Request for WLAN-card support
hi together,
I would like to switch to Trisquel and tested it also out already with a Live-system. There I found out, that my WLAN-card and my Ethernet-card are not supported, although they run with Ubuntu and ubuntu-based distros since years already. I have run it from Ubuntu 8.10 until Ubuntu 13, then switched over to LinuxMint 9 Isadora. There I went to to LinuxMint 15. Then I switched away to Ubunt-Pack (ucrainian ubuntu-based distro) as this distro inuxMint will only get fresh sources every two years from now on.
But I would really like to come to Trisquel, because I first test went quite well so far, although I found out, that your distro does not support my Wifi-card and my ethernet-card.
Here some Information, which might be important for the administrators here:
Wifi-card:
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
Ethernet-card:
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
So my question would be: can these both please be supported for your upcomeing release of Trisquel 7?? Is there a possibility?? This would help a lot and make switching more easy for me.
Thanks for all support in advance.
The Trisquel project only distributes free (as in freedom) software. At the kernel-level, where the drivers and firmware are, that means using Linux-libre. Ubuntu's kernels include proprietary drivers and firmware.
Apparently, both your network devices cannot be used in freedom. As for the Ethernet card, you really are unlucky: Linux-libre handles almost all Ethernet cards. As for Wifi cards, most chipsets now depend on proprietary firmware and it is not easy to pick a card that works: https://trisquel.info/fr/forum/tehnoetic-wireless-usb-adapter-awarded-fsfs-ryf-certificate#comment-55244
Anyway, acquiring such a device is what you need to have the whole control on your system. You deserve it. The thread I referenced above will give you advices on where to buy such a card and have the guarantee that Trisquel will handle it out of the box (ThinkPenguin and Tehnoetic). You can try to get the same models elsewhere. See, for instance, this recent thread: https://trisquel.info/fr/forum/another-ar9271-unex-dnua-93f-usb-wifi-vendor
I personally bought this Wifi adapter: http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/?model=TL-WN722N&version=V1
Notice however that the manufacturers sometimes (rarely though) change the chipset in a given model. In other terms, outside ThinkPenguin and Tehnoetic, you may have a bad surprise: a model that was reported to work with Linux-libre but does not anymore because the chipset was changed.