WifiIntel2200

Dear Geeks, first of all - Iīm a newbie. I really want to use Gnu/Linux and therefore decided to install gnewsense on my laptop tecra A5 .I tried hard to install gnewsense but had serious difficulties. The one that most bothers me is that I canīt establish an internet connection with the intel pro wifi 2200. I think you decided to abandon the driver for this because of proprietary blobs. Is there any alternative?

As far as I know, you need the non-free ipw2200 firmware to get wifi to work. I installed it on my laptop, as I don't know of any alternatives. To install you can download from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net, then unpack (tar xzvf "filename"), and copy the contents of the folder to /lib/firmware (sudo mv "foldername"/* /lib/firmware). Reboot, and wifi should work. Hate to recommend non-free stuff, does anyone know of another solution?

please, do not recommend non-free software in this forum. regardless if no other free alternative exists; we will do without until if and when a free solution presents itself.

Sorry - too eager to help, I guess... Didn't mean to recommend it, just to say that a bad choice afaik is the only one you've got at the moment...

you are not helping. you aren't aiding people by recommending non-free software; quite the opposite.

your assumptions are incorrect. "a bad choice" is not "the only one" because choosing to reject non-free software is a good thing, it's a good choice.

veganix - thx a loot! Everything is working now!

cmsimon - donīt be so hard. Without Internet itīs not possible for me to make further steps forward. veganix I love you !

I agree about the principle (which is why I run gNewSense and post at this forum), rejecting non-free software is of course always a good thing! My reference to "a bad choice" was merely a practical one - at the moment, you either get no wifi with ipw2200 or you choose to use software you don't really want... Sorry if I offended anyone.

Thanks, bepepe. As you understand, I gave the advice with mixed feelings. I just thought it most important at the moment to make sure that you didn't give up before you could experience free software as the gift it truly is. And cmsimon is not being hard, but right.

you are muddling the free software philosophy with open source. we do not value practical convenience above users' freedom so again, please, do _not_ recommend non-free software.

Got that. And I do know the difference between free software and open source (of which I endorse the former). Just wanted bepepe to keep trying gNewSense.

clearly you do not understand the difference as demonstrated by your recommendation of non-free software. i hope you come to understand. secondly, as laudable as your "assistance" to bepepe may be, we will _not_ recommend non-free software. third, the flaw in your thinking lies in the silly excuses you use to justify the use of non-free software; the ends don't justify the means here. we do _not_ value popularity above freedom. what you ought to do is simply explain to him the problem (this does not require recommending non-free software) --shalom.

Hi all, Firstly, veganix - thanks for trying to assist with bepepes issue! Secondly, (and this is the "however!"), gNewSense is a GNU/Linux distribution aimed at providing a completely free platform. This extends to our documentation, our list, and our forums (all of which should never recomend non-free software). Please bear this in mind when providing help in the future, Thanks, Karl.

C'mon guys, veganix only tried to help, he never meant to do something evil to the community, right?. Maybe not the correct one, but i think we must appreciate that, and encourage the "good way to help", before judging the knowledge of someone about the Free Software field, not Open Source, not Linux (kernel) but Free Software, we must be honest with the incoming comrades that wants to use gNewSense.
There are things that can't be done with free software, and i mean 100% free software or it is so hard to get it work (for the lack of "free-hardware") that is better to quit waiting to see the device work.
I refer of course to the wireless connections, and 3D acceleration.

In this particular case, we have 3 different options (IMHO)

1. Use the Ethernet card
2. Buy a supported card
3. Write free software (and firmware) for this card

The first one, could be the more efficient but let's be honest who bought a laptop to stay in one place (i may say, i don't own one :'( )

The second one, may cost $$ some money, but if any of us get one that works with free software (in our life we'll never have to worry about drivers problems for that wireless card because) you'll find them in any free operative system (kernel included) GNU, BSD, or any that respect the 4 freedoms.
The third one, for now i would forget about it, why?, because of the same reason that there is no free driver now.
Most of the wireless cards manufactures (for not saying all). Do not give the specifications to write them. They prefer to take away your freedom since they build the device. Don't buy from them, and/or buy from one that DO respect your freedom.

Here's one wiki-page that i propose must be added at gNewSense site (main one).

Community Guidelines

It's really important that new people find this information easy, and they learn the philosophy of this project so they'll know if they have a commitment with freedom and choose to join or not, so we all as a community help on the second and third point of this list.

Sorry if i wrote to much... what did i miss?, what do you say? :)

Thanks, kgoetz and Ark74. I of course see that it was hasty and a bit stupid to offer non-free advice in a free forum, and apologize for that. I recently chose gNewSense as the system for doing my professional work. After some consideration between the 3 choices that Ark74 outlines above, I have chosen to install 3 non-free packages to my gNS system (wifi firmware, color profiles and fonts). That is not a choice I'm comfortable with, and I meant to get this ambivalence across in my replies to bepepe and cmsimon. I will of course refrain from providing advice on non-free stuff in the future.

veganix - thanks, and we'll try not to jump on you again.

Ark74, it would probably be a good idea to add the community guidelines to the main site, I'll ask brian about it. I'll skip the rest of your post. kk

I've added a link to the Community Guidelines on the forums main page.

in retort to ark47. in this thread you will be hardpressed to find myself or kgoetz being disrespectful to veganix. the reason being, of course, because we haven't been. also, please don't say that "bsd" is a free operating system. it is _not_. there is no "bsd" system we can recommend; all "bsd" systems that we know of _include_ or _suggest_ non-free software. it gives people the wrong idea. i like the idea of making it easier for people to notice the community guidelines and such, keen.

hello all I have a question in reguards to wifi. I a running deltaH default setup and i ran lspci and it shows I am i have Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) wifi card. I though intel wifi drivers were non-free because I have wifi in gnewsense. I did further googling online and i read it was glp'd very recently is this true? and if it is non-free now is this a step in the right direction.