Open Source Technical Information

at 10/31/2011 02:07:00 am

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at 10/31/2011 02:04:00 am

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at 10/31/2011 02:00:00 am

by Bob DuCharme

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at 10/28/2011 04:11:00 am

Here are the top 11 Linux Distributions according to Distrowatch

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11

Linux is low cost, stable, performs well, has network friendliness, flexibility, compatability, choice, fast and easy installs, multitasking, security and best of all open source. Make sure you research your distro or try to figure out what it is you are trying to do before choosing your flavor of linux. For my laptop I run Fedora. What’s your favorite?

at 10/28/2011 04:07:00 am

OpenSSH is a FREE version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users of the Internet rely on. Users of telnet, rlogin, and ftp may not realize that their password is transmitted across the Internet unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks. The encryption that OpenSSH provides has been strong enough to earn the trust of Trend Micro and other providers of cloud computing.Additionally, OpenSSH provides secure tunneling capabilities and several authentication methods, and supports all SSH protocol versions.

SSH is an awesome powerful tool, there are unlimited possibility when it comes to SSH, heres the top Voted SSH commands

1) Copy ssh keys to user@host to enable password-less ssh logins.

ssh-copy-id user@host
To generate the keys use the command ssh-keygen

2) Start a tunnel from some machine’s port 80 to your local post 2001

ssh -N -L2001:localhost:80 somemachine
Now you can acces the website by going to http://localhost:2001/

3) Output your microphone to a remote computer’s speaker

dd if=/dev/dsp | ssh -c arcfour -C username@host dd of=/dev/dsp
This will output the sound from your microphone port to the ssh target computer’s speaker port. The sound quality is very bad, so you will hear a lot of hissing.

4) Compare a remote file with a local file

ssh user@host cat /path/to/remotefile | diff /path/to/localfile -
Useful for checking if there are differences between local and remote files.

5) Mount folder/filesystem through SSH

sshfs name@server:/path/to/folder /path/to/mount/point
Install SSHFS from http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html
Will allow you to mount a folder security over a network.

6) SSH connection through host in the middle

ssh -t reachable_host ssh unreachable_host
Unreachable_host is unavailable from local network, but it’s available from reachable_host’s network. This command creates a connection to unreachable_host through “hidden” connection to reachable_host.

7) Copy from host1 to host2, through your host

ssh root@host1 “cd /somedir/tocopy/ && tar -cf – .” | ssh root@host2 “cd /samedir/tocopyto/ && tar -xf -”

Good if only you have access to host1 and host2, but they have no access to your host (so ncat won’t work) and they have no direct access to each other.

8) Run any GUI program remotely

ssh -fX @

The SSH server configuration requires:
X11Forwarding yes # this is default in Debian
And it’s convenient too:
Compression delayed

9) Create a persistent connection to a machine

ssh -MNf @
Create a persistent SSH connection to the host in the background. Combine this with settings in your ~/.ssh/config:
Host host
ControlPath ~/.ssh/master-%r@%h:%p
ControlMaster no
All the SSH connections to the machine will then go through the persisten SSH socket. This is very useful if you are using SSH to synchronize files (using rsync/sftp/cvs/svn) on a regular basis because it won’t create a new socket each time to open an ssh connection.

10) Attach screen over ssh

ssh -t remote_host screen -r
Directly attach a remote screen session (saves a useless parent bash process)

11) Port Knocking!

knock 3000 4000 5000 && ssh -p user@host && knock 5000 4000 3000
Knock on ports to open a port to a service (ssh for example) and knock again to close the port. You have to install knockd.
See example config file below.
[options]
logfile = /var/log/knockd.log
[openSSH]
sequence = 3000,4000,5000
seq_timeout = 5
command = /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s %IP% -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
tcpflags = syn
[closeSSH]
sequence = 5000,4000,3000
seq_timeout = 5
command = /sbin/iptables -D INPUT -i eth0 -s %IP% -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
tcpflags = syn

