In my experience older laptops with B cards often had better ability to be put into monitor mode and such. The real deciding factor is the chipset. A simple lspci will display the hardware on the bus, and you can see the chipset brand/model/revision. Check if that chipset has drives and you are off and running. If a quick google shows people using NDIS wrapper like ubuntu will often automatically do, you will be out of luck for setting the card into monitor mode.
In my personal experience Atheros mostly work, Old realtek often worked with some playing with the drivers, new realtek and broadcom are hit and miss depending on the models. Michael Gorman On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 3:10 PM, Dino K <[email protected]> wrote: > The one thing you have to realize about old laptops is the lack of a lot of > capabilities in it's radio, a lot of the auxiliary features for sniffing or > hacking or war driving might not be available to those radios. Is your > radio an A/B and non G? > > You can try puppy as far as small distros. Have you tried xubuntu? > > -dk > > On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Paul Saenz <[email protected]>wrote: > >> My old dell doesn't have capability to boot from usb in the bios. I could >> just keep using my cd drive, but there is a bit of lag when I start up a new >> operation. I do want to be portable, but in order to relieve Dk's concern >> for my using backtrack to sniff or hack on public networks, I think his >> admonitions would be better placed in an email written to a 15 year old >> delinquent, <chuckle> or maybe he confused me with some guy name Dan Tentler >> or something. <chuckle chuckle> On the other hand, thanks for the info about >> partitions dk. >> >> Nevertheless, it seems to me that anything I can do with ubuntu, I should >> be able to do with backtrack. I should be able to make backtrack my main OS >> for now if I wanted to, or would you say that is not a very accurate >> statement? The reason I ask is because anymore, I can't seem to get any of >> the new linux distros (specifically variations of ubuntu) to run on my old >> dell, but backtrack runs. I know I could install debian, or Arch linux and >> get them to run, and I would like to, but I figure it will take some time, >> and I want a linux disto on my laptop that I can use now. I don't have a >> budget for a new laptop now. I have other bigger items that are more >> necessary at this time and my desktop is much more powerful and sufficient >> for all my needs. >> >> Thanks >> Paul >> >> >> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 6:44 PM, Peter Manis <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Actually the best option is not installing backtrack at all and storing >>> only the things you need between boots on a usb key. It has been years >>> since I've touched reiserfs so I can't say much, but I can't think of >>> anything that is going to make a significant difference when used with BT. >>> Is there a reason you can't just boot off a usb key with BT installed? >>> >>> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:09 PM, Paul Saenz >>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> Actually, yeah, I knew that reiserfs has been picked up by and >>>> is being maintained by a development team. I had also heard >>>> that it was PITA. Nevertheless, when I looked at multiple web >>>> pages that described installing backtrack recommended using >>>> reiserfs. I don't know why, but I just assumed that reiserfs must >>>> be the best fs for backtrack. I also knew that I could use Ext3. >>>> I guess I didn't realize how much of a PITA that reiser could be. >>>> So I think I will just go along with your reccomendation and use >>>> Ext3. I think I'll wait on Ext 4 until they work the bugs out. >>>> Thanks >>>> >>>> Anyways, I think the main thing I could use help with is finding >>>> a website where I can get the backtrack installer tool. >>>> Anyone? >>>> >>>> Thanks >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:13 AM, Chris Louden <[email protected]>wrote: >>>> >>>>> Paul, >>>>> >>>>> Using ReiserFS you will definitely learn. Honestly its like going to >>>>> the school of hard knocks. While that is a very worthy thing for >>>>> anyone to do I personally would highly suggest that you use EXT3(old >>>>> faithful), EXT4(speed), or XFS(great for large files). Reisers is a >>>>> completely good, stable file system, but when there is an issue it >>>>> becomes such a PITA. When you are talking about data go with the safe >>>>> bet. >>>>> >>>>> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 11:36 PM, Paul Saenz< >>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>> > Also what is the best tool for formatting to reiserfs? The reason >>>>> > I ask that question is because, although I am not certain, but >>>>> > it seems to me that some fs writers do a more thorough job than >>>>> > others. What that means, I don't exactly know. All I know is that >>>>> > some seem to do it in seconds, while others seem to take a much >>>>> > longer time. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that it would be >>>>> > more likely to lose data with the quick ones. >>>>> > >>>>> > Thanks >>>>> > Paul >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> > _______________________________________________ >>>>> > LinuxUsers mailing list >>>>> > [email protected] >>>>> > http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> LinuxUsers mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> LinuxUsers mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Peter Manis >>> (678) 269-7979 >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> LinuxUsers mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> LinuxUsers mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > LinuxUsers mailing list > [email protected] > http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers > >
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