[CentOS] CentOS 4 and laptop and wifi works

Phil Schaffner Philip.R.Schaffner at nasa.gov
Fri May 26 13:54:53 UTC 2006


On Thu, 2006-05-25 at 11:20 -0400, Max H. wrote:
> Rodrigo Barbosa wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Anything without an Atheros based Wifi. Mine is Intel IPW2200, and works
> > nicely. Everyone I know with atheros based is having problems.
> 
> I have an IBM Thinkpad R40 with an Atheros based wifi chipset, running 
> on CentOS 4.3 (it's been running on it since 4.0) without any problems. 
> I have to load the driver set from a seperate RPM, though.
> 
> <http://atrpms.net/dist/el4/madwifi/>
> 
> Without loading the Madwifi drivers, however, I was never able to get 
> CentOS to see my wireless. The only annoyance I have is every kernel 
> update, I have to update the RPM. But if that's all it takes to have it 
> working, I'm not going to complain.

Have been using CentOS on a Lenovo (Chinese outfit that bought out IBM
PC business) ThinkPad T42p for some time (with a Netgear WG511T PCMCIA -
no built-in WiFi in this model), and concur with the above except that
madwifi seems to be incompatible with the proprietary Cisco VPN module I
have to use to connect to work when out of the office.  Wireless works
until an attempt is made to start the VPN at which point the machine
hangs hard - as in nothing works but holding down the power button for
several seconds to power down.  The open source VPN clients don't seem
to be compatible with our server.  Cisco module works fine on hard-wired
Ethernet.

(Am going to be ordering another card to replace the Atheros-based one.
Any recommendations appreciated.)

Next laptop I buy will likely have the Intel WiFi.

Phil







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