12) Remove a line in a text file. Useful to fix

ssh-keygen -R
In this case it’s better do to use the dedicated tool

13) Run complex remote shell cmds over ssh, without escaping quotes

ssh host -l user $(
Much simpler method. More portable version: ssh host -l user “`cat cmd.txt`”

14) Copy a MySQL Database to a new Server via SSH with one command

mysqldump –add-drop-table –extended-insert –force –log-error=error.log -uUSER -pPASS OLD_DB_NAME | ssh -C user@newhost “mysql -uUSER -pPASS NEW_DB_NAME”
Dumps a MySQL database over a compressed SSH tunnel and uses it as input to mysql – i think that is the fastest and best way to migrate a DB to a new server!

15) Remove a line in a text file. Useful to fix “ssh host key change” warnings
sed -i 8d ~/.ssh/known_hosts

16) Copy your ssh public key to a server from a machine that doesn’t have ssh-copy-id
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@machine “mkdir ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys”
If you use Mac OS X or some other *nix variant that doesn’t come with ssh-copy-id, this one-liner will allow you to add your public key to a remote machine so you can subsequently ssh to that machine without a password.

17) Live ssh network throughput test
yes | pv | ssh $host “cat > /dev/null”
connects to host via ssh and displays the live transfer speed, directing all transferred data to /dev/null
needs pv installed
Debian: ‘apt-get install pv’
Fedora: ‘yum install pv’ (may need the ‘extras’ repository enabled)

18) How to establish a remote Gnu screen session that you can re-connect to
ssh -t user@some.domain.com /usr/bin/screen -xRR
Long before tabbed terminals existed, people have been using Gnu screen to open many shells in a single text terminal. Combined with ssh, it gives you the ability to have many open shells with a single remote connection using the above options. If you detach with “Ctrl-a d” or if the ssh session is accidentally terminated, all processes running in your remote shells remain undisturbed, ready for you to reconnect. Other useful screen commands are “Ctrl-a c” (open new shell) and “Ctrl-a a” (alternate between shells). Read this quick reference for more screen commands: http://aperiodic.net/screen/quick_reference

19) Resume scp of a big file
rsync –partial –progress –rsh=ssh $file_source $user@$host:$destination_file
It can resume a failed secure copy ( usefull when you transfer big files like db dumps through vpn ) using rsync.
It requires rsync installed in both hosts.
rsync –partial –progress –rsh=ssh $file_source $user@$host:$destination_file local -> remote
or
rsync –partial –progress –rsh=ssh $user@$host:$remote_file $destination_file remote -> local

20) Analyze traffic remotely over ssh w/ wireshark
ssh root@server.com ‘tshark -f “port !22″ -w -’ | wireshark -k -i -
This captures traffic on a remote machine with tshark, sends the raw pcap data over the ssh link, and displays it in wireshark. Hitting ctrl+C will stop the capture and unfortunately close your wireshark window. This can be worked-around by passing -c # to tshark to only capture a certain # of packets, or redirecting the data through a named pipe rather than piping directly from ssh to wireshark. I recommend filtering as much as you can in the tshark command to conserve bandwidth. tshark can be replaced with tcpdump thusly:
ssh root@example.com tcpdump -w – ‘port !22′ | wireshark -k -i -

21) Have an ssh session open forever
autossh -M50000 -t server.example.com ‘screen -raAd mysession’
Open a ssh session opened forever, great on laptops losing Internet connectivity when switching WIFI spots.

22) Harder, Faster, Stronger SSH clients
ssh -4 -C -c blowfish-cbc
We force IPv4, compress the stream, specify the cypher stream to be Blowfish. I suppose you could use aes256-ctr as well for cypher spec. I’m of course leaving out things like master control sessions and such as that may not be available on your shell although that would speed things up as well.

