[SEGMAT]

Hello everyone,

I ran Ubuntu Linux 7.10 for about 2 months after realizing that it would finally work easially with WPA encryption on my wireless Internet at home. Due to various other annoyances with Ubuntu, I have left it and am in a terrible state. I switched back to Windows and haven't been in here for more than two hours and I hate it. I can't live with Windows anymore, but I need something that has next to no effort to get WPA working in it. Most distro's I've tried work with my wireless card, they find it and can connect to my neighbours Internet because they have no encryption. I need to connect to mine though and I have WPA.

Please suggest any distro that I can download overnight and install in the morning so I can get out of Windows! Any distro that has VERY easy support for WPA, like Ubuntu does, is fair game, I will try anything. Just not Ubuntu versions though like Kubuntu or Xubuntu or those ones, I've tried those and don't like them either, please help me find a different one!

Matt

[waterhead]

I'm not sure what it was about the Ubuntu family that you didn't like. Was it the KDE desktop? You can change that to Gnome, or XFCE (although I doubt that you would like XFCE).

I have used the Gnome NetworkManager to connect to my WPA wireless access point. You enter all of the needed info, and it will save it in a keyring manager.

[ozar]

A number of people have reported Sabayon working out of the box for wireless. I don't run wireless connections so can't say for sure, but it might be worth a try.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by waterhead

I'm not sure what it was about the Ubuntu family that you didn't like. Was it the KDE desktop? You can change that to Gnome, or XFCE (although I doubt that you would like XFCE).

Ubuntu uses GNOME by default. Kubuntu uses KDE. Xubuntu uses XFce. Hence the name differences. Your point still stands; these things can be changed. I just wanted to clarify that if the original poster has used regular Ubuntu, they have used GNOME.

Out-of-the-box wireless support doesn't depend so much on the distribution as your wireless hardware. If it worked out of the box in Ubuntu that means you have a chipset that is supported in Linux, either through native drivers (ex: Intel) or through something like madwifi. It follows that if Ubuntu detected it, other distributions will detect it as well.

[Thrillhouse]

Linux Mint claims to have superior wireless support. It detected and installed the drivers for my Intel card right out of the box (although it failed in other areas).

[SEGMAT]

I will give Mint a shot, I tried Sabayon, PCLinuxOS, Zenwalk, Freespire, and none of them worked.

Thanks,

Matt

[waterhead]

It would be much easier to figure out the chipset of your wireless, and then the driver module needed. Then you can use whichever distro you like.

If you give us some info on the wireless, we can help you out. Is it built in, PCMCIA or USB? Make and model (although this info is not as important).

[SEGMAT]

Hello,

It's a PCI Ralink Wireless card, and I'm replying from Mint, it works good here in Mint and so maybe this is the one for me! I see Linux as needing to support Internet out of the box, and then anything else can be solved by looking on the forums for the distro, so for me, Mint might be the one.

Thanks, I'd still appreciate some advice about where to look for Ralink drivers and how to do that in any distro.

Matt

[daark.child]

Originally Posted by SEGMAT

Hello,

It's a PCI Ralink Wireless card, and I'm replying from Mint, it works good here in Mint and so maybe this is the one for me! I see Linux as needing to support Internet out of the box, and then anything else can be solved by looking on the forums for the distro, so for me, Mint might be the one.

Thanks, I'd still appreciate some advice about where to look for Ralink drivers and how to do that in any distro.

Matt

Ralink based cards should work out of the box on pretty much any modern distro. This is because ralink released their drivers as opensource a few years ago. I own a several ralink based cards and usually they just work with most distros without any hassle. For those distros that don't support them out of the box, the drivers can be downloaded from Serialmonkey.

[SEGMAT]

Thanks a lot, this will help me for if and when I go to another distro, I will keep going with Mint for now because it seems to work, but I will use this site for any future distro that gives me problems.

Thanks again!

Matt