The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi • Hacker News Board

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#131

Post by yoodenvranx » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:20 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #93

dendory wrote: post #34

I think a big portion of the problems Linux has these days is how unbelievably bloated and overconvulated distributions have become. Every single function has three, four or more ways to do the same thing, often with different results. When trying to get something working I never know if I should run the /etc/init.d script, restart the service manually, edit a config file, use the command line config until or use the…

I tried setting proxy configuration so that apt-get would work with my employer's proxy. I put my (plain-text) username and password into a dozen different configuration files before it finally worked. Then I changed my password, and couldn't remember where all I had put my credentials in. I ended up having to reinstall the whole OS because I couldn't figure out how to undo the proxy settings that took me forever to…

I had similar problems with Linux. This is why I have now a rather long textfile in a dropbox folder in which I write down all problems/solution/tweaks I had to deal with. If the same thing pops up again after half a year I can just look it up.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#132

Post by secstate » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:21 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #127

clarry wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you aren't blessed with luck, one might say that PulseAudio still requires you to be a hacker to get sound. Over and over again. Every time you think it's fixed for good, it'll prove you wrong.

On the large majority of laptops I've installed Ubuntu on recently, sound has just worked out of the box, so here's to hoping my lucky streak continues!

Sure, sound works fine for a bit, but wait until you want to plug a USB headset in. First time, great. Second time, fail. Log out, log back in, headset works again. Lame!

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#133

Post by stuaxo » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:28 PM UTC

I've got this great thing where it doesn't work when I unhibernate .. well, it's OK since if I shut the lid and open it again then it works.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#134

Post by woodson » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:29 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #29

mikepurvis wrote: post #7

It only gets worse on headless/embedded/arm machines. The RPi list of Wi-Fi adapters gives something of a picture: http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters Note the number of ones which require some additional configuration steps, downloads, patches, or other monkeying around. And don't even get me started on connman and wicd.

I bet half those problems would go away if Rasbian Wheezy, with its ancient 3.2-based kernel, wasn't the default for many R-Pi users.

Raspbian Wheezy comes with kernel 3.12 (see http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/)

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#135

Post by Istof » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:29 PM UTC

sandGorgon wrote: post #27

Copy paste, printing and networking. Biggest usability misses of Linux. I don't consider these technical issues...but usability issues. Things like insisting on keeping the install ISO at 750 mb, leaves seamless driver support out of the todo list because...hey, there are no drivers anyway. I'm really surprised there is not a paid version of Linux with these features baked in. I would GLADLY pay for all these (as wel…

If you don't feel like doing the research to make sure that your hardware will work correctly under Linux, you can buy a computer with Linux pre-installed.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#136

Post by stuaxo » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:30 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #109

I have 3 Linux laptops in the house. One with Intel running Ubuntu, another with Broadcom running Fedora and the third with a Prism interface running CentOS 6. All three work flawlessly. We also have 3 Macbooks, a white one, a Pro 13 and a Retina 13. All three work flawlessly with our Wi-fi. My wife had a corporate-issued HP laptop running Windows 7. It connected to our wireless once or twice over a year. I had a net…

I believe it works for you, but can only say I am insanely jealous.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#137

Post by ninjakeyboard » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:45 PM UTC

Upgrade to windows xp. problem solved.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#138

Post by giancarlostoro » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

For my desktop use I just use a TP-Link router in "client mode", as far as my laptop is aware I'm on ethernet. For my laptop, I buy cheap TP Link Wireless USB's my laptop has a crappy internal wireless card regardless of OS. Sometimes buying cheap USB drives work better than "top notch" wireless cards. I would still agree, Wireless on Linux is configured terribly. Sometimes you get bugs that have fixes you have to hunt down on the internet, which you wouldn't be able to get on, if your WiFi isn't working at all. You'd think the biggest thing to get attention on a Linux OS is anything related to networking, the most crucial features of any OS these days.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#139

Post by javert » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

ploxiln wrote: post #11

I stopped using NetworkManager years ago, I just use wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd directly (well I use the systemd services for these so they're started automatically). I also always name the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks differently, and connect explicitly to the one I want. Yes it would be great if NetworkManager did the right things automatically, but the task might be impossible due to hardware and driver quirks. WiFi ch…

Contrary to what other commenters are saying, I've been using NetworkManager on my ArchLinux Thinkpads for years and it works great. (And I don't even have a desktop environment, I have DWM, so I am usually a "do it yourself" person.)

Whereas I could never get all the mess working to get things working well without NetworkManager.

My experience is, spend hours messing with configuration shit or just let NetworkManager do all that automatically for you, which in my case, it does well.

Re: The sad state of Linux Wi-Fi

#140

Post by pwnna » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

yellowapple wrote: post #125

pwnna wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is copy-paste broken? I never had issues. I don't have issues anymore with printing and networking. I understand that this stuff is per vendor so I usually do my research before buying (I have thinkpads, and my printers are all pretty friendly). I do see many windows computer fall over when printers connect to new wireless networks, though. As for mp3, flash, isn't is as simple as enabling a non-free repository a…

Depends on the programs you use, and whether or not you're running a full DE or a bare WM. Most programs use Ctrl+X/C/V, Shift+Delete/Shift+Insert/Control+Insert, and/or highlight/middle-click in various unpredictable combinations. I've found this to be less of a problem in modern desktop environments (especially KDE, in my experience), since most DEs nowadays feature their own clipboard/buffer management.

Huh. Interesting. I only ever use C-x C-c C-v, and then C-Shift-c C-shift-v in my terminal emulator so I never notice these issues.