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Description
More support for more wireless chipsets out of the box and "Windows style" ease of set up.
I have spent may a day trying to configure wireless cards on Ubuntu, often without much luck!
Please also deliver more support for what they are both wireless PCI cards and USB, as it is currently very low base of drivers for such devices
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Comments
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kaivalagi wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:23
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Is this any different on other linux distro's, I would tend to think that it's more to do with the manufacturers not supporting Linux well...
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Carlton Bale wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:28
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The current "connect to wireless network" dialog is much too confusing. Ubuntu should ask as few questions a possible and figure out how the wireless network is configured.
Ubuntu should be able to scan available wireless networks, figure out what type of encryption they are using (WEP, WPA, WPA2), and then prompt for authentication.
It should skip the process that asks the user to choose between "passcode" or "hex key" or "dec key" or "64-bit/128-bit". It should prompt for a code, try to get it to work in all possible configurations, and figure out which one works. It shouldn't place too much wireless network knowledge on the user. It should try multiple options and tell the user what else to try (802.11x authentication for example) if it can't connect.
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dburanen wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:12
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I don't know if it's just me, but the windows wifi config sucks! NetworkManger in Ubuntu is so much better. Even OS X's wireless config is better than windows. Windows is the worst of the bunch!
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Centurix wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:43
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I'd like to see less reliance on ndiswrapper. I have a few wireless cards which are maybe 1-2 years old (example: SMC202Wv2, doesn't work with prism54) and the dev work on the driver seemed to just stop with everyone stating that it works using the ndiswrapper. Native drivers would be nice.
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roybatty wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:48
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we need also support to configure an ad-hoc network
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gatman3 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:38
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Maybe it's just me, but I have had this problem on Gutsy and several previous versions.
When I manually configure a network connection in Network Manager, I am unable to go back to automatic mode. If there is a way to do it, it certainly isn't clear.
Anyone else have that problem?
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jamessnell wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 03:23
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I friggin hate ndiswrapper, but perhaps it could be included with the default install disc along with a collection or at least web link to common wireless drivers for windows that it could automatically make use of in the event that no A-grade native driver exists.
I will admit, ndis has saved my life a few times, just wish it were a more elegant solution, though it's improved a lot. Kinda wish Linux could consume Windows device drivers to really open things up, but that'd probably introduce some interesting security issues - still, if I had the option as a user, I'd have cases where I'd use the windows drivers.
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Pillowfight wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 06:20
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Oh God, PLEASE better wifi support. It's extremely difficult for us Linux newbies, and the wireless problem is basically the only thing holding me back from installing Ubuntu on everybody's computer.
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facundocorradini wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 06:54
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Just go and ask your hardware manufacturer.
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lyly wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:53
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For a long time I have problem entering the wep key with the wireless configuration tool, if I don't add " restricted" after the pass, it doesn't work. I think I is simple problem to correct and will make it really easier for nongeek people to use wireless
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Brewboy wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 09:36
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Hand someone linux for the first time:
1. they will have never had heard of NDISWRAPPER
2. they won't know they can put their cd back in and install it from there
3. they won't have the slightest idea in hell how to configure it
4. windows driver?
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xhan wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:57
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This is a pretty big one for me. Broadcom drivers, for example, have always been a little shaky and inconsistent, and my personal experience was actually a regression in stability from Feisty to Gutsy (I'm aware this wasn't the case for many people). Specifically, once configured to work with my WEP-encrypted WLAN, it would refuse to connect to any other WLAN (even if broadcasting and unencrypted).
Not a blocking factor, but definitely a major one, since wi-fi is something so many people take for granted.
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Halgeir wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 15:25
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I think this issue is about knowledge. There are meny wifi cards which don't work, and there is little you can do until someone writes a driver for you. Maby ubuntu should have a peace of software which automatically tests the PC (and communicates with a backend hardware database) and reports to the user if there is certain hardware which don't work/and work. I will post this as a separate suggestion.
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fredtorrey wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 17:20
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It's a PITA to configure wireless on Ubuntu, even if your card IS supported!!
