter what. Then I 
tried a Linksys WUSB54G version 4 USB nic. It was drop dead easy with 
ndiswrapper, and it was doable with Mandriva's packaged rt2570 driver.

The way I see it, USB is no less convenient than cardbus/PCMCIA. With both, 
you cannot leave the nic in when putting it in the case to carry it around. 
The USB nics (at least the ones with cables) have the advantage of being able 
to move them around for best signal.

Here's how I got the WUSB54G version 4 to work:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm#_Wireless_Compaq_Linksys_wusb54g

HTH

SteveT

Steve Litt
Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
http://www.troubleshooters.com/