Laptop for Linux

[Joseph Sinclair]

For anyone else struggling with this card:
For Intel 4229 (A.K.A. Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN) you'll need a very recent kernel build, 2.6.21 or later (I think), with both the new mac80211 subsystem and the iwlwifi drivers in the kernel tree.
The very latest version of the kernel/mac80211/iwlwifi combination adds better G mode support and some other improvements.  This is a very new driver built on a brand new kernel subsystem, so things are still somewhat unstable.
There is an older driver available from the Intel site, but it doesn't do everything the card can do, and doesn't always work with newer cards.

Don't forget to load the firmware for whichever card you have, most are now SDR units, and without firmware to define their waveforms, they don't know how to be a radio...

For a new laptop purchase, I'd recommend getting a known-supported built-in wifi, and a laptop with at least 1 ExpressCard-54 slot.  2 slots is even better.
Not a lot of wifi cards are available in ExpressCard form yet, but there are some, and some of those have good driver support in the kernel (you can check the wireless-dev tree for the kernel for which drivers are available).

CentOS is quite a bit behind on kernel versions, last I checked, so you're likely to have issues there.  Fedora is better, I believe the latest (FC7) has the new mac80211 enabled by default.

For anyone considering an HP pavilion, a word of caution.  Almost all HP/Compaq laptops use custom-modified chipsets and mini-pci wireless cards, so even cards that have drivers in the kernel might not work if they come with an HP/Compaq laptop.
Binary drivers (ndiswrapper, ATI/Nvidia, etc...) usually work on these laptops, but the F/OSS drivers sometimes do not.

Phillip Waclawski wrote:
> Hmmm, well, I know I tried to get both the wireless, and the ethernet to
> work on an HP Pavillion dv6563cl from CostCo the day/night before my
> trip to the LinuxWorld Expo.
> 
> Had a lot of odd problems. The Fedora DVD that Dennis Kibbe let me use
> would boot up, but when you chose "CD" for media, it suddenly couldn't
> see the CD/DVD drive. Then the Ubutu disk he lent me basically gave an
> odd TTY error and hung.
> 
> So, I could boot up Knoppix on it just fine, but after installing that
> (I KNOW they say it's not for a HD install, but this was already
> approaching 1am and I was getting desperate ;), but I could not get the
> network working.
> 
> So, I downloaded and burned the CD's for CentOS 5 (I was already running
> CentOS 4.5 on the laptop that was dying) and got it to install. I could
> not get a straight answer on any website as to which driver to use for
> the Intel device 4229 rev 61 , but most recommended ipw2200  and
> following the instructions....well, at 4am I gave up, cleaned the
> partition, got up at 10am, returned the laptop (with Vista utterly wiped
> off of it) to CostCo for my money back.
> 
> I know laptop installs can be fun. I'm not really happy about laptops no
> longer having PCMCIA slots, I could have used the ethernet or wireless
> card I already had.
> 
> I would prefer to install Fedora/CentOS on a laptop that has decent
> graphics, DVD+-R, wireless and ethernet support that works.
> 
> As I no longer have to rush, any advice you have would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Phil Waclawski
> (prepping for the Linux Class starting Monday ;)
> 
> &*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*
> CIS Faculty: Phil Waclawski
> http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~waclawski
> &*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*
> 
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