Wolvix Schmolvix

[vakkotaur]

After many, many attempts to get Wolvix Linux to use a wireless connection and many, many utter failures to accomplish same, I think it's time to declare Wolvix "not ready for real world use." The Wolvix forum provided some help, but all I managed to get the lights to blink without getting a genuine connection. Wolvix was also not always launching the window manager fully, and didn't connect with a wired connection at first. It did eventually, so at least it seems possible to use it that way. That, however, is pretty useless when the places I'd use the laptop tend not to have sockets to plug into but only wireless access.

It is disappointing as overall Wolvix looks good. Too bad it doesn't seem to actually work.

I suppose, if nothing else, this at least means I won't have to put up with the GNU/ prefix silliness.

Comments

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Which release of Wolvix was that? I've been watching them and wondering if I should try it. I don't use wireless at all, but I do expect wired networking to function.

I may install the latest one under VMware to see what happens. My home machine is on Slackware 10.1 and is due for an update. Trouble is, though I don't run gnome itself, I do use a lot of gnu/gnome apps, and starting with 10.2, Slackware seems to have gone all KDE. I'm not enthused about having to hunt down and install (probably compile to install) gnome-terminal, gthumb, and a host of other gnome apps.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

This was Wolvix "Hunter" 1.0.5. The Window Manager is XFCE and they seem to have a fair mix of KDE-ish and GNOME-ish stuff, just not the full-blown (full-bloat?) WM of either. I've now tried the LiveCD on a Compaq Armada 7800 and a (ugh) Dell Inspiron 5000e with the same wireless non-results.

On the other had, Wolvix works well enough with a wired connection on a desktop machine that I am giving serious consideration to installing it on percheron.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'll see about downloading Hunter tomorrow then.

By all the accounts I've heard, getting wireless to work with most distributions is iffy unless you use the ndiswrapper approach. Did you try that?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The ndiswrapper approach is for using Windows drivers and the Cisco Aironet 350 card has native Linux drivers so there's no need to add yet another layer of complexity to the problem. I've just now tried WIRED PCMCIA networking on that Dell (bleh) and that does work, so it's not a PCMCIA issue, at least.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Then I'll bet the problem is the so-called Linux driver. Provided by the manufacturer or by Linux team members?

I've run into any number of "native" Linux drivers that in fact only work with RedHat because that's where they were written and tested.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. The driver that Ultima uses came with Ultima, which also has a Slackware ancestry, though a more direct one. Wolvix derives from SLAX. What Wolvix does, I'm not sure, though it might be using 'mad-wifi' and not quite working that way.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I wish I could offer more practical help, but I know next to nothing about wireless networking.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

...but I know next to nothing about wireless networking.

You are not alone as it seems the Wolvix developer and you have the same amount of experience with wireless Linux (http://wolvix.org/node/453#comment-1659).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that. Not unusual, really. Someone else will come along who has the necessary understanding and experience and they'll solve the problem eventually. That's usual for open source, but it does mean that you're left hanging until the solution arrives.

Not all that different from commercial software, now that I think of it. Both can be pretty arbitrary in terms of what gets priority attention.