[K12OSN] Mobile Wireless Lab?

Sat Apr 16 21:55:36 UTC 2005

Hi Jon    ,
Thanks for the help.

I got one of my D-Link DWL-650+ wireless pcmcia cards running under 
Ubuntu today.  The device manager says that it is using the acx_pci 
driver.  Which is exactly what I feared since it isn't one of the 
modules available under Thinstation and I'm guessing LTSP as well.

Building Thinstation is easy enough.  I'm trying to wrap my head around 
how to get the ACX100 module into the build so that I can give it a go.

Anybody have any thoughts on how to get this driver 
(http://acx100.sourceforge.net) working under either LTSP or 
Thinstation?  Or a way to net boot one of these guys?

Thanks,
Casey Woods

Jon Spriggs wrote:

>I asked on the thinstation-general list, and got the following answer...
>
>Hope it helps :)
>
>Jon
>
>TechFan <lists.sf.net at ourholm.net> wrote:
>
>I have gotten wireless PCMCIA network cards working as of last week.  I
>hadn't tried much before because unless I could encrypt it with WPA, it
>wasn't an option in my environment.  I finally was officially asked to
>get wireless working for a specific user and since I really wanted to
>keep with a totally thinstation environment in that department, I
>decided it was time to at least try to get it working.  I had to find a
>802.11g card (more often support WPA) that could have a linux driver and
>I ended up picking Atheros based network cards (they use the open source
>madwifi support (can work in rc2, but should be working in rc3), but I
>still haven't look at the details of the settings it has available
>(though I need to include it for the tools) since I wanted to use
>driver).  Pieter had previously created a wireless package and fixed
>PCMCIAunsupported WPA encryption which I only remember possibly one
>other person mentioning they had used before with thinstation.  I had to
>recompile the kernel and compile the madwifi driver against the TS
>source and and wpa_supplicant against the madwifi source, but I did get
>it working just last week.  Since it requires the kernel to be
>recompiled (only 3 checkmarks need to be changed - Crypto API and two of
>the sub-options which I made Modules), it probably won't make it into
>the general release and thus a package wouldn't be that helpful (and I
>don't know how to create one anyway - with dependencies, etc).
>
>On 4/15/05, casey woods <casey.woods at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>I saw the Sourceforge file but I was a bit put off by the date.  I'll
>>try it out.
>>
>>I suppose my other option is to install a really minimal fat client,
>>get the wireless support working, and then setup the desktop to run
>>apps remotely.  I really would prefer not to though.  If only because
>>it means having to install Linux 20 times.
>>
>>Does anybody have a suggestion for a Linux desktop for older machines
>>that has good wireless support?
>>
>>Has anybody tried Thinstation, PXES, or any other thin solutions with
>>wireless laptops?
>>
>>- Casey
>>
>>On 4/15/05, Rob Owens <hick518 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ltsp/wireless_ltsp-3.0.5-i386.tgz?download
>>>
>>>This is the link to the wireless files you need.  If
>>>you download and untar it, you'll find instructions on
>>>how to use it.  Basically you create a boot floppy
>>>which includes a kernel and then does all the nice
>>>ltsp stuff.
>>>
>>>I tried it with an old laptop and haven't gotten it to
>>>work yet.  I'm using a wired pcmcia card and I'm
>>>suspecting that it might be incompatible w/ the
>>>drivers on the boot floppy.  Included in the
>>>documentation is a very short list of cards that were
>>>tested and confirmed to work, and my Xircom card is
>>>not on that list.
>>>
>>>My laptop only has 16MB of RAM, but I have NFS swap
>>>enabled and the laptop never manages to mount the root
>>>tree on the server, so I think the low RAM is not the
>>>show stopper.  If anybody has any suggestions, I'd
>>>appreciate it.
>>>
>>>-Rob
>>>
>>>
>>>--- Casey Woods <casey.woods at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>I've done a search on Wireless LTSP and the
>>>>information seems a bit
>>>>sketchy and there are a lot of gaps.  I hear rumors
>>>>of a wireless LTSP
>>>>package but I'm having a tough time finding details
>>>>or a HOWTO.
>>>>
>>>>I have a mobile lab that includes 20 laptops.  All
>>>>are Pentium 2 233s.
>>>>Not sure what brand, but I'm going to guess Dell.
>>>>All classrooms are
>>>>wired, so they just plugin an access point, boot up
>>>>the laptops with
>>>>Win98 and off they go.   Slowly....
>>>>
>>>>We'd like to convert these laptops to thin clients.
>>>>Is it possible to
>>>>net boot with a PCMCIA wireless card?  I believe the
>>>>cards are 802.11G
>>>>so the network connection should be fast enough if I
>>>>can get them to
>>>>connect.  Could I install LTSP client software on
>>>>the local hard drive?
>>>>What are the chances it will work with my network
>>>>card?  I'll do
>>>>whatever it takes!
>>>>
>>>>If I can get this to work then they may hold a
>>>>parade in my honor.
>>>>You're all invited.
>>>>
>>>>I'd be interested to hear from you if you've got
>>>>this working.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Casey Woods
>>>>Calgary Alberta
>>>>
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>>>>        
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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