# Which wireless adapter is working properly?

## Cquence

Greetings people.

I'm preparing to become a Gentoo user but since this is my first time experiencing Linux i could use some help cause i'm having a hard time finding resources to read or learn about my problems.

I'm going to buy a LinkSys WRT54GS 802.11bg with Speed Boaster but i dont know which is the suitable network adapter i shall buy.

Can someone please help me which LinkSys wireless PCI adapter shall i seek to buy?

Thank you in advance,

Cquence.

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## Adrien

Hi!   :Smile: 

The important thing with wireless adapter is the manufacturer's chipset the adapter is based on. Some chipsets have native linux drivers when some others don't (which can be a real pain).

You should get an atheros or ralink based PCI adapter. For example, D-Link DWL G650 (atheros).

Have a search on the forums also, there's a lot about this.

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## Cquence

I heart about Prizm 2.0/2.5/3.0 chipsets aswell.

This isn't a supported chipset?

Now way about DLink again.

I already use a DLink router and its the worst I've ever tried.

Looking forward for a LinkSys set.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

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## Adrien

 *Cquence wrote:*   

> I heart about Prizm 2.0/2.5/3.0 chipsets aswell.
> 
> This isn't a supported chipset?

 

Yes, it is also, everything's that directly into the kernel is supported and the other chipset well or mostly supported are:

atheros

prism54/prismGT (but be careful with newer cards, I think drivers are not ready yet)

lots of ralink chipsets

Texas Instruments - acx100 acx111

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## afabco

Actually, just a comment.  atheros was a good choice up until maybe a month or two ago.  The madwifi folks (linux atheros drivers) are trying to generate a new set of madwifi next generation, and madwifi + wpa_supplicant is unstable and gotcha prone.  I'm sure it'll straighten out in time, but it may not be the best thing to get started with right now.

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## fixit

ACX100/111 isn't in the kernel yet, but I've had good success with the driver. It even seems to support Master mode now, which is pretty nice. I get a 48mbps link between 2 machines with g cards and no access point or router between them.

One extra thing to note is that you need to not only pay attention to model number, but sometimes revision number when you get a wireless card specifically to use in a Linux machine. I know that for some cards they change chipsets between revisions of the same part.

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## Adrien

 *afabco wrote:*   

> Actually, just a comment.  atheros was a good choice up until maybe a month or two ago.  The madwifi folks (linux atheros drivers) are trying to generate a new set of madwifi next generation, and madwifi + wpa_supplicant is unstable and gotcha prone.  I'm sure it'll straighten out in time, but it may not be the best thing to get started with right now.

 

Madwifi works just fine, I'm even using an atheros card as an AP. Of course the driver is still young, but at least it works.

The acx100 drivers works quite well now, but on some systems, you may be unlucky. It's a completely reverse-engineered driver contrary to madwifi.

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## afabco

not to be difficult, but no, it doesn't.  

And yes, I'm using the ~'ed versions of madwifi-tools, madwifi-driver and wpa_supplicant.

My point being the original poster said he was preparing to become a new user.  This stuff is still unstable, and still marked as unstable.  This stuff is hard enough to get started in to begin with.  For a new user, why ask for more trouble?  

It may be that madwifi works fine by itself, but not in combination with wpa_supplicant, or it may be that the wpa_supplicant is the culprit.  Or it may be wpa_supplicant in combination with phase of the moon.   Whichever, the  bottom line is they still don't work consistently, stably and reliably.  

As I said, I expect it to be straightened out in time, but I can't in good conscious recommend madwifi in it's current state.  (In fact, I can't in good consciousness recommend madwifi for gentoo at all anymore, but that's another rant.)

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## Adrien

 *afabco wrote:*   

> not to be difficult, but no, it doesn't.

 

Not to be annoying, but yes it does. What kind of troubles have you run into? 

 *Quote:*   

> My point being the original poster said he was preparing to become a new user.  This stuff is still unstable, and still marked as unstable.  This stuff is hard enough to get started in to begin with.  For a new user, why ask for more trouble?

 

It is true that the new madwifi implies just one or two more tricks to get an iface up n' running. I also find that /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.example looks really scary. I was still scared about it last week. But if you have a quick look at the docs, it's not really harder to use than acx100. And he can still use WEP if he wants. On my side, it hasn't been possible to use acx100 combined with wpa_supplicant (well, it worked only with ndiswrapper and the connection wasn't stable at all) whereas there's even a madwifi USE flag for wpa_supplicant. Maybe wpa_supplicant and acx100 worked for you?

