belkin & 7g setup

[WILT]

Hi guys ,
I am trying out various distros and was bemused to find that the stripped down lean version of "Puppy" linux was able to setup my belkin card by the use of pullldowns and radio buttons and the larger more sophisticated versions including this one ,make it almost impossible. Couldn't the code be transmogrified so that rookies like me might get on the net and even consider giving up windows?

[gogalthorp]

Did you look at Yast. That is where all things are configured

[D-cat]

Just about every distro has its own set up tools. I personally really like Yast, since everything is available from a central interface, though I have discovered that it has some limitations that'll force you to use something alternate (like starting with SuSE11, you can't manually define a ppd for a printer which doesn't have an auto-detected driver, you have to use the CUPSd web interface if you're unlucky enough to have such a printer).

I'd say about 98% of the time, Yast will help make a problem free setup. It is a control-panel menu like interface and not so much a wizard interface (though it employs some use of wizards), so it seems to confuse some people at first, but the more you use it, the more it makes sense.

To answer your question literally, since most tools for setting up in Linux are gnu and thus available as source, yes, it is possible to port tools used in other distros to some other distro like this one. However, it is not likely to happen as it would change things about the distro that would likely get mixed responses from both sides of the fence; I'm of the opinion that YaST is one of the big things that draws me to SuSE, I don't want to have it traded out for something else from another distro. It's part of the look and feel for SuSE; if I want to use Puppy's setup tools, I'd have installed Puppy.

In fact, I see set up tools as one of the biggest dividers among general purpose distros. Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, and SuSE all have their own setup tools, but otherwise, they all use Xorg, they all have the availability to use KDE, Gnome, or XFCE as defaults with several other desktop managers available. They all kick from the same base kernel, though they have some minor differences what modules (drivers) are compiled in the kernel and what stays as external files, aside from the setup tools, they are otherwise similar to nearly identical.

Puppy's different because it's a lightweight distro by design, with almost entirely manual hardware setup (which is a major advantage when dealing with problem machines), yet still has scripts and tools in the menu to make that setup process mostly painless as you pointed out. Ubuntu takes a similar "tools are in the menu" approach, but it relies heavily on auto detection which is great when it works, but immediately causes confusion when it doesn't, which can lead to frustration and downloading and manual reconfiguring... everything is relative. Like I said Yast isn't perfect either, but I think it strikes a very good balance between detection, configurability, and usability. It's all a matter of opinion and what works for you. Yast works for me, thus SuSE is my distro of choice. YMWV, and it should.

[WILT]

Yes ,Ive been round and around the pages in YAST to no avail .If I config network
yast finds Belkin BCM306 802.11b/g WLan0 but I cant find any reference to Ndis wrapper anywhere to install the windows driver .Ive tried putting in all the other stuff -- vpc/vpi 0,38 , plusnet ,my user name and password in what i considered to be the appropriate pages/ fields but no internet connection.

[gogalthorp]

Boy I can't find any references to that wireless card anywhere on the net is that the correct numbers?

[WILT]

The card is a common wireless card Belkin F57000d but uses the Broadcom chipset and I believe that is what YAST is reporting.

[D-cat]

Have you seen this page?
Ndiswrapper howto - openSUSE

[waterhead]

You most likely mean it is a BCM4306, and it is well supported in Linux. There are two versions, one uses the b43legacy driver, the other uses the b43 driver.

I would like to take this moment to stress a point:
FORGET ABOUT USING NDISWRAPPER.

The Linux driver (b43 or b43legacy) is most likely already loading. Like ALL Broadcom wireless devices, it needs firmware installed before it will work. This firmware is considered proprietary software, and almost no Linux distribution includes it by default. Fortunately, Suse will install the firmware, just by issuing this command. (You need a wired internet connection to do this)

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

You will still need to configure it in YaST.