Wireless card configuration
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Hello,
I just installed Trisquel 5.5 STS Brigantia. It is running fine except for one thing.
The Wireless card is not preconfigged and does not work.
How do I configure the wireless?
I do not know what wireless card I am using.
I am using an 802.11b connection.
I am using an Android phone with Sprint Mobile Hotspot (I think it is either 2.3 Gingerbread or 4.0 ICS).
I am a member!
On the Trisquel 5.5 STS machine run:
lspci | grep Wireless
Paste the output here. Your wireless card is probably not supported in Trisquel as it is dependent on non-free drivers/firmware or there is no support for GNU/Linux.
It said I had an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection.
It is supported by GNU/Linux as I used to have other GNU/Linux systems on the laptop.
Those other GNU/Linux you have used were relying on a Linux kernel that includes some proprietary drivers and firmware (such as the kernel released by Linus Torvalds himself). A blob was responsible for your Wifi card functioning (and, who knows?, spying on you, opening a backdoor, etc.). Trisquel, like any 100% free distribution, uses the Linux-libre kernel where every blob is removed.
The recommended solution is to acquire a new Wifi card that perfectly works with Linux-libre. It is not a simple task as a same model can actually have some cards with a freedom-friendly chipset and some other cards with a chipset requiring a proprietary firmware. The only 100% sure way to freedom-friendly hardware (besides going from seller to seller testing the hardware one by one until finding one that works on your Trisquel laptop), is to buy it from ThinkPenguin. ThinkPenguin is the only seller that guarantees that every device it sells works with Linux-libre, hence Trisquel. Besides, by using the link I have just given, 25% of the benefits on your purchase are donated to the Trisquel project.
I am a member!
:) What Magic Banna said. None of the Intel wireless cards will work. There are basically two companies with chipsets that will. There is a Broadcom chipset which I would not recommend (the developers who wrote it don't recommend it and I believe they were or are paid by Broadcom to code it). That said some people here have this chipset and have been satisified with it. Then the other chipsets which work are all from Atheros. We've been working with Atheros lately and they have been very cooperative with the free software community on getting a new USB N chipset to work with free software. It Is what our next generation USB dongle will be based on (still many months away).
If it is like my Broadcom BCM4313 then it is something to forget :s... everything is available.... but there is no Firmware ! The worst is that the suppose driver file is available, but (I don't know really how) something else is missing, reported to be "the firmware".
For this reason it is a very good idea to buy hardware which work with Free Software. If you buy that kind of hardware you are not restricted anymore on what software you use on your computer.
I personally am very picky of hardware and do tons of research (about performance and does it work on free software) before I buy anything, and after that I make tons of research to find from where I can get it cheapest. It is sort of perversion, I think.
If you are not a pervert like me you could just buy hardware from ThinkPenguin. One very good thing with them none has mentioned here is that if you buy from them you don't pay to Microsoft of software installed on your computer.
moilami, I just installed Trisquel on what I had. It's a WinBook. I will be getting a ThinkPenguin External USB WiFi adapter. It's cheaper that way.
I did not point at you. It was just a general note what I wrote.
Why don't buy an internal Wifi PCI Card from ThinkPenguin ? In my opinion it is better than having to go everywhere with you Wifi Adapter :S... I had the chance to own a laptop with a Realtek Wifi card compatible with the Linux-Libre Kernel, but if I didn't then I would have purchased an internal Wireless Card for my laptop... but this is just me :D
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