Pci Cards

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Wervie67

71 posts

Master Geek

# 20714 3-Apr-2008 18:57

Hey.

Just wondering (before i buy), if a pci card (wireless network card) that says it supports windows, will it work on linux ubuntu?
this is for a desktop computer and has nothing to do with my previous post

cheers.

Vorbis

176 posts

Master Geek

# 120940 4-Apr-2008 00:25

Hey mate, Google is your friend. Just type the name of the pci device eg. "linksys wireless whatever ubuntu linux support' and see what comes up.

astina6

46 posts

Geek

# 122183 8-Apr-2008 19:25

Currently use Netgear wireless card on Debian. So far so good. Madwifi (athereos) is widely used in the linux community

rscole86

4352 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 122184 8-Apr-2008 19:28

The main thing to look out for is the chipset of the pci-card. Google the chipset and linux, or the particular distro you are using for an accurate answer.

Face

19 posts

Geek

# 122342 9-Apr-2008 16:01

If you're running 64-bit Ubuntu, wireless will be unstable and difficult to make work.

Otherwise you should have no trouble. There are a few Linux wireless driver projects (ralink, madwifi, etc.), but I've always have a good deal more success with ndiswrapper.

rphenix

894 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

# 123680 15-Apr-2008 15:04

I use the ralink on an ARM cpu, took ages for it work right finally sorta working (ndiswrapper cant be used as its x86 only of course). I specifically went for ralink due to its opensourceness now I would probably get an atheros based chip :)

Kommisar

54 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

# 123723 15-Apr-2008 17:13

Avoid Broadcom, and it could save you alot of hassle,
It's been a real a pain in the butt for me in Kubuntu . I've tried Ndiswrapper and bcm43xx-fwcutter i suspect it's a driver issue but i've changed drivers to no avail.

Wervie67

71 posts

Master Geek

# 123777 15-Apr-2008 19:23

yea mate, i have a friend who installed ubuntu on his laptop and eva since he hasnt had wireless internet. i emailed broadcom and they said they will only eva make drivers for windows..

astina6

46 posts

Geek

# 123846 15-Apr-2008 21:54

On previous messages, the best advice has been to google "Linux + [wifi-card]" . A common gotcha, unfortunately, with linux,
as it is open-source is that certain hardware, will not work as "easily" as $windoze. But you can be sure someone has definitley had the same problem, somewhere, sometime.

Remember, that $windoze has a lot of influence with many hardware manufactures, but thats another story..........................

Kommisar

54 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

# 124071 16-Apr-2008 14:39

williamirvine67: yea mate, i have a friend who installed ubuntu on his laptop and eva since he hasnt had wireless internet. i emailed broadcom and they said they will only eva make drivers for windows..

Has your friend tried NdisWrapper? I finally got my broadcom working lastnight but now that it works it seems to keep dropping the connection every 10 minutes or so, I'm currently using KDE not GNOME since i like the eye candy even though i've heard GNOME's starting to look pretty sexy these days but i found using the restrictive driver will save a ton of hassle even though it wont mean your wifi will go 101% it should work that is of course if you're using 7.10 Ubuntu\Kubuntu\Xubuntu, there may be another distro that picks up broadcom modems but i've only ever tried out redhat,fedora and kubuntu, in last resort you can always rip the firmware out and force the windows driver using bcm43xx-fwcutter which im sure is listed in the respertorys somewhere.