23) Throttle bandwidth with cstream
tar -cj /backup | cstream -t 777k | ssh host ‘tar -xj -C /backup’
this bzips a folder and transfers it over the network to “host” at 777k bit/s.
cstream can do a lot more, have a look http://www.cons.org/cracauer/cstream.html#usage
for example:
echo w00t, i’m 733+ | cstream -b1 -t2

24) Transfer SSH public key to another machine in one step
ssh-keygen; ssh-copy-id user@host; ssh user@host
This command sequence allows simple setup of (gasp!) password-less SSH logins. Be careful, as if you already have an SSH keypair in your ~/.ssh directory on the local machine, there is a possibility ssh-keygen may overwrite them. ssh-copy-id copies the public key to the remote host and appends it to the remote account’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. When trying ssh, if you used no passphrase for your key, the remote shell appears soon after invoking ssh user@host.

25) Copy stdin to your X11 buffer
ssh user@host cat /path/to/some/file | xclip
Have you ever had to scp a file to your work machine in order to copy its contents to a mail? xclip can help you with that. It copies its stdin to the X11 buffer, so all you have to do is middle-click to paste the content of that looong file :)

Have Fun
Please comment if you have any other good SSH Commands OR Tricks.

at 10/28/2011 04:00:00 am

Yes, you can!

If you have a Core Duo Intel Mac, you want the i686 version of Fedora. If you have a Core 2 Duo or later Intel Mac, you want the x86_64 version of Fedora. (See the question about getting Fedora.) Note that some things may not yet work perfectly on Intel Macs. mactel-linux.org is a good site for information about running Fedora (or any Linux) on a Mactel machine.

If you have a G3, G4, or G5 Mac, there is no longer an installation disc available for your machine for Fedora 13/14/15.

Configuring Package Installation

Many of the packages I mention in the FAQ are only available from rpmfusion. To configure your system so that you can install packages from rpmfusion, follow these instructions:

Open a Terminal.
Become root:
su -
Run the following command:
yum --nogpgcheck install http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Using the GUI to Install/Update Software

If you have graphical access to your desktop, you can use the graphical tools to install software. Go to the System menu, choose "Administration", and then click on "Add/Remove Software".

Fedora will automatically let you know when updates are available for your software.

Installing Software From the Command Line

Often people want to use install or update software using the command line. For this you use a program called "yum". First become root, and then you can use the following commands:

To see a list of available software:
yum list available
To install some software, you type:
yum install packagename
To update some software, you type:
yum update packagename
If you leave out "packagename" yum will update all your software.
To see what updates are available, you can do:
yum check-update
To search for a package, you can do:
yum search word

For more info about yum, see the yum project page. (Thanks to Ron Kuris for this tip.)

Installing Local RPMs

To install an RPM file that you downloaded outside of yum, open up a terminal, and as root do:

rpm -Uvh filename.rpm

If you have Internet access, you can also install local files by doing:

yum --nogpgcheck install filename.rpm

Which is handy because it will automatically download and install any dependencies that that RPM has.

at 10/28/2011 03:49:00 am

The best way to get software is to use the normal software installation tools that come with Fedora, which will download and install things automatically for you.

Otherwise, to search for software packages, you can use rpm.pbone.net.

at 10/28/2011 03:48:00 am

Modern versions of Linux use a type of Windows file sharing called "The Common Internet File System" (CIFS). Instead of using "smbmount", try:

mount -t cifs //1.2.3.4/share /mnt/somedirectory

For more information about this, in a terminal you can do:

man mount.cifs

Note that CIFS can't resolve Windows computer names, so you're better off using their IP addresses.

at 10/28/2011 03:47:00 am

There is a bug in the kernel which causes the media check to say some CDs are bad when they are not, on some systems. To do a successful media check, do the following:

At the installer prompt, type:
linux mediacheck ide=nodma
Run the media check on your CDs/DVD.
Reboot, and run the installer normally.

Note that sometimes mediacheck will report that only some CDs are bad, but this will still fix that problem. (Thanks to Tony Nelson for reminding me of that!)

at 10/28/2011 03:46:00 am

There are now nVidia driver RPMs provided by rpmfusion.org that are designed especially for Fedora. Here's how to install them:

Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
Open a Terminal.
Become root:
su -
Install the driver:
yum install kmod-nvidia
Rebuild your kernel configuration (otherwise it may try to load a conflicting driver during boot):
new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd --dracut --update $(rpm -q --queryformat="%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n" kernel | tail -n 1)
Reboot your machine:
reboot

And now you should have working 3D with your nVidia card!

