Old dog looking for new tricks..

[jdossey]

I'm a retired mainframe programmer analyst, who is getting interested in something more than Windows. I installed Fedora 9 on my laptop, and have had good luck so far. I cant figure out how to setup a wireless connection, but I have ethernet connection, and I installed Fedora on a USB external drive. When I feel that warm and fuzzy feeling, I will format the internal hard drive and make it total LINUX machine.

I am looking for a source of information for some pretty dumb questions.
I hope I dont become a nuisance. I look forward to becoming a LINUX DUDE instead of a Windows follower.

I am amazed how many things I have been able to find just by looking for myself.The wireless connection is one thing I cant figure out. There are other small cosmetic things, but I look forward to YOUR HELP!

[bigtomrodney]

Glad you're enjoying it jdossey

It's certainly something that you can figure out with the abundance of information out there. Because most of the discussion of Linux is on the internet you can usually find someone else's solution. The trick is you need to know what to look for

Start up a new thread on your wireless problem (either in the wireless networking or Fedora sections) and post as much info as you can on the type of wifi card you have and if you can the output of the following commands, run in a terminal

/sbin/lspci
ifconfig
iwconfig

I hope Linux gives you what you're looking for, though I suppose if you come from a mainframe background you'll be right at home

[carolinason]

Yeah this area is for chatting, so you might have better luck in the fedora section.
Not sure about fedora, since I use debian, but this is how i do it anyhoo

if there is not a linux driver then use ndiswrapper
as root in bash terminal

1. Install ndiswrapper package and the ndiswrapper utilities package
2. install windows driver with ndiswrapper either at the command line or use ndisgtk
3. ndiswrapper -l to see if the hardware is installed
4. run depmod -a
5. modprobe ndiswrapper
6. ifconfig wlan0 up
7. iwlist -scan find an essid you like and connect
8. iwconfig essid=name_of_router
9. dhclient wlan0

you're off and running

[bigtomrodney]

If there's any advice I'd give it's that it's good to know how ifconfig and iwconfig work, but for daily work NetworkManager gets the job done

[jdossey]

I apprciate such quick responses. I have only been on here for a couple of hours, and already getting potential solutions.
I have a lot to learn. I dont even know how to get in "Command mode" to ender commands, and I havent completely figured out how to find and install the packages that i see referenced. But I learned this is just the forum for
chatting, adn there are specific places here for specific type problems.

Thanks soooooo much. I feel more confident already. have a great week everyong.

[hazel]

I dont even know how to get in "Command mode" to ender commands

You use the application called "terminal" or "gnome-terminal". It'll be in your start menu or you may have a desktop icon for it. Alternatively you can press ctrl-alt-F1 to get a completely text-based screen, which imho is easier to read than a graphical console (use alt-F7 to get back into your GUI).

[oz]

Welcome to the forums... hope Linux turns into a great experience for you!