[ale] IBM & Centrino wifi: no support

[Dow Hurst]

$400 for the retrofit.

If I had added $200 more they would have replaced the wireless card and 
configured it.  I didn't have that money.
Dow

Christopher Fowler wrote:

>What was the price of the work they did?
>
>
>On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 10:09:34AM -0400, Dow Hurst wrote:
>  
>
>>Yes, I am sorry you've discovered this after your purchase as a straight 
>>P4 or AMD laptop might have worked out hardwarewise a little better.  
>>You can have Emperor Linux retrofit your kernel with theirs.  Their 
>>specialty is the software configuration to make all the hardware work.  
>>Their solution is that they work out a relationship with the vendor so 
>>that their laptop will have hardware that is compatible with Linux.  The 
>>Dell i8500 we got from Dell came with builtin wireless that has the same 
>>problem you've got.  Emperor Linux gets their i8500 from Dell without 
>>that wireless and adds an internal wireless mini-PCI card that is 
>>Orinoco compatible.  So the extra money is actually saving you a bunch 
>>of time and work getting the hardware functioning.  They had the 
>>firewire, ethernet, wireless, and PC-tel modem all working when I got 
>>the laptop back from them.  (I paid for the retrofit to save a ton of 
>>problems I would have had to deal with)
>>
>>The Centrino and current software based wireless chips that aren't open 
>>source and aren't supported are a real problem right now.  We need a 
>>large team of experts hacking those chips so that all these laptops can 
>>be made to work.
>>Dow
>>
>>
>>David S. Jackson wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I've been researching which bits of my new t40 are supported and
>>>which are not.  The centrino wifi appears *not* to be, and specs
>>>don't appear to be forthcoming.  
>>>
>>>There's a fascinating thread about this linux-thinkpad.org:
>>>
>>>http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/2003-August/012424.html
>>>
>>>Later in the thread some folks discuss why internal wifi specs
>>>can't be released due to the FCC's insistence.  I guess the newer
>>>generation of wifi devices do all the controlling in software, so
>>>releasing the specs could enable someone to make the device
>>>interfere with devices outside the allocated frequency range, a
>>>very big no-no as far as the FCC is concerned.  
>>>
>>>The wind up is that if I keep the T-40, I can't use the centrino
>>>wifi or the Winmodem.  And the suspend/resume apparently would
>>>need a fat32 partition to work under Linux.  Some challenges lie
>>>ahead if I want to use all of the T-40 under Linux as is...
>>>
>>>On to more researching...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>-- 
>>__________________________________________________________
>>Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428           
>>Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744           
>>1000 Chastain Rd. Bldg. 12                                
>>Chemistry Department SC428  Email:   dhurst at kennesaw.edu  
>>Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
>>Kennesaw, GA 30144                                        
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-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428           
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744           
1000 Chastain Rd. Bldg. 12                                
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:   dhurst at kennesaw.edu  
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144                                        
*****************************************************************
This message (including any attachments) contains confidential  *
information intended for a specific individual and purpose,     *
and is protected by law.  If you are not the intended recipient,*
you should delete this message and are hereby notified that     *
any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or    *
the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited.   *
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