191–200 of 274 posts
Are these people using some kind of exotic hardware? Am I just really lucky?
I discovered this for myself after converting my parents 5 year old PC from XP to Linux Mint. As you can see from the bug tracker: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/852190 the kernel drivers are much buggier than the GPL'd Realtek drivers. But the official Realtek drivers don't work with newer kernel versions. Fortunately there is: https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes Does anyone know why does…
If those are really under GPL, nothing should stop you from converting them into a kmod using the kernel 802.11 architecture and pushing them upstream. I'd imagine that since it hasn't happened yet there is something else at work impeding it.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langi...
Converting them to the latest kernel driver interface is beyond my skills and pvaret's rtl8192cu-fixes. Pvaret's remarks on github indicate it's a hack to just get them running and someone with Linux networking internals experience is needed to do a proper port.
I'd be willing to test and file bug reports. Your 'fix it yourself' attitude is exactly the kind of response that gives Linux a bad name.
How is it that for the last decade I've been running Linux on whatever decent machines I was primarily using and whatever random garbage I could get my hands on and I haven't had any of these problems that people are perpetually complaining about? Are these people using some kind of exotic hardware? Am I just really lucky?
I've used Unix for over 25 years, Linux for over 17. It's my platform of choice, I very, very rarely use anything else.
And my Thinkpad T520i listing a "03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak]" under lspci and running Debian GNU/Linux jessie/sid has _never_ had reliable WiFi, and I run it essentially 24/7 with a Cat5 cable plugged into hardwire networking.
I've tried network manager, wicd-cli, wicd-curses, and other tools. I can see networks. I cannot connect to them. Plugging a cable in solves the problem far faster than futzing with a nonintuitive, low-feedback/diagnostics interface.
So yeah, you're probably lucky.
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 NetworkManage…
Not that I don't use wpa_supplicant directly anyway, but when I have used NM, it seems to do the same job.
Right here: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros_AR5B22 This thing works. I just buy them in bulk. I can get one for $13 off ebay. Any device I run Linux on, I replace whatever half size mpcie card it has with one. I don't fuck with the realtek or broadcom chips I get, because ath9k is all-open, no proprietary firmware, works out of the box. Drivers are in any kernel since the 3 series started, the bluetooth is just a g…
I suppose a major cause of the situation is that hardly anyone buys a laptop with the wifi chip as the first concern. Most laptops for sale don't clearly show the wifi chip, unless you go into the online configurator where you might be able to pay for an upgrade (yes I'm one of the weird people who considers the wifi chip, having once worked at a wifi ap vendor). I also doubt it's possible to replace the wifi chip on a macbook air or retina. So it's rare to have "cult favorite" chips of this type that enthusiasts can gravitate to, usually we just deal with whatever we end up with.
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It's opaque on Linux, but that's not the big problem. It's opaque on OS X and Windows as well, but nobody cares because it works . I wonder if we'll eventually get the kind of stability that we currently have with ethernet drivers... once the speeds are high enough that we stop upgrading, once the chips go into long-term production instead of changing every few years, once things settle down...
I disagree. It's possible to get advanced output from various command line tools in Linux, and it's possible to get networking information. It's much more difficult to do that on other OSs, especially Windows. I loathe debugging network troubles in Windows, because there is essentially no information. OS X has most of your standard tools, though some in some odd places, e.g., printing the routing table not being done…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ndc35q0gxynffl/Screenshot%202014-...
How is it that for the last decade I've been running Linux on whatever decent machines I was primarily using and whatever random garbage I could get my hands on and I haven't had any of these problems that people are perpetually complaining about? Are these people using some kind of exotic hardware? Am I just really lucky?
Just FYI, this response has about the same validity that refutation of online anonymity / pseudonymity as a non-issue does: simply because you're not experiencing a problem doesn't mean others aren't, and doesn't make their frustrations any less valid. I've used Unix for over 25 years, Linux for over 17. It's my platform of choice, I very, very rarely use anything else. And my Thinkpad T520i listing a "03:00.0 Networ…
Why I could never get network manager nor wicd to work ... I don't know.
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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.
Yep and that is the beauty, but also the pitfall of open source. People can patch to make things work for them, but also as long no one take up the task (or form a group) to fundamentally redo a driver or rewrite the architecture nothing happens. So you should take up the task to change things (find people to help you), that's the strength of open source (community driven)
rtfm. Linux provides the architecture, the vendors ignore it and do it themselves. The Intel drivers require blobs. Broadcom used to require blobs that you had to cut out of Windows drivers yourself, though I have no idea what that's like now. The vendors use the excuse that this stuff requires FCC certification, and if they expose the low-level stuff some hax0rs will turn the wi-fi portion of the spectrum into CB ra…
Maybe I should just spend some more time learning about wireless and see if I can hack on wicd or create something new rather than just mourning its loss.
