wifi card possibilities for an Apple iBook set up to run Yellow Dog

September 15, 2004 4:18 PM

I'm confused by the wifi card possibilities for an Apple iBook set up to run Yellow Dog. I was thinking of installing that particular open source OS, but then realized I'd lose my Airport Extreme support. Isn't the Airport the only card supported by the iBook hardware, or is there some way to finagle YD to run a third party wi card?
posted by inksyndicate to computers & internet (5 comments total)

My impression was that the airport cards were just commodity cards just like other 802.11 g (airport extreme) cards. I may be wrong, there may be some proprietary firmware or something, but I'm like 90% sure.
posted by willnot at 5:05 PM on September 15, 2004

What about cheapie USB dongles?

Since it's possible to use a variety of PC cards under OSX with even old G3s, the should be no hardware barrier. The problem would be learning whether or not there is a driver for the Apple card under Yellow Dog.

Couldn't the vendor answer this question more authoritatively?

this user (of a PBG4) says the airport "works great." It appears that the drivers require hand compliation. It's unclear if it's 802.11b or 802.11g, or if the card is original or extreme.

This user had to perform a firmware update on an original AP card for it to operate successfully in a clamshell iBook.

So: yes, we have no bananas.

Looks to me like there's no support for 802.11g in YDL at the moment. Why not ask YDL if they are working on it?
posted by mwhybark at 5:31 PM on September 15, 2004

Powerbooks have PCMCIA slots, right? A PCMCIA wireless card would probably work well and may be less finicky than a USB one. YDL seems to like the Netgear 54Mbps Wireless PC Card WG511. Others may work but that seems to be the only one explicitly mentioned on their site.
posted by zsazsa at 6:25 PM on September 15, 2004

iBooks have no PCMCIA slots.
posted by thebigpoop at 6:27 PM on September 15, 2004

Neither do 12 inch powerbooks.
posted by BlueTrain at 5:10 AM on September 16, 2004