Just installed a wireless card in the laptop I use at Laidley… the wireless card is a pretty standard Intel Pro/Wireless 2915ABG mini-PCI card. It works flawlessly under Linux. I think it was originally from an IBM Thinkpad T41, as it has “FRU: 93P4239” which when used as a search keyword, leads me to that page on the ThinkWiki site.
I’ve used it just fine in the Toshiba TE2100 I had no problems under Linux… never did get Windows to work with it.
I gave it another try today, after installing it into the Satellite PRO 6100 that I use at Laidley… The machine runs Windows XP as Texas Instruments likes to play all kinds of ridiculous proprietary games with their DSPs and MCUs (in particular, the TMS320LF2406A and the MSP430). So I’m stuck with this horrid OS.
I popped the card in… no problems, slots in nicely under the keyboard. Windows boots up, recognises the card as being a “network controller”, but doesn’t have the drivers… so far so good. Downloaded the drivers off the Lenovo site, and also grabbed the official Intel ones. I’ve tried both thus far.
Upon installation, I see the following:
Okay… fine… let’s see what the Event Viewer can tell me.
Rightyo… there’s a link I can look at… what does this tell me? I give it a try…
This wireless card works out-of-the-box in Linux with no stuffing around. Yet… Windows won’t touch it…. and people wonder why I bag Microsoft.
If anyone knows of a solution to this gem (that doesn’t involve replacing the hardware or OS) I’m all ears.
Havent really tried running wifi under windows but rfkill seems to be a problem with my card (iwl5000) even under Linux sometimes. AFAIK ipw2915 is a miniPCI card, and they have one pin (number 6 if I remember correctly, but google anyway) controlling rfkill, when you put a little tape there (not to cover other pins) the card should be in a constantly enabled state thus preventing any problems with rfkill (like “cannot load firmware with HW rfkill enabled”)
anyway, those are lenovo or intel drivers?
Sorry, but it’s an Intel NIC, so you’ve to blame Intel and not Microsoft!
I’m not a fan of Microsoft, but this time it’s not their fault, so be fair…
Well… this is using both the Lenovo drivers, and the official Intel ones, it does the same thing. There’s a hardware rfkill switch on this machine. I might try a LiveCD and confirm this, but the last laptop — it completely ignored the hardware switch and kept working anyway.
As for who’s fault? Well, I agree Intel are also to blame. However, it has been typical Microsoft policy to keep users completely and utterly in the dark as much as possible. I’m sorry, but I have standard Mini-PCI card, laptop with Mini-PCI slot, I expect to plug Mini-PCI card into slot and have it work. Under Linux, this has been the case, using Intel’s drivers. Under Windows, the same is not true, and it really does peeve me off.
If it weren’t for the fact that TI’s controllers can only be programmed from within Windows, I’d have reloaded this box with Linux already.
microsoft is not your enemy, it is just a another world in another language. Its perhaps just a matter of communication……….hehehhe