Other distributions do it much much better! This is THE reason I don't use Ubuntu on my laptop. Come on, it doesn't even scan for wireless. The network manager is so rudimentary. Fix it!
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thomaswm wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:34
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I really hope WiFix will be included in one of the upcoming Ubuntu versions!!! I think it is one of the easiest ways to get the appropriate driver for your network interface.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wifix
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SanderX wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 19:19
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For me, Wireless is the ONLY reason that keeps me back from using Linux. Even when I get it working, it stops working at a reboot. We just need a much easier to use interface, with ndiswrapper and all other possible drivers and stuff included, or something like that (Windows style).
@Thomaswm
"WiFix intends to simplify wireless card detection and driver installation under Linux by downloading, compiling and installing the appropriate driver for a user's wireless card."
How the .. can we download drivers if we have no connection ;)?
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dunkjmcd wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 19:21
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I find the wifi very tempramental on my ubunutu laptop. improved slightly when i switched to xubuntu for some reason. Also my comp completely freezes if i ever remove my wireless card from my laptop.
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Darude1234 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 20:16
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I think this is a must for the next version of Ubuntu. In fact for every OS on the market nowadays. I already trying for weeks now to get my wifi to work on the Acer 5101AWLMI but it won't connect whatever I try to do.
When I have a clean install it recognize my wireless card because I see some wireless networks that I can connect to. But when I click my wireless network and try to connect using the correct WPA key it can't get an IP-address for some reason. I already updated my routers firmware, but that didn't matter. I tried to enter my network in the wpa_supplicant but that also didn't work.
Another strange problem is that every time I start Ubuntu it doesn't automatically try to get an IP-address via DHCP. I first have to run the Networkcard configurator utility and configure it to use DHCP and then it gets an IP-address. Now I can connect to the internet, but I have to run that utility every time after I started my laptop.
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scaliskan wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 20:20
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fwcutter shouldnt be used due to its low speed.ndiswrapper should be default in ubuntu.
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rawsausage wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 21:48
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Ubunteado,
"Hard to set up dial-up" - It would just require new NetworkManager plugin to be written.
"Didnt manage to make WPA work" - NetworkManager's present plugin does not handle all the authentication types, it's a bug and fixable.
"Ndiswrapper required" - Restricted hardware manager enhancement!
"Asks you the password on bootup and its hard to turn it off" - There is already PAM plugin for disabling that safely actually. It should just be installed by default.
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sewmyheadon wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 21:55
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I think that managing both wired and wireless connections with and without security needs to be drop-dead easy.
I'm an intermediate Linux user (using Ubuntu since Hoary) and, while I have wireless & wired networking working now on two laptops and two desktops, the wireless needs to be much easier.
I believe Ubuntu should have one default networking tool that provides:
1. easy access to wired networks (network manager seems to do fine)
2. easy access to roaming or static wireless networks
3. easy setup of security for WPA, WPA2, WEP and all other standard wireless security protocols
4. easy wi-fi radar capabilities so you can browse the broadcasted networks, select one, and click connect so you're automatically connected if there's no security, or prompted for the appropriate security keys if it's encrypted
5. default view of signal strength for whatever wireless network that you're connected to, no matter if you're using a static or dynamic IP.
6. ability to connect to wireless networks that don't broadcast their SSID. I've had to turn on SSID broadcast in order to connect to some wireless networks with Gutsy, but it worked fine with Feisty.
Many people get so frustrated with Network Manager in Gutsy that they've installed wicd or some other package to handle their wireless, and that's not right. I finally did this myself and it's made a world of difference.
Maybe they can ditch NM for wicd - you shouldn't have to use multiple tools.
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nixeagle wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 00:57
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Who put inapplicatable? What does it mean? Thanks
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racoon97 wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 05:29
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Yes, Gnome Network Manager is too bad. Too many problems with Broadcom chipsets and other one. Even restricted drivers that you have included doesn't worked. Why ? This is useless : they never worked.
Conversely, wicd it's really better than network-manager-gnome, in most case. I don't understand,
since Edgy, always the same thing, nothing work without ndiswrapper. They have a lot of work to do about this !
