Wireless Weirdness

[MindoverMaster]

This past weekend, we were gone on vacation. The hotel we stayed at, a Radisson, had free Wi-Fi. Just had to get a password from front desk.

So, I had my laptop with. It has an Atheros wireless card. I dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I went onto the Windows side. I connect to the Wi-Fi. Great, I get almost full bars. I go searching online. Within a few minutes, I loose connection. OK, re-connect, fine for a few more minutes. This happens again and again. F it, restart, go to Ubuntu side. Connect to Wi-Fi. Surf the net for a few minutes. It never loses connection.

It could be a driver issue in Windows, yet I never had a problem with the wireless card.

Linux rules!

 

[Jayce]

Every now and then I have weirdness with wireless in almost any operating system. In recent years (within the last 1-2 years actually) I've had far more success with Linux and wireless than I've had with Windows and wireless. Not to say Windows has ever been bad at it... but often times it's just fussy for what appears to be no reason. Prior to that Linux was an absolute nightmare to deal with unless you had an Atheros or Intel card where their firmware and drivers were broken wide open with their open source nature.

I cannot attest to what was up with what you experienced. It's likely to be due to the driver itself. One of the strong points of open source is that everybody can chip in. In this case this attribute likely resulted in a better made driver, but that call is hard to make. That said, one can say the facts speak for themselves.

 

[kmote]

My linux/wireless woes over the last couple/few years has been due to my laptop which relies on a software "switch" to enable the wireless device. A shame because I bought the laptop partially because it had an intel 3945.

 

[MindoverMaster]

I'm actually thinking of taking Windows off this. There is nothing that I can use it for, that Ubuntu doesn't already has. Maybe just wipe it and put Kubuntu on it, or something. Everything, except the FN keys, seem to work fine in Ubuntu. I expect the same repositories are used in Kubuntu than in Ubuntu?

 

[Jayce]

Yeah they should use the same repos. It'll just be a different interface as Kubuntu has its own package manager by default. Synaptic is installable and I believe the Software Center is too.

I read that Kubuntu in the future is coming with a "low fat" mode as well, which should run a little leaner than the standard Kubuntu install. Granted, Kubuntu runs half decent now-a-days, but a trimmed mode may be nicer for older laptops.

About your Windows/Laptop suggestion, I personally haven't owned a laptop with Windows on it in years. But what I do with a laptop may be different from what you do. If you already have Windows on it and you can spare the space, having a secondary operating system certainly isn't a bad thing. It's just more tools for the toolbox.

My linux/wireless woes over the last couple/few years has been due to my laptop which relies on a software "switch" to enable the wireless device. A shame because I bought the laptop partially because it had an intel 3945.

What is it about the 3945 that requires a software switch? I'm pretty sure that card is Linux-supported. *shrug* But maybe I'm wrong??

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, just switch around to Ubuntu being the first boot on the Windows program. (cant remember)

 

[kmote]

What is it about the 3945 that requires a software switch? I'm pretty sure that card is Linux-supported. *shrug* But maybe I'm wrong??

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 2735(?) it's one of the unfortunate laptops that has a great wireless chip for linux but the wireless chip is enabled through wmi. Google for acerhk/acer_acpi/acer-wmi and be prepared to get confused.

In order to get it working I have to load the acer-wmi module (at boot time through /etc/modules if I need my wireless working at boot time). Ubuntu seems to be the only distro that a) will install correctly and b) has a working acer-wmi module so kudos to Ubuntu.

 

[Jayce]

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 2735(?) it's one of the unfortunate laptops that has a great wireless chip for linux but the wireless chip is enabled through wmi. Google for acerhk/acer_acpi/acer-wmi and be prepared to get confused.

In order to get it working I have to load the acer-wmi module (at boot time through /etc/modules if I need my wireless working at boot time). Ubuntu seems to be the only distro that a) will install correctly and b) has a working acer-wmi module so kudos to Ubuntu.

Oh wow. I never heard of that. I take it you've tried a whole array of distros??

 

[kmote]

Oh wow. I never heard of that. I take it you've tried a whole array of distros??

Neither had I.

I tried a few: Slackware, Fedora and Debian. Ubuntu is still the only one I can get working properly.

 

[kluge]

I've always loved linux when it comes to wireless. It was a bit of a pain to install my ath9k_htc. Once it was installed it worked so much better than windows, mostly because I can drop to command line if I get any glitches.