The madwifi-stuff packages are still marked unstable but how many ~arch packages just work fine?   :Smile: 

[/quote]As I said, I expect it to be straightened out in time, but I can't in good conscious recommend madwifi in it's current state.  (In fact, I can't in good consciousness recommend madwifi for gentoo at all anymore, but that's another rant.)[/quote]

It's reasonnable not to recommend madwifi if you encountered problems with it. The thing is: The acx100 driver is made for cards based on TI acx100/111 chipsets and, TI said they will NEVER EVER release specs for these chipsets.   :Evil or Very Mad: 

That's why between atheros and TI my choice is made (even if acx100 is a GREAT job) as sooner or later madwifi-driver will be stable, and full-featured whereas acx100 may never be. I just think it's better to get a card that will someday be fully supported and have a completely stable driver than buy one that may never be fully functioning. 

Anyway, I just hope Cquence will be satisfied with the choice he'll make.   :Rolling Eyes: 

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## certocivitas

Didn't the latest wpa_supplicant ebuild drop support for madwifi?

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## Adrien

 *certocivitas wrote:*   

> Didn't the latest wpa_supplicant ebuild drop support for madwifi?

 

Well I think wpa_supplicant 0.4.5 did but 0.5 doesn't...

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## afabco

 *Quote:*   

> not to be difficult, but no, it doesn't.
> 
> Not to be annoying, but yes it does. What kind of troubles have you run into?
> 
> 

 

No.  It ....

heh.  ok.  I'll be the one to stop.

I took the opportunity to try it with wep and with none, and it does work with wep and none, so it looks like it's just the wpa parts that aren't working.  Whether that's on the wpa_supplicant side or the madwifi side, I don't know.

I have figured out how to go back to what does work, which is:

net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.3.9-r1

net-wireless/madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420-r1

gentoo-sources-2.6.13-gentoo-r5

So this'll be fine until the new stuff stabilizes.

Regarding the stability of ~-ed ebuilds, well, by definition ~ implies testing/develop/unstable.  It's true that ~'ed stuff is sometimes quite stable, and will work fine (e.g. the madwifi drivers I'm using now).  But I still think newbs should avoid, it should be avoided for production machines untill well proven in your own environment.

It is a problem that a lot of ebuild maintainers are not good about moving their ~'ed stuff to stable in a timely fashion; I don't know how to deal with that as they aren't on my payroll   :Very Happy: 

Good Luck

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## Adrien

 *afabco wrote:*   

> No.  It ....
> 
> heh.  ok.  I'll be the one to stop.

 

 :Laughing: 

 *afabco wrote:*   

> I took the opportunity to try it with wep and with none, and it does work with wep and none, so it looks like it's just the wpa parts that aren't working.  Whether that's on the wpa_supplicant side or the madwifi side, I don't know.

 

I saw a post about this lately. People who are experiencing exactly the same problem as you, or the completely opposite problem. For example, Longfield who's pissin' round the french forum can use WPA encryption perfectly but when it comes to WEP or no encryption at all, it doesn't work with wpa_supplicant but only with wireless-tools.   :Rolling Eyes: 

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## lbrtuk

 *Cquence wrote:*   

> Looking forward for a LinkSys set.

 

Linksys are generally broadcom users. Almost all of their current wifi adaptors use broadcom chips, which only work under ndiswrapper or a native Free driver which isn't finished yet.

I've had good luck with recent Belkins. These days they tend to use RaLink chips, which have pretty decent native Free drivers.

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## afabco

any suggestions for a prism54 based pci card?  (or even...dare I say it....usb?...)

2.6.15 has some nice stuff I'd like to play with, so I tried (again) the latest madwifi + wpa again this weekend with my two atheros based machines (pcmcia and a pci) , but the sumbies still refuse to do wpa.

On the other hand, is there a way to turn on verbose logging of some sort, so that I maybe can see what's happening when trying to connect?  Then perhaps I can contribute to a solution rather than just bitching about it (tho bitching is fun  :Smile:  )

Thanks

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## Adrien

 *afabco wrote:*   

> any suggestions for a prism54 based pci card?  (or even...dare I say it....usb?...)

 

If you buy one, try to find an older card. The thing is prism54 drivers don't work with newer prism54-based cards.

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## afabco

ah hell....  :Evil or Very Mad: 

Guess I'll spend $20 on a ralink, see how it does.  Googling doesn't give a clear answer as to whether it works with wpa_supplicant yet or not.  Guess I'll find out.

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## Adrien

 *afabco wrote:*   

> Guess I'll spend $20 on a ralink, see how it does.  Googling doesn't give a clear answer as to whether it works with wpa_supplicant yet or not.  Guess I'll find out.

 

Ralink is a good idea and the driver will sooner or later be full-featured. I read on this forum that wpa support is included in the driver so it's not needed to use wpa_supplicant with it. There's everything you need in /etc/conf.d/wireless, but you'll have to apply a patch to the latest baselayout version. Have a look here and read the whole post.

What's explained in the post didn't work for me but I'm using ndiswrapper instead and it works just fine with wpa_supplicant, so in a way or another, it should work for you too.   :Wink: 

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