Good replacement to Intel Wireless Pro 5100AGN
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Hello Everyone,
I trade my old PS3 with an Msi MS-1722, all the hardware works with Free Drivers except for the Wireless (Intel Wireless Pro 5100AGN) that doesn't have (yet) a Free Firmware, so for now I am using a Realtek RTL8187SE from my old netbook Msi Wind U100.
My question is, what is the best thing to do ? Keep this wireless card and wait until a free driver is proposed by Intel or by the Community (and if yes where can I fallow the advance of this ?), or should I bought a better new Wireless Card (this wireless card is not as powerfull as the Intel one), and if so what Wireless card would you propose ?
Thanks in Advance,
Luis Da Costa
I'm fairly sure that's the same wireless card that I've got in my laptop. I don't use it because I don't have the free firmware, which can be inconvenient.
I've been considering buying a USB wifi card, when I get the chance someday. You could check out this webpage:
http://h-node.org/wifi/catalogue/en/1/1/undef/undef/yes/USB/undef/undef
Here are the usual excuses for Intel not being able to release the source code:
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2008-September/010093.html
And here is a good response to it:
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2008-September/010155.html
I doubt Intel will ever release the source code, simply because most people don't know or care about these non-free firmware issues.
Good luck with whatever you decide. :)
Weird :S My Wireless wifi card works with Fedora 17....
I'm using a netbook wifi card, but I just wanted to know if there was any (internal wifi card) alternative, as good as the intel one, thanks for the answer anyways :D
I'm pretty sure the 4000AGN series are opensource... but I'm not really sure about that :S...
Thanks once again for the help :D
Fedora ships with proprietary firmware, which is probably why it doesn't work.
AFAIK that's the main issue that prevents Fedora from becoming an FSF-endorsed distribution. That and they use the name "Linux" not "GNU/Linux".
Yeah, wireless is a pretty large issue for Free Software.
Fedora does have a clear policy about what can be included in the distribution, and it seems to be followed carefully. The policy requires that most software and all fonts be available under a free license, but makes an exception for certain kinds of nonfree firmware. Unfortunately, the decision to allow that firmware in the policy keeps Fedora from meeting the free system distribution guidelines.
Probably a matter of what device they have on their own that would cost a lot of money to change, of even just the community.
Had Intel "Free" any driver for any of their Wireless chip yet ?
> Had Intel "Free" any driver for any of their Wireless chip yet ?
They (like Broadcom) free only the kernel-side drivers, not the
firmware running on the device (uploaded by the driver). Would not
expect this to change quickly. It's possible to change internal wifi in
many laptops, although some have BIOSes that won't boot if an unknown
card is used.
I was hopping that Intel was a little bit... "open ?".... because I already knew that Broadcom in terms of drivers is one of the worse in my opinion.
This is kind of sad in my opinion :S... A lot of others companies do it, they win with this, and sometimes they have more "secret" stuff to hide... I really don't understand... And to be honest, I'm pretty sure Intel will do this again if they really start pushing with the High-end GPU's.
I am a member!
You need a PCIe wireless card with an Atheros chipset:
There ae no other good solutions at this time.
We sell them here (and 25% of the profits go to help the Trisquel project):
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
There is a broadcom card that is free software compatible although I would not recommend it. Broadcom has been resistent to GNU/Linux and the developers themselves don't recommend the chipset (at least not yet). So unless you have it already... go with one of the Atheros/Realtek options.
The other alternative is to get a USB Realtek card (2nd best choice). RTL8187B, RTL8187L, and RTL8187 are all good chipsets for general Internet use. We also have these. There is also an AR9170 atheros chipset which we offer for N USB. It is ok from a free software perspective too. I'd only recommended it if you wanted to setup an access point though. There will hopefully be (we're working on it) a new Atheros chipset for USB adapters in the the next several months.
[off-topic]
I seriously think that the idea behind of the website is wonderful, and not only for us Free Software Users, but for everyone.
Just one question, have you ever tried to communicate with anyone at OMG Ubuntu etc... so they could make a review of what you do ? That could be interesting for everyone !
[/off-topic]
I've found the Realtek as substitute, to be honest I really start to love this little brand (Realtek), even on Mac OsX and knowing that there is no Machintosh with a Realtek Wireless Chip (if I'm not wrong), they made drivers for Hackintosh Users, and now we see Free Drivers on the kernel :D Because of this my question could be the exact opposite of the question for Intel : "Does Realtek have any non-free driver for they wireless cards for Linux ? (Need to look at this at h-node.org tho)"
> Because of this my question could be the
> exact opposite of the question for Intel : "Does Realtek have any
> non-free driver for they wireless cards for Linux ? (Need to look at
> this at h-node.org tho)"
There is some nonfree firmware for their cards, as
https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git;a=blob;f=WHENCE;h=eb66e5c99e3f543b36f1a7e676e11f2be7fd0ef2;hb=HEAD
and
http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/LATEST-3.5.0/linux-libre-3.5-gnu.log
show. I don't know if these devices work without it (there is a wired
network card that works without firmware requested by its driver). I
don't know drivers not included with the kernel.
Dammit you just killed my dream of a good Free Driver company... xD I didn't knew that those kind of lists existed, I will save it to use it as reference before buying something (side-by-side with h-node).
I am a member!
No. We haven't done any serious marketing. It'll happen when we are good and ready though. There will probably be some reviews for our laptops in the coming weeks and months.
I don't like the word "competition" but I will use it. There is only 1 competitor out there, and it's System76 but they are expensive... very expensive (and good material too :D). If a lot of the System76 users see the site, the idea, and all the stuff around it, I think that your business, and Trisquel in general will gain a lot with this (and I'm not talking just about money).
But once again, if there is need for anything that I can do, then you know where to ask (I really want to contribute to this project, and to this community, but don't know how to do it more than what I've already done... I taught of a Portuguese section of the forum, or even reorganization the forum like the Arch Linux one with specific categories, but this is just an idea, and it is out-of-topic) :D
I am a member!
I'll refrain from talking about System76 and others. I have a lot of negative thoughts about what they are doing. I don't believe the little guys are a threat in any way though. Not to ThinkPenguin and not to free software. Distributions which bundle non-free software and major corporations on the other hand do pose a major threat.
Despite the appearances I don't think System76 and other GNU/Linux competitors have any significant effect on the market. In comparison we are making a huge dent behind the scenes. That will eventually lead to more direct and obvious growth. We will dwarf the competition in terms of sales in years to come.
Part of this is because we aren't targeting the same markets that System76 is. There approach is completely different. They aren't going to be front and center when things start heating up.
As far as any threat to free software. It comes from the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and major hardware “manufacturers” like Dell. These are the companies which are acting hostile towards free software. They implement digital restrictions and attempt to hinder growth through anti-competitive means.
There are many aspects that we have to improve on. In many places our competitors have done a better job even. There is no question about it. Just remember good things are right around the corner!
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