Trisquel compatible USB nano wireless
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I have a Thinkpad X201. It has an Intel wireless adapter, which I've discovered Trisquel doesn't support.
I need a working system including Wifi by tomorrow.
It seems my options are:
1) Install the non-free iwlwifi firmware.
2) Buy a USB wireless adapter known to work in Trisquel.
3) Replace Trisquel with a non-free distro.
I'm trying to find information on which nano USB adapters will or will not work, but having trouble finding anything. :(
ThinkPenguin has a mini adapter but doesn't do guaranteed next day delivery to UK.
Can anyone confirm if any of the adapters on these pages work:
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Networking/cat/Wireless/subcat/Adapters---USB
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/networking/wireless-adaptors-usb
You'd be extremely lucky to get this delivered to you by tomorrow. I wouldn't even try it. I'd suggest ordering the adapter from Think Penguin, and using an OS that includes those firmware blobs in the meantime if you must. You can probably make do with a live Ubuntu system for those couple of days, for example.
By the way, all Intel wireless cards require proprietary firmware blobs and therefore won't work in Trisquel. In fact, very few wireless devices work without firmware blobs, which is why I say you would have to be extremely lucky to get one that doesn't by tomorrow. The only ones that work are:
* Those that have their firmware embedded into them (rather than loaded by the OS).
* Pre-installed wireless cards whose proprietary firmware is loaded by the BIOS.
* Certain Qualcomm Atheros devices from a previous generation, such as the TPE-N150USB sold by Think Penguin (thanks to efforts from Think Penguin and a former Qualcomm Atheros employee).
> You'd be extremely lucky to get this delivered to you by tomorrow.
Scan and Ebuyer both do next day if ordered before 17:00/18:00 respectively, hence why I wanted to know if they have a compatible one in stock.
(Everything I'd seen at that point suggested it being an Intel issue, not an almost-everything-except-Atheros one.)
> using an OS that includes those firmware blobs in the meantime if you must
There is no meantime - tomorrow is "here's your machine, all setup and ready to go".
Without any compatible USB adapters from a store that does next day (and more than 30 seconds of uninterrupted time to actually have any chance of checking/ordering), I have to choose between options 1 and 3, which I'm pretty sure means not using Trisquel. :(
This is particularly annoying since I've already spent a long evening setting things up and I'll now have to repeat that tonight.
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From a more general perspective, I'd like to understand what causes the need for non-trivial firmware for wireless adapters.
Obviously there is more involved than just IEEE 802.11 compliance or there'd just be firmware for each variant of that standard, so I'm curious what else is involved...?
Wifi cards require firmware, i.e., code executed on the card's processor (not on the main processor). Every Wifi chipset needs a different firmware. Nowadays, this firmware usually is in the kernel and uploaded to the Wifi card. Like any software, this firmware ought to be free. Unfortunately, Linus Torvalds accepts proprietary firmware (blobs) in Linux. As a consequence, constructors seize the opportunity to abuse users. It even is probable that such blobs include malware. Spyware for instance. Of course, the Trisquel project rejects proprietary firmware and the kernels it distributes do not include these blobs. The related chipsets do not work.
Nowadays, only a few Wifi chipsets have free firmware. AR9170, AR9270 and AR9271 are the ones you may encounter. The firmware named "ath9k_htc" supports them. It was freed thanks to Chris' advocacy (Trisquel user and ThinkPenguin's CEO). So the situation is worse than "almost-everything-except-Atheros" fails to work in freedom because not all Atheros chipsets have free firmware.
To make things worse, it is hard to know the chipset a model has. Constructors do not write it on the wrapping... because they sometimes change it, i.e., a Wifi card may work when another card of the same model (but produced earlier or later) may not. So, either you acquire a card that has been recently said to work in freedom (like Diomede's) and hope that the chipset has not changed since then (the risk is little but exists) or you buy from http://libre.thinkpenguin.com or http://tehnoetic.com (the only two vendors that guarantee that their hardware works in complete freedom). The second-hand market is a possibility too. If the vendor indicates the chipset, for instance by showing the output of 'lsusb'.
By tomorrow, you may find the model Diomede suggests in a physical store. You can bet on the TL-WN722N by TP-LINK too. https://trisquel.info/forum/moving-trisquel indicates it included the AR9271 chipset in December. I bought four or five cards of that model years ago (it had the same chipset). In this way, I can give/sell some to users of computers I free with Trisquel.
> Every Wifi chipset needs a different firmware.
That's the bit I don't get - by my (simplistic and obviously wrong) understanding, wifi is a radio, an implementation of the IEEE 802.11 standard(s), and WEP/WPA/etc security.
If that was the case there's only so much a firmware can do/need, the room for variety would be small and creating free firmware for various adapters wouldn't be difficult.
Since that doesn't appear to be the case, I'd like to find out what bits I'm misunderstanding - guess I can try reading the ath9k_htc source some time and figuring out what that does, but was hoping someone might have a quick explanation that satisfies my curiosity.
The chipsets of different brands work differently. That is all. Are you surprised video cards from different brands require different firmware? Well, it is the same. ath9k_htc only supports 802.11n chipsets from Qualcomm Atheros. 802.11ac chipsets from the same brand are not supported. Chipsets from other brands are not supported either.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers#Status (in particular the column names "Non-free firmware required").
> There is no meantime - tomorrow is "here's your machine, all setup and ready to go".
So you're performing a service for someone else, then?
Hi, I bought this one and it's working out-of-the-box
TP-LINK TL-WN721N
http://www.tp-link.fr/products/details/cat-11_TL-WN721N.html
regards
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