Re: accessing wlan without non-free firmware?
On 2008-11-20 13:07 +0100, Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:54 PM, Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de> wrote:
>> On 2008-11-19 11:00 +0100, Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote:
>>
>>> I struggled to get 4965 wireless working on my TravelMate 6592, and
>>> succeeded only once having installed firmware-iwlwifi from non-free.
>>> Is there a way to achieve this without going the non-free route?
>>
>> Surely, buy a WLAN card that does not require non-free firmware. The
>> Free Software Foundation has a list of them:
>> http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/net/wireless/cards.html.
>>
>> BTW, why exactly does the firmware bug you?
>
> Debian doesn't distribute such
For the record, it does not distribute it in main or in installer
images, by the Social Contract. However, there are debs and udebs (for
the installer) in non-free.
> and that means folks installing from
> discs won't get their wireless working out-of-the-box. It makes it
> even harder if those don't have immediate connection to the wild web.
This is really a nuisance, I agree. The procedure is that you have to
get the firmware from somewhere prior to the installation and put it on
a floppy or USB stick where the installer can find it. See
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch06s04.html for details.
> Luckily for me I had Ubuntu installation disc handy, which managed to
> connect with that card, me supposing that they using the same
> firmware, only much more accessible (installed by default).
My hunch is that sooner or later somebody will begin to produce and
distribute unofficial install discs that contain the distributable
non-free firmware. These days where most wireless cards and several
Ethernet cards require firmware, network installs are becoming more and
more problematic. :-(
Sven
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