Re: [Trisquel-users] Are all Atheros Wifi cards libre?
It just kills me that hardware companies have to be so difficult. What do they REALLY gain from being this way about their code and hardware documentation?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Are all Atheros Wifi cards libre?
I have a Thinkpad x201 and switched the built-in Intel wifi chip in favor of a Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 which works just perfect. I got the Atheros off Ebay for ~3.50€. The whole process was a bit of a mess but manageable thanks do Lenovo's whitelist anti-feature. I wrote it all down, sadly it's only in German but at least the commands or some automated translation service should help: http://vinzv.de/wie-man-den-wlan-chipsatz-in-einem-thinkpad-x201-austauscht/ vinz.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Are all Atheros Wifi cards libre?
No. It's not quite correct to say all Atheros wifi cards or even all Atheros PCIE or mini PCIE or mini PCIE half height cards are free software friendly as some of these cards do require non-free firmware and won't work or won't work fully in Trisquel- or any other free OS/distribution. There are quite a few cards now that require non-free firmware from Atheros. All the 802.11ac cards for instance and some older cards which include an 802.11n Atheros chipset. There has been misinformation presented on these forums (which I've mentioned a few times although may not have corrected in every thread on the subject) and on h-node as well as elsewhere. It can be easy to misinterpret test results and conclude cards are free software friendly when they are not. In the one particular case I'm thinking of numerous people here and elsewhere have wrongly concluded one card were free software friendly. Much more recently (past year or two maybe) a new similar card (but rare) with an Atheros chipset did hit the market which is free software friendly (it has an 802.11n chipset, not 802.11ac).
[Trisquel-users] Are all Atheros Wifi cards libre?
I have a Lenovo Ideapad Y400 and have recently switched to solely Trisquel, which consequently disabled my Intel Centrino N 2230 because it runs on proprietary firmware. I was curious if all of the Atheros mini pci-e wifi cards would be compatible.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Are all Atheros Wifi cards libre?
As far as I know all the Atheros wifi cards series AR9xxx and AR5xxx work just fine. I have a couple (I bought one more and keep it ready for the future..) of AR928X and they work splendidly! Cost 15 dollars for 2 wifi cards. You can find them even for 5 bucks. cheers!