Seriously, the bug #1 in Ubuntu is very bad support for wireless devices. It's more important than this stupid Microsoft blablaba ( https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 ) !
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laervian wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 12:35
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Well. This is certainly a big issue, but there is little Ubuntu can do, mostly because the real changes are happening upstream and thus will be seen in Hardy.
1- The new kernel, 2.6.24, has switched support for some wireless drivers. Specifically, AFAIK, they have switched from closed ip3945 drivers to open iwl. Those drivers are still green, but it will be a huge improvement in some months. These drivers have lots of bugs, for instance they break resuming from suspend (and maybe even hibernation). I know this 'cause I've fiddled a bit with options to make things work on my laptop. So wait and see :)
2- NetworkManager 0.7 will be probably included in Hardy. AFAIK, it is a HUGE improvement from the 0.6.5 version currently used, both as program AND as GUI (the latter I can testify, as I used it briefly. Sadly, it is still unstable but will be not by Hardy, one hopes).
So again...we'll have to wait and see ourselves in few months :) They are working on it, not only at Canonical.
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thevirtuesofxen wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 05:09
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I agree with many of the users. Ubuntu needs an ultra-simple and better looking gui that will auto-detect the authentication on the network. And maybe a gui that will configure Ndiswrapper.
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Gl1tch wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 12:17
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I so support this idea. It has been a nightmare to get my wireless chipset (RaLink rt61) to work with my wireless network (WPA2). After trying numerous solutions (manual config, ndiswrapper, serialmonkey drivers) I have settled with a different network manager (wcid) which seems to be able to keep it up and running although there are still errors is dmesg.
Better support for wifi would certainly help out the less technically skilled Ubuntu newbies.
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Xfactor wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 14:39
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This is a great suggestion. I agree there must be more hardware support for wi-fi chipsets.
I had problems with my Atheros chipset. Atheros is notorious for not working with Ubuntu.
I had to use ndiswrapper and to put all kind of codes into the terminal like ndiswrapper -mi and ndiswrapper -ma.
Maybe I was that patient to figure it out. But if you want to bring Ubuntu to a bigger audience, you have to build in that support.
This lack of support unfortunately and unwillingly jusitifies the high price Microsoft charges for her OS.
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ugm6hr wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 18:24
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Agree that a default installed GUI (that works) for ndiswrapper is useful.
It should be accessed direct from the "Network" Administration menu (or even better, from within Network Manager). It should explain that a .inf and .sys file are necessary, and maybe even include cabextract to assist with .exe drivers.
It is all well and good saying "ask your hardware manufacturer", but that doesn't help users now (merely helps Linux in the long term). If you feel that strongly, include a "send email to device manufacturer" link from within the GUI.
PS: Puppy Linux has a good example of a useful GUI.
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interval wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 20:07
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Everyone calm down. GUI concerns aside, better wifi support will only come when hardware manufacturers start opening up their chipset microcode. For some reason a lot of the hardware makers are refusing to deal with the few open source licensing agreements out there. You'd think they were guarding the secrets of the atomic bomb or something. And if you think the problem is bad on Linux you should read what poor Theo De Raadt with OpenBSD going through. For all the problems the manufacturers are giving OSS I'm surprised the support on Linux is as good as it is.
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Sysadm1n wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 21:51
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IMO YaST's "Network Devices" module is the most feature rich GUI for handling networking (especially addressing and WPA). Novell opensourced it some time ago, and it has front-ends for KDE and Gnome. Given the limitations in other gui's, might be worth the effort to port it to (K)ubuntu?
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etniesbmx wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 22:05
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>>I don't know if it's just me, but the windows wifi config sucks! NetworkManger in Ubuntu is so much better.
It's just you...
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Coppo2007 wrote on the 5 Mar 08 at 11:43
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We need better support for Wifi under Ubuntu. It's a real problem.
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dracus wrote on the 5 Mar 08 at 13:34
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This is not an issue for the programmers at Ubuntu and Cononical to solve. We as the Ubunutu/GNU+Linux/Free Software community need to get out there and start demanding Hardware companies to tell us how their cards work. That is the only way Hardware support will get better. So If you have a Broadcom wireless card like I do well go to Broadcom's site and contact them and complain. because its silly for companies to sell hardware and not tell people how to make it run.
