yossarian Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 Hi all, I plan to buy a used laptop, probably IBM X31. It doesn't have internal WiFi card, so I thought using a USB dongle (or PCMCIA card). My question is what are the chances that Mandriva will recognize the card and run the appropriate driver for it automatically? Do all the dongles use the same driver, or each of them has its own? I also thought running MDV 2008.0 from the live CD before I buy the computer, just to check for general compatibility. Did anyone run a WiFi external card from the One CD? And if we are here, if anyone has anything to say about buying the X31 in general, or running it with MDV 2008.0 particularly, this is the time! [-how come there isn't any emoticon for time?-] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Posted October 30, 2007 Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 Hi Yossarien, as far as running pcmcia wireless cards on a laptop, you're likely to have more luck with 2008.0. Not sure what version you were going to install, but the support for wireless cards in 2007.1 isn't great. Actually, it really sucks. I was using two Belkin cards, one on my laptop, another card for my desktop pc, and over time it corupted and became a real headache. Still don't know why, but it didn't die right away. I reinstalled a couple times (having just come from windows xp, that's what you do, right?), found the problem worse, and eventually got rid of it by jiggering off the wireless cards and uninstalling the bcm43xx packages. All that's been fixed with 2008.0 I've been told, the problem being the kernel with 2007.1 only supported a few cards with the bcm43xx firmware cutter tool. Apparently this latest kernel for 2008.0 does a much better job. So far I've had no problems with my pcmcia card on the laptop, which is purring like a kitten. Haven't been brave enough to reinstall the card back on my desktop pc yet...there are more than a few issues with compiz-fusion I'm not real happy about. Did I mention my laptop can't support 3d effects? 10 years old and running beautifully... I wonder when the next update for compiz-fusion comes out.... Anyway, good luck, to answer your question, I think your chances should be pretty good that Mandriva will detect your card and configure it correctly, judging from past experience and what other people have told me. Belkin definitely seems to be working... best off doing a search though and finding some cards that were also definitely supported well on previous kernels. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted October 30, 2007 Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 I also run a laptop with a Belkin card without any problems. I do have a Sitecom usb card which is not supported and I cannot get that to work under Linux at all. The laptop is a rather old Toshiba Sattelite but works just fine. I have no experience with the machine you are getting so no comment there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yossarian Posted October 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 best off doing a search though and finding some cards that were also definitely supported well on previous kernels. Cheers. I know, the problem is I'm meeting this guy tomorrow, and I don't believe he will know the exact model he is using. My impression was that he is a not-sophisticated user, not in the bad sense, but in the sense that he doesn't care that much for the specs and models he is using. That's why I want to see the computer myself and examine it before I buy it. Thanks for the detailed answer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yossarian Posted October 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 I also run a laptop with a Belkin card without any problems. I do have a Sitecom usb card which is not supported and I cannot get that to work under Linux at all. The laptop is a rather old Toshiba Sattelite but works just fine. I have no experience with the machine you are getting so no comment there. Sorry for the ignorance, but Belkin is the name of the brand? Do you use also PCMCIA card? And thank you for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted October 30, 2007 Report Share Posted October 30, 2007 Sorry for not being precise, yes it is a PCMCIA card. Built in wireless wasn't around when this machine as on the market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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