Broadcom Wireless-G and Linux

I've got a fairly new laptop with an internal Broadcom Maxperformance
Wireless-G adapter. I'm thinking of installing Linux on it, but I'm
wondering if the adapter will still function. As far as I know, there
isn't any Linux support for Wireless-G yet, but since -G is compatible
with -B, is there any way for Linux to use the adapter like a
Wireless-B device?

On 15 Nov 2003 21:31:48 -0800, John wrote:
> I've got a fairly new laptop with an internal Broadcom Maxperformance
> Wireless-G adapter. I'm thinking of installing Linux on it, but I'm
> wondering if the adapter will still function. As far as I know, there
> isn't any Linux support for Wireless-G yet, but since -G is compatible
> with -B, is there any way for Linux to use the adapter like a
> Wireless-B device?

No, this is chipset-dependent, and there's a variety of chipsets
for each brand of 802.11 out there. Some are supported under linux,
some aren't - and there are G chips which are supported. Prism2,
used by among others 3Com, for instance. I don't know the specific
card you've got, but Broadcom and wireless under linux haven't tended
to bode well.

Bjørn
--
Bjørn Tore Sund "When in fear, and when in doubt;
bjornts@ii.uib.no Run in circles, scream and shout!"
Interaction! - Anonymous
http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/

Bjørn Tore Sund <bjornts@ii.uib.no> wrote in message news:<slrnbret70.38q.bjornts@dyret.mi.uib.no>...
> On 15 Nov 2003 21:31:48 -0800, John wrote:
> > I've got a fairly new laptop with an internal Broadcom Maxperformance
> > Wireless-G adapter. I'm thinking of installing Linux on it, but I'm
> > wondering if the adapter will still function.
>
> No, this is chipset-dependent, and there's a variety of chipsets
> for each brand of 802.11 out there. Some are supported under linux,
> some aren't - and there are G chips which are supported.
> ...
> Bjørn

There is some support through Linuxant (www.linuxant.com), but you will
have to pay $15 to license their driver encapsulator software. They
take windows drivers, and write a software layer that goes between the
linux system and the windows driver. Some here reported this working about
a month ago. (search for broadcom in this group with google.) They
also support other chipsets with windows drivers. Other than
that I think you need to find a prism2 chipset to get linux support in
802.11g (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Me -- I don't need the speed, and am going to try to get an Orinoco based
802.11b card working. It looks like a Dell Truemobile 1150 will work,
and these are $35 on EBay.

I have no problem with a company (linuxant) coming up with working drivers for
otherwise unsupported hardware, and expecting to get paid. I have not
used these, but a few years ago I was happy to go that route to get
robust sound card drivers.

-- Robert Neff
google@neffs.net goes into a spam bucket, thank you sven. Try robert
at that domain.

Well, i worked a bit on wireless stuff.

We used NetGear 802.11b pcmcia card.

We started with a RH 9.0 std distro and compiled a brand new 2.4.22 kernel.

We had host_ap as drivers for the card and the Wireless Tools from the
new kernel.

We tried zeroconf (zcip4) to obtain dynamical IPv4 addresses and an
experimental protocol call AODV for routing stuff ( including bridging
to route packets from wireless to ethernet lan)

The new host_ap is now divided in 3 different modules:
drivers
wep encryption
radius authentication

All is working good.

HTH.

JLB :-)


Robert Neff wrote:

>Bjørn Tore Sund <bjornts@ii.uib.no> wrote in message news:<slrnbret70.38q.bjornts@dyret.mi.uib.no>...
>
>>On 15 Nov 2003 21:31:48 -0800, John wrote:
>>
>>> I've got a fairly new laptop with an internal Broadcom Maxperformance
>>> Wireless-G adapter. I'm thinking of installing Linux on it, but I'm
>>> wondering if the adapter will still function.
>>>
>>No, this is chipset-dependent, and there's a variety of chipsets
>>for each brand of 802.11 out there. Some are supported under linux,
>>some aren't - and there are G chips which are supported.
>>...
>>Bjørn
>>
>
>There is some support through Linuxant (www.linuxant.com), but you will
>have to pay $15 to license their driver encapsulator software. They
>take windows drivers, and write a software layer that goes between the
>linux system and the windows driver. Some here reported this working about
>a month ago. (search for broadcom in this group with google.) They
>also support other chipsets with windows drivers. Other than
>that I think you need to find a prism2 chipset to get linux support in
>802.11g (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
>
>Me -- I don't need the speed, and am going to try to get an Orinoco based
>802.11b card working. It looks like a Dell Truemobile 1150 will work,
>and these are $35 on EBay.
>
>I have no problem with a company (linuxant) coming up with working drivers for
>otherwise unsupported hardware, and expecting to get paid. I have not
>used these, but a few years ago I was happy to go that route to get
>robust sound card drivers.
>
>-- Robert Neff
>google@neffs.net goes into a spam bucket, thank you sven. Try robert
>at that domain.
>