Wireless and free to move
The world of Linux is filled with potential. An operating system that doesn’t require payment to a very large corporation. The ability to tinker (and break things) which can only bring joy to the heart of the average alarm clock disassembler. A chance to program without having to program, if you see the nuance. Tons of support possibilities (metric or Imperial, your choice); if you can’t find someone to commisserate with your joys and sorrows then you need to check your Internet connection. And then there’s wireless…
This laptop was purchased back in late 2005, (which means that the warranty period ends soon; time to consider my next acquisition), and I had shopped carefully. The idea of Linux onboard, even if only in the “belt and suspenders mode” of a dual-boot machine appealed to me. I verified the component manifest, and checked support forums to see that the wireless chipset was supported. With green lights on the operating board, I felt clear to proceed.
Under Windows, the only complaint remains with the modem that I never use. Even if I disable it, the computer still wants to know what to do with new found hardware, and if I activate it, then I face daily stalls on the information highway, as the modem vies for my attention. Minor detail.
Under Linux, the wireless factor has remained devilish, not daemonish. I’ve gone through kernel recompiles, module tinkering, ndiswrapper, distribution changes. Slackware, Mandrake, SUSE, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint. All slipped on the muddy patch of wireless connection. Open access point, WEP, WPA; I sometimes “saw” the access point, a mirage, but no IP was ever accorded. Until yesterday.
I decided to dump Broadcom. A friend had a spare Atheros card, pulled from a Toshiba laptop some months before. No brand loyalty involved; it was a card in the required Mini-PCI form factor. Twenty screws removed, horrified looks from my spouse as the laptop became a pile of parts (remember, we’ve had alarm clocks) and a quick yank and poke as the old card gave way for the new(er). Reassembled, everything worked under Windows once the drivers had been found on the Toshiba site. And then, the reboot into Linux Mint 4.0 . Without hesitation, the wizard required my WPA passkey and IT WORKED. After years spent tripping over an ethernet cable, my tether was no longer needed. Successful and gleeful; what a rush!
The only thing that doesn’t work “as expected” is a tool called Wireshark. Apparently Atheros hasn’t released “promisucuous mode” drivers, so my chance to eavesdrop on the world are more limited than before. A small penalty.
