TechnicalLinux wifi help :(

 

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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  ALL
41880.1 
So I have my Thinkpad X201s and I've just spent all evening setting stuff up except for the wifi, only to discover the X201 contains an Intel wireless card for which only non-free firmware is available, and I've been setting up Trisquel which runs on Linux-libre. :'(

I tried installing iwlwifi firmware using the Debian 7 steps here but although it appears to have installed (adds a bunch of files to /lib/firmware), iwconfig still doesn't list it.

Does it also need a driver installed? Is anything in Trisquel/Linux-libre likely to be blocking it?

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 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.2 In reply to 41880.1 
If you can't get working, maybe a usb wifi adapter? I have a tenda on my pc at home that works in Fedora 19 out of the box iirc.

I think it's this one: http://www.dx.com/p/tenda-w311ma-150mbps-ieee802-11b-g-n-usb-2-0-wi-fi-wireless-network-adapter-white-147652#.WJKD659OmpY
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)     
41880.3 In reply to 41880.2 
Yeah, don't want to waste a USB slot, but that's the backup. Not a bulky antenna though - there are nano USB adaptors that aren't too bad.

Annoyingly I've promised a working system by Friday, so need to check if this or any of these will work on Linux-libre - have until 5pm tomorrow/today to get next day delivery.

Kinda hoping Xen's going to appear before then and give me a magic command to just make it all work. :)

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 From:  Drew (X3N0PH0N)  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.4 In reply to 41880.3 
Does it have to be Trisquel? Cos that's obviously an obstacle and you're kinda rendering that choice of distro redundant by forcing proprietary firmware in there.

If not, I'd go with Debian - still free by default but not to the point where the only thing it runs on is MIPS.

If not... I don't know. Modprobe to see what if any kernel driver is being loaded for the wifi card and take it from there. It might be that the kernel in Trisquel just compiles out any drivers that even look for firmware in which case a kernel recompile might solve it (but again, at that point why Trisquel and also you're creating an unmaintainable system).
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.5 In reply to 41880.3 
Does the person/people using the laptop care about it being free/non-free?

I would guess no, which surely means you're just introducing restrictions which make your setup more difficult and their use of the laptop less user friendly.
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.6 In reply to 41880.3 
Another option is finding a new mini pci-e wireless card and replacing the Intel one with one that is supported.
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 From:  Matt  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.7 In reply to 41880.1 
Is the WiFi card removable and can you replace it with another compatible card? That would save the use of a USB socket at least.

doohicky

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 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.8 In reply to 41880.3 
I like the big ass antenna sticking out the back of my pc, for the same reason I keep the sides off and my hdds in an external cage with a big **H O T** paper sign folded on top, so Mrs.D doesn't throw dirty laundry over it.
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  Matt     
41880.9 In reply to 41880.7 
In theory, yeah, but figuring out what's compatible is too much hassle right now. (Plus it requires taking off keyboard and palmrest to do.)

With a USB one I just need a supported chipset?

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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  Drew (X3N0PH0N)     
41880.10 In reply to 41880.4 
I spent several hours settings things up that I don't want to repeat - if it can be easily converted to Debian without taking ages and being confusing and creating a horrible hybrid then fine, but I suspect that route would be worse than re-setting up Debian from scratch.

A single bad firmwire isn't ideal but doesn't make it completely redundant - especially if it can be undone once I have time/inclination to swap the card over.

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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  ANT_THOMAS     
41880.11 In reply to 41880.5 

Half do, half don't object, and the point is identical bases.

I'm building the most free solution without sacrificing user friendliness whilst being constrained by time - if I'd discovered this sooner I probably would have looked for a different LTS distro that used the regular kernel, and it seems likely I'm going to have to waste the entire evening tonight repeating stuff I've already done. :(

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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.12 In reply to 41880.11 
I guess that's the penalty you pay for not checking all hardware is compatible with the strict list. Are you able to use a regular kernel? Or does that just defeat the whole object and you may as well start from scratch with a well supported distro?
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  ANT_THOMAS     
41880.13 In reply to 41880.12 
I did check the hardware, and it was listed as Linux compatible, with no indication on wireless firmware being an issue. Whilst looking into Trisquel I either didn't see or didn't notice that all the people there using and recommending Thinkpads didn't use the default wireless card.

It was only on looking more into Linux-libre that I discovered it doesn't just remove non-free firmware, but actively refuses to load it even if you install it separately.

So I'm going with Debian - still got some more setup to do today, but not oversleeping like I usually do means I at least have a bit of time.

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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.14 In reply to 41880.13 
That's a bit shit, freedom should include being able to install whatever you want without being restricted to what some group of people say you should/shouldn't.
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)  
 To:  ANT_THOMAS     
41880.15 In reply to 41880.14 
Yep, goes against "The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose" and "The freedom to ... change it so it does your computing as you wish"

No point arguing that though - they'd just say having the source code means you're free to modify it, (whilst insisting immediately that doing so would be the worst thing ever).

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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.16 In reply to 41880.15 
I had a very quick search to see what support that distro had for Intel WiFi (obviously little or none), and the first few forum posts were just people getting angry for others linking to non-free proprietary firmwares. At which point I thought, I'm not Richard Stallman so I really don't care.
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 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)  
 To:  ANT_THOMAS     
41880.17 In reply to 41880.16 
Richard cares so you don't have to.
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS  
 To:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)     
41880.18 In reply to 41880.17 
It's a massive weight off my penguin shoulders.
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 From:  Drew (X3N0PH0N)  
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)     
41880.19 In reply to 41880.15 
It's the nature of the beast though innit. If you want to be *100% certain* that there's nothing proprietary on your machine, then Trisquel is the right choice. Which means for the vast majority of people in the vast majority of situations, it's a terrible choice.

There are *plenty* of other distros (Debian's a good choice for a fairly hard-line but still sane approach to freeness).
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