Intel Pro Wireless cards

[Rodd Clarkson]

On Mon, 2005-02-28 at 20:12 -0600, Michael Favia wrote:
>As wireless NICs are becoming 
>more popular and network install approach "default" (with FC5 anaconda 
>and newly discussed capabilities) it will become increasingly more 
>important to get these "popular" cards under "Just Works" functionality 
>during installs.

Mmmm, this makes me wonder how Fedora will handle cards like the ipw2200
(Intel PRO/Wireless cards).

The driver for these cards is included in the kernel because it's under
the GPL.  However, the firmware won't be included because of it's
licensing requirements.

There are other cards that are in a similar situation, AFAIK.

Will Fedora be set up so that the firmware can be provided as a third
party during the install?

I guess the way I see this happening would be for the installer to note
that the computer it's installing on has a wireless card (or wired card)
that needs 'extra' information to work, and then prompts the installee
to provide this on some sort of meda.

Will this be possible, or are users of these cards be out of luck?

Also, as a related issue, will fedora then install the firmware so that
the user doesn't need to do this again on first boot.  This would make
sense, and given that the user has provided the firmware once, would
presumably be appropriate.

Something to think about.



Rodd




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