Note that if you have an older card, you may need to install kmod-nvidia-173xx or kmod-nvidia-96xx. There is a list on the nVidia site that says which cards are supported by which driver.

If you need support for the nVidia drivers, check out the nV News "NVIDIA Linux Forum". (Thanks to Exile in Paradise for this tip.)

at 10/28/2011 03:45:00 am

RPM Fusion provides ATI driver RPMs that are designed especially for Fedora.

NOTE: If you have nVidia drivers installed, you must un-install them before installing these ATI drivers.

Here's how to install them:

Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
Open a Terminal.
Become root:
su -
Install the driver:
yum install kmod-catalyst
Shut down X:
init 3
Log in as root.
Enable the driver:
catalyst-config-display enable
Rebuild your kernel configuration (otherwise it may try to load a conflicting driver during boot) and add some new kernel arguments to work around conflicts between the Catalyst driver and Fedora:
new-kernel-pkg --kernel-args=nomodeset --mkinitrd --dracut --update $(rpm -q --queryformat="%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n" kernel | tail -n 1)
Reboot your machine:
reboot

If you have any trouble with the RPM Fusion RPMs, please report a bug to the RPM Fusion Bugzilla.

at 10/28/2011 03:44:00 am

The NOKEY warning is not really a problem. It won't prevent you from doing anything. (The yum error, though, will usually prevent you from installing software.)

If you'd like to resolve it, do the following command to get the correct key for the site you're downloading from:

You must be root to do any of this.

Red Hat and Fedora:
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY*
rpm.livna.org:
rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
FreshRPMs:
rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms
DAG:
rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
ATrpms:
rpm --import http://atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
NewRPMs:
rpm --import http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/gpg-pubkey-newrpms.txt
Dries (RPMForge):
rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/dries/RPM-GPG-KEY.dries.txt
JPackage:
rpm --import http://www.jpackage.org/jpackage.asc
kde-redhat:
rpm --import http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/gpg-pubkey-ff6382fa-3e1ab2ca
PlanetCCRMA:
rpm --import http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/RPM-GPG-KEY.planetccrma.txt

NOTE: If you install my yum configuration, most of these keys are installed for you automatically.

at 10/28/2011 03:40:00 am

This is slightly modified from the instructions found here (and I haven't even checked if they work):

Install the chkfontpath package from ATrpms (Click on either the i686 or x86_64 package, depending on whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit machine).
As root, install some packages you'll need for the following steps:
```
yum install rpm-build cabextract ttmkfdir wget
```

Download the MS Core Fonts Smart Package File:

wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec

Build the Core Fonts package:
```
rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
```

Install the Core Fonts package:

yum install --nogpgcheck /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

at 10/28/2011 03:26:00 am

Download latest Linux wireless drivers

You can now download a package which lets you compile and install the latest advances on the Linux 802.11 and Bluetooth subsystem and get some of our latest drivers without having to recompile your entire kernel. This package adds mac80211, mac80211 drivers, any new FullMAC driver which has had fairly recent updates, and as of the 2.6.33-rc series it also started backporting the Bluetooth subsystem and providing updates to the entire Bluetooth subsystem as well as the drivers on it.

Old kernel support

compat-wireless aims to always support kernel compatibility down to the last supported 2.6 stable kernel release as noted on kernel.org. Today that is the 2.6.24 kernel. Additional kernel compatibility may be done but it should not be something that is expected. Old kernels do not get updates so it is highly recommended you upgrade to at least the latest stable kernel.

compat-wireless is shipped as a bundle for both 802.11 and bluetooth along with their respective drivers. It is however possible for only one specific driver to be compiled along with its requirements. In those cases kernel compatibility may be supported down to older kernels. There used to be a compat-wireless-old, but that is old and should only be used as a reference for curious developers.

