Linux drivers for Wifi cards?

Aug 2, 2005 Uncategorized

 

 

May be Linux is the most popular OS for server side applications in small environments, but still lacks of popularity in the desktop. As an example, buy a Wifi card and look for its Linux drivers. Surprise! The manufacturer includes drivers for all Windows species, but nothing about Linux.
Thanks to the Open Source Community, there are some good implementations of drivers for some chipsets:

  • MADWIFI is a free implementation of drivers for cards using the Atheros chipset.
  • rt2x00 Open Source Project for cards using the Ralink rt2400 and rt2500 chipsets.
  • Prism54.org linux driver for the 802.11g Prism GT / Prism Duette / Prism Indigo Chipsets.
  • NDIS WrapperIt is the last resort. If you cannot find a linux driver for your card, you can try this Windows wrapper of NDIS (Windows network driver API).

If you know some other projects, please let me know.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05245662311726122020 Richard

    it really depends on the chipset. sometimes, a vendor provides the same brand, same product but with different chipsets (e.g. product line europe and product line in asia).

    why linux remains to be desktop system only for techies is because to enable a wifi card (if possible), it may require compilation of sources. ndiswrapper (if you’re not using Mandriva, SuSe, or Knoppix, etc.) will also need compilation if one’s using a more esoteric distro. compilation of driver sources is definitely not for grandma