[KLUG Members] puppy linux with atheros chipset...

[Mark Bystry]

well, after fooling around with gnoppix i found that my netgear atheros 
card was picked up automatically. since it's based on ubuntu i bit the 
bullet and installed ubuntu breezy. ubuntu picked up my card as 
expected. got on the net after install in about 30 seconds.

to be honest i have never really found ubuntu appealing since it uses 
gnome. i prefer kde and have played around with kubuntu...which i like. 
however, unbuntu breezy is working just fine on this old 333 pii. i'm 
rather impressed. gnome is very different compared to what i'm used to 
but i'll figure things out in the end.

thanks everyone.

Victor wrote:
>>Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:49:40 -0500
>>From: Mark Bystry <mabystry at verizon.net>
>>Subject: Re: [KLUG Members] puppy linux with atheros chipset...
>>To: "The main KLUG mailing list." <members at kalamazoolinux.org>
>>Message-ID: <4408ABE4.9010908 at verizon.net>
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>>i'm still on a quest to find the lightest and most practical linux
>>distro for my old laptop. i 
>>figured if i can get wireless working with a live-cd then i can do it
>>with an install.
>>
>>Mark Bystry
>>SuSE 10.0
>>KDE 3.4.2
>>
>>
>>Adam Tauno Williams wrote the following on 3/3/2006 1:43 PM:
>>
>>>>when i attended last tuesdays meeting (i'm the guy who donated the
>>
>>7 computers) i noticed that 
>>
>>>>andrew thompson was running puppy linux on his laptop. soooo, i got
>>
>>interested in it for my old 
>>
>>>>compaq armada 1750 laptop. i downloaded the latest live-cd iso and
>>
>>away i went. it's a nice little 
>>
>>>>distro. very responsive on old hardware.
>>>>anyway, i use a netgear w511t pcmcia card that has the atheros
>>
>>chipset for wireless. this card works 
>>
>>>>great in suse (i think i'm using the madwifi drivers...could be
>>
>>wrong). i tried using wireless 
>>
>>>>config in puppy but stumbled on which diver to select. does anyone
>>
>>have any tips for me? i checked 
>>
>>>>the puppy forums and i do not see anything of interest there.
>>>
>>>I have an Atheros chipset in my SuSe laptop, it is running with the
>>>madwifi drivers.  But, if I remember correctly, the Atheros chipset
>>>loads some non-GPL binary firmware module.  So it might not be
>>
>>included
>>
>>>in some distributions.  I don't know anything about puppy linux
>>
> 
> Greetings!
> 
> Not sure on the Atheros support available, but for an extremely light
> and small linux distro, Damn Small Linux (DSL)
> http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ based on Debian Linux
> http://www.debian.org/ is hard to beat. Having the Debian "apt" software
> package system is also a bonus, apt is a great package manager, and the
> number of Debian software packages available is *huge*.
> 
> Hope that helps
> 
> Victor
> 
>