Ok, i knew that 802.11g wasn't pretty under linux. Still, i had no idea how bad it was.
Let's take a few steps back, shall we? The box in my garage stopped responding yesterday morning at about 6AM. At first i thought that it was some update gone awry, but in reality what happened was that the netgear game adapter i was using to connect the box to my wireless network finally cooked itself to "well done". (Ok, side rant: why the hell does a game adapter need 5V at 2AMP? You could cook an egg on that thing.) Considering that i had a perfectly good Belkin 802.11g wireless USB dongle sitting around, i figured it'd be reasonably simple to get the box up using that, particularly when i learned that it was a device that reportedly works great under Ubuntu. i figured i'd just plug it in, let the server note it's there, enter in the WPA key and i'd be good to go. i plug it in and… nothing. Kernel doesn't see it, nothing comes up to say it's there.
A few hours and package downloads later, i've got ndiswrapper installed. It's telling me that there's a pre-existing driver (wait, it didn't see that earlier?) so i deactivate ndiswrapper and spend time getting the pre-existing zd1121rw driver working with the dongle. i have limited success. This is because the zd1121rw driver that apparently comes pre-bundled with the kernel is still very much in alpha and is missing key components that let it work with yet another package "wpa_supplicant" which does the actual data encryption. Why these are separate, i do not know. One can only presume that some folks may want to do Wireless Protection Algorithmic services over non-wireless connections because one hasn't taken their meds that day.
No, it turns out that i had to deactivate the zd1121rw driver using "modprobe -r zd1121rw" before reinstalling the ndiswrapper driver by having it read the windows .inf file from the original driver CDRom before it managed to even see the card. Then, i had to edit my /etc/ifconfig file to include the newly created wlan0 entry and set it to contain the config information for the newly created circuit, and copy and modify the template configuration file which is hidden in the dark recesses of /var/doc/ to include the right information for my network, which i then tried running wsa_supplicant and it immediately informed me that what i wanted to do wasn't possible since the driver didn't support it. It's ok, though, since neither would the original driver.
angry thoughts were had.
angry words were said.
Quite some time ago, i read a comparison of the various systems that compared it to getting a chair. Windows, the chair was built for you, and may or may not be comfortable. Mac, the chair at least looked really nice. With linux, you were handed the tools and materials to make the comfiest chair ever. i hated that example because i have little interest in becoming furniture maker. i don't want to spend weeks learning intricacies of operation and go through seemingly endless cycles before i can get something that i can sit on. At that point, i won't care if it's the most luxurious chair in the world, hell, i'll sit on the table saw and talk about how soothing it was. i'd just rather get on with doing things i'd rather work on.
Yes, i know that Linux is about collaboration, and rather than bitch about this stuff, i should build something that does what i want and share it with the world. Who knows? Maybe i'll do that later. i'll add it to the long list of similar tools out there that don't quite work right either.
Hell, linux has ZERO problems running over ethernet since that's been hammered out years ago. The problem is that Wireless is pretty much a moving target, and i get that. So yeah, i'm going to give up on screwing around with the USB stuff and just replace the external wireless adapter.
Because i really don't want to sit on a tablesaw.
I keep intending to build a Linux box as a file server just for the fun of doing it. Then I read about problems like this and remind myself that it's not fun, it's just that the Linux evangelists are so "None of the Above" when it comes to commercial software that they've convinced themselves that Linux already is the fantastic wunderkind OS it might someday be. It's like a parent whose kid keeps sticking rocks up his nose while she repeatedly slaps his hand and says "No, Johnny, don't do that" over and over while she tells you how he's so much smarter than other kids his age and the ignoramuses at the public school aren't equipped to deal with his intelligence and he's going to be a surgeon some day she can tell.
steveo: i built a linux box as a file server, but it was loud and … well, loud. so, i never had it on, which i guess defeats the purpose of a file server. i ended up builing a d-link dns-323 nas box (2xsata + gigabit ethernet) for less than what it took to buid my file server. it runs great, it's quiet and it works well — and with a quick hack, you can even take advantage of the linux running the nas (i did it so that i could activate rsync). but, yea, sometimes linux is a pain in the ass to work with — especially if you want to use one of the "pure" distros like fedora or opensuse which do not include binary blob drivers for major wifi components.
Save This Page
I think for Linux you can follow this template in general when dealing with *new* hardware:
My brand new ___insert hardware___ does not work with ___insert Linux distro__ out of the box. I have to build __insert driver__ and do all sorts of modprobing to get it to work. (Optional: __insert angry thoughts___ for those of us who would rather not geek around for hours trying to get something to work.)