Compat-wireless release types

We have two types of compat-wireless releases:

linux-next compat-wireless releases - based on linux-next.git for kernels
linux-2.6-allstable compat-wireless releases - based on linux-2.6-allstable.git

The linux-next releases are based on bleeding edge code which will likely end up being part of the next kernel release. linux-2.6-allstable compat-wireless releases are made based on each new stable kernel release made as well as each new stable RC kernel release.

This page is dedicated to always follow the bleeding edge releases based on linux-next. Refer to the linux-2.6-allstable compat-wireless releases page for more information about those.

Requirements for bleeding edge

You need two things:

A Kernel >= 2.6.24
Your kernel headers installed

Please be very sure you have your kernel headers installed before reporting any sort of build issues with this package. This usually will mean having this symlink point to a valid directory with kernel headers in it:

/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

The exception to this is if you are building the package targeting a kernel you are not running. Users doing this should read the Building for external kernels section.

Additionally, the kernel you're building for needs a valid ".config" file, if it isn't present compat will assume you have PCI, USB and PCMCIA built into your kernel and if not, fail building.

Linux wireless version table

The following is the latest release versions for code taken from linux-next.git and on compat-wireless.git. This is updated automatically every day. The version represents the git-describe output.

linux-next.git: <>

compat-wireless.git: <>

Where to download bleeding edge

You can get bleeding edge compat-wireless here:

http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2

This package is updated daily. It reflects the latest on linux-next.git tree.

Directly downloading the tarball

We have enabled anti-hotlinking to the compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2 tarball. This ensures users directed to this tarball from random tutorials online will hopefully read this page. Anti-hotlinking prevents users from accessing the tarball directly before seeing this page. In summary, you cannot directly download (for example using wget) this tarball before having viewed this introductory page. If you try to do so you will be redirected here. You can, however, directly download a dated version of the tarball, for example compat-wireless-2008-03-25.tar.bz2.

You can find the latest dated tarball in the compat-wireless-2.6 download directory.

Archive of compat-wireless-2.6 tarballs

linuxwireless.org only hosts the latest dated compat-wireless-2.6 tarball but if you would like an older release please check the compat-wireless-2.6 archive, which is hosted by Orbit.

Selecting your driver

Extract:

Extract the content of the package:

tar jxvf compat-wireless-$(date -I).tar.bz2

If you know what driver you want you can use driver-select:

./scripts/driver-select

Selecting your driver can reduce the amount of time to compile compat-wireless. It may also enable kernel compatibility down to older kernels. If you want to restore compat-wireless to enable all drivers again you can use:

./scripts/driver-select restore

If you do not see your driver in the supported list it means care has not been taken to ensure it works with driver-select and you must just build compat-wireless as a whole.

Building and installing

Build:

Build the latest Linux wireless subsystem:

cd compat-wireless-$(date -I)
make

Install:

We use the updates/ directory so your distribution's drivers are left intact. By default depmod will search this directory first, but if you find that it does not then check that your depmod.conf file lists the search order correctly with updates appearing first (before built-in).

sudo make install

Uninstall:

This nukes our changes to updates/ so you can go back to using your distribution's supported drivers.

sudo make uninstall

Unload:

Since you might be replacing your old mac80211 and bluetooth drivers you should first try to unload all existing mac80211 and related drivers. Note also that broadcom, zydas, and atheros devices have old legacy drivers which you need to be sure are removed first. We provide a mechanism to unload all old and legacy drivers first so you should run to be sure:

sudo make unload

Load:

Before loading modules you must first unload your old wireless subsystem modules. Read above how to do this. If you know what module you need you can simply load the module using modprobe. If you simply are not sure you can use, just reboot the box.

Drivers

We tend to carry all new 802.11 drivers or any drivers worth getting updates for. For a list of all current Linux 802.11 drivers see our 802.11 Drivers page.

Known issues

MadWifi:

If MadWifi is present the build system will detect this and disable it. It does this by simply renaming ath_pci.ko to ath_pci.ko.ignore. This lets us disable the MadWifi driver without blacklisting it which could