Re: [gNewSense-users] openFWWF Failing to work

[Jason Self]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Steve Woodruff
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Well, what puzzles me, is that there are many, many other users out there
> who have this firmware working, and most of them seem to run into no (or
> relatively few) issues. I still do want to try to get my card to work again,
> so I'm very much still open to suggestions.

Other distributions (such as Debian and Ubutnu) leave the non-free
software in the kernel. This permits the cards to work. gNewSense
values freedom more, though, and actively removes any software that is
determined to be non-free. This means that it supports fewer wireless
cards but is made up exclusively of free software. To use gNewSense is
to make a philosophical choice that free software is more important.

> Out of curiosity though, what would be some of the "best" wireless card
> models for a 'Free' system?It looks like your Broadcom 4311 is a mini-PCI 
> Express device? My laptop uses that, and I bought a card from [1] although 
> there are other choices available.

It is supported by the ath5k driver, although you will need a newer
kernel because ath5k didn't appear in the kernel until version 2.6.25
and gNewSense still uses 2.6.24.

Installing a newer kernel is very easy: http://aligunduz.org/gNewSense/

[1] 
http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/p226/SparkLAN-WPEA-166G-miniPCI-Wireless-card---Atheros-AR5006EG-AR2425-Single-Chip-Solution-mini-PCI-E,-mPCIe-adapter/product_info.html