usb wifi dongle

8 respostas [Última entrada]
samspuds82
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Joined: 03/09/2014

how do i install my wifi stick
i have a disk with a linux program with it

samspuds82
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Joined: 03/09/2014

how do i run from disk

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

It is probable that you Wifi adapter requires some non-free driver and/or firmware. If it is what is on the disk, then you do not want to install it (unless you do not value your freedoms)! You can try to install the latest Linux-libre kernel and see if the adapter magically works: https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/update-linux-libre-kernel

samspuds82
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Joined: 03/09/2014

which stack should i install

Magic Banana

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Well, the more recent the kernel the more probable it supports a new device. However, as I already wrote,to you, I believe the firmware for your card is proprietary and no version of Linux-libre will ever include it.

In this case, the recommended fix is to acquire another Wifi card that works with free software (such as any of those based on an ath9k chipset). Knowing the chipset of a Wifi card is no easy business! A same model can switch chipset along its commercialization! Either you find it second-hand and the owner tells that chipset (e.g., reporting the output of 'lspci') or you take it from ThinkPenguin that guarantees that all their hardware optimally work with Linux-libre (hence with any 100% free GNU/Linux distribution such as Trisquel): http://libre.thinkpenguin.com

By using the link above, 25% of the benefits on your purchase are donated to the Trisquel project. ;-)

samspuds82
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Joined: 03/09/2014

this is what the disk says can it be used

Ralink Tech Inc.
* 5F., No.36, Taiyuan St., Jhubei City,
* Hsinchu County 302,
* Taiwan, R.O.C.
*
* (c) Copyright 2002-2010, Ralink Technology, Inc.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify *
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by *
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or *
* (at your option) any later version. *
* *
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, *
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of *
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the *
* GNU General Public License for more details. *
* *
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License *
* along with this program; if not, write to the *
* Free Software Foundation, Inc., *
* 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. *
*

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Then the driver probably is free (unless you can read long sequences of numbers in it: actual blobs) and the firmware probably is not. If you give us the output of the 'lspci' command, this can be confirmed.

Legimet
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Joined: 12/10/2013

I have a Ralink card which requires nonfree firmware and I think most do. If you run `lspci' in a terminal we can make sure.
ThinkPenguin has adapters that are guaranteed to be freedom-friendly; just click on the link at the right.

Chris

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Joined: 04/23/2011

hmm

Normally I'd say it has to be using a Realtek RTL8187B, RTL8187L, RTL8187, AR9170, AR9271, or soon, the AR7010+AR9280.

However I forgot about the Ralink G era USB chipsets RT2500USB/RT2571 being free software friendly. Keep in mind I haven't confirmed this as fact recently and my memory could be foggy- I also can't recall anybody here having had an adapter with one and having mentioned it working with a 100% free distro- but I did just take a quick look and there is no firmware and its driver portion is under a free software license (and there were more firmware-less devices back then). It's also in the 2.6.24+ kernel so should work already if its this adapter uses this particular chipset(s) (note: short of the device ID for the specific adapter being absent in the code).

I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of using a dongle with the chipset (actually, I take that back, but it was back in 2005 or maybe 2006 and I believe the only USB wifi adapter at that time I encountered that was actually free software friendly). Other issue is it wasn't a 100% free distro back then... so I can't be 100% confident, but what I recall is it was one of the few that worked and one of the few that had a native driver and I believe was/and is a free driver.

On a side note I was actually working at one of the major companies producing one of the leading distributions of the day :), but fortunately just as an intern, as they were very lost on the importance of the freedom bit (I did later turn down two job offers from them). If I had it to do over again I'd have invested my time and energy at a different organization. Good move on my part overall, but a bit of a mistake.. as to where I should have been looking.