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freepenguin wrote on the 7 Mar 08 at 09:44
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we need more wifi support to increase the notebook and desktop users.
FreePenguin.it
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dinca.marius.tinel wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 20:24
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you men something like wi-fi radar (*_*)
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Harlem wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 03:33
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There has got to be an easier way to get ubuntu to recognize broadcom chipset wifi. I tried to install Ubuntu on a friends computer and he was using a Netgear wpnt511, and it wasn't recognized. This issue has been around for too long.
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jediscout wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 07:51
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I happen to have Broadcom chipsets in this 6 year old Dell laptop and Gutsy had no trouble with it. Connects quickly, but it does sometimes lose the connection. But that could be a problem with something other than the drivers for Broadcom.
As a matter of fact, Windows XP had a harder time with it than Ubuntu ever did.
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gijsterbeek wrote on the 15 Mar 08 at 23:49
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The exact and only reason why I couldn't replace Windows with Ubuntu in at least 10 cases, is not being able to get the wireless router working.
Of course, the manufacturers of those chipsets are to blame, but I am convinced that 'fixing' this will double the Ubuntu user base within a year.
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alberge204 wrote on the 31 Mar 08 at 07:37
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Personally, I find that my wireless hardware works better in Ubuntu than in Windows, partly because I'm comfortable working with the command line tools. I just can't tell what's going on if there's something wrong in Windows. I do wish NetworkManager could automagically figure out what encryption is in use on a wireless network after you enter the passphrase.
There seem to be a few separate concerns here:
1. Your average user just wants wireless to work. This is critical for laptop users. We understand it may not be easy to fix, but we want it to happen anyway.
2. We want better hardware support. This underscores the need for some more organized way for people to report what hardware works and what doesn't work. (See http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/40/ )
3. NetworkManager isn't as good as it could be. There are some specific concerns here, and they should be reported directly to the NetworkManager developers (or to a replacement project).
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gwystyl wrote on the 6 Apr 08 at 09:05
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Before I can even judge on the network tools, I'd like a better installation support for the chipset used in a lot of cards: RT2500/RT2570.
If there's any difference in the handling of these chipsets, there should be two drivers.
I'm struggling for months to get it working now. I had it working on feisty once, but I forgot how I did that. My dad wants to use my usb wireless card (Linksys WAG54G) on gutsy now but can't get it to work.
All we can find are tons of tips but no simple working solution (we're not afraid of the command line and working with ndiswrapper). Maybe the various options we tried conflict with each other?
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dragoon76 wrote on the 8 Apr 08 at 12:30
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this should be a priority: so many people leave linux because of Wi-fi problems....
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conartist6 wrote on the 13 Apr 08 at 16:06
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Currently I have two issues with Ubunutu's wifi support: firstly, the complicatedness of using networks that have 802.1x or sometypeofEAP authentications (I seem to be hearing that this is going to be fixed in Hardy), and, on a related note, when trying to connect to networks with unsupported auth types, network-manager often gets stuck, so that I am unable to STOP it from trying to connect, even by disabling wireless networking.
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jblackhall wrote on the 23 Apr 08 at 20:10
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I feel like wifi support should be more like restricted video card support. When a new wireless card is detected, Ubuntu should check to see whether open-source drivers are available. If not, there should be an easy way to automate ndiswrapper, especially if the user has a Windows driver CD. If not, instruct the users to their manufacturer's website to download it. Have Ubuntu search through exe files (or entire Windows driver CDs) and display a list of .inf files (and asking the user to choose one) should be reasonable.
Getting the drivers installed using the ndiswrapper GUI (Windows Wireless Drivers) is one thing. It's another thing to make an easy and consistent implementation. Something as simple as automatically adding ndiswrapper to the /etc/modules file would help new users immensely.
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Monicker wrote on the 3 May 08 at 15:30
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Most of these issues are due to hardware makers who cater to Windows and don't bother to develop for linux. There are chipsets which work fine out of the box with Ubuntu and other linux distros.
Companies like Intel and Broadcom should be urged to help develop linux solutions. Let them know,and when possible, vote with your wallet.
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zpon wrote on the 7 May 08 at 15:25
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I would really like WPA2 support for wmp54g :D
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wiz wrote on the 21 May 08 at 19:52
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When using native and restricted drivers on right hardware wi-fi works just ok without any fuss. The only issue is a crappy hw what needs ndiswrapper stuff.
Btw, "windows way" of setting (and managing!) up wifi is a crap compared to network-manager - it's not just you, dburanen (:
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stopthewar24 wrote on the 18 Jun 08 at 06:40
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Just another vote to say that it would be _really_ nice to have an easy way to configure ndiswrapper, preferably a GUI. I agree with rawsausage who said that this should be an enhancement to the Restricted Drivers Manager.
I've used ndiswrapper on Gutsy and Hardy to get my Broadcom card working, but only by relying on very detailed tutorials written by some of the kind souls over on the Ubuntu forums. As a relative newcomer to Linux, I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out ndiswrapper without their help. And since the steps seem to change with each distribution release (at least, they did from Gutsy to Hardy), it would be great to have this handled automatically.
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phaidros wrote on the 10 Jul 08 at 13:19
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As mentioned before, ad-hoc mode should get supported way better! at least freifunk.net and other large scale community wireless mesh networks are based on a functiong ad-hoc mode. so this is not just important for a minority of home user, but for adopting new technology as well.
the downside here is, that most hardware vendors neither produce good drivers (regarding adhoc), if implemented at all, nor the specs are not open. so legions of geeks are trying to reverse engineer all that hardware pieces.
folks from eg. openWRT embedded linux distro are doing a great job to improve the free driver for the atheros chipsets as well as for the new free broadcom driver.
a major distro like ubuntu should stronlgy support these developments and further extend the cli *and* desktop tools to actually use ad-hoc mode.
as an example:
actual atheros based cards are able to run so called VAPs (virtual access points). since gutsy or even earlier trhe ubuntu team included the free madwifi driver and make use of the so called wlanconfig tool, which creates and destroys those VAPs. in the gnome-network manager there are ad-hoc networks seen, but there is made no use of the wlanconfig tool to a) destroy the running VAP in managed mode aand b) create a new VAP in dahoc mode ..
hth.
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brassman2010 wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 15:33
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If I were the one developing the features suggested on this board, I would tear my eyes out reading feature requests like this. PLEASE stop WHINING!!!! If you want a worry-free experience, do your homework and buy good hardware e.g. Atheros or Intel. If you buy the cheapest POS that you can find from Dell, be prepared to be frustrated. If you REALLY want these features, GO TO THE HARDWARE MANUFACTURER'S TECH SUPPORT FORUMS AND WHINE AT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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patriciaosullivan wrote on the 20 Aug 08 at 15:53
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Network Manager is appalling, and has an irritating bug which resets WPA passwords to something huge and incorrect despite "saving" the network key.
The ONLY worthwhile fix is to remove Network Mangler and replace it with WICD. However, this may prove difficult for newbies.
I hope to see WICD as part of the standard Ubuntu install in 8.10!
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Iuvat wrote on the 23 Aug 08 at 20:16
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I never got the Network Manager to work with my network setup. I did download WICD though, and its much better.
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Abra_Kadabra wrote on the 27 Aug 08 at 17:05
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Wireless LAN is just an nightmare in Ubuntu. Always each 10 minuts there are drops, so that only after reboots you can again use your Wlan the next 10 mins.
Windows and MacOS provide much better Wireless support.
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Eldmannen wrote on the 31 Aug 08 at 01:25
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This is getting better.
Recent kernels include more device drivers, and Intrepid Ibex will come with a improved network-manager.
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valjean1987 wrote on the 31 Aug 08 at 19:00
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It's important to include _more_device_drivers_, a good network manager like _wicd_ and the support for the _powerON/OFF_button_. Often pc's users can't use Ubuntu because they can't use wireless. A wizard that allow the automatic usage of windows's wireless driver (with ndiswrapper) is maybe the best thing.
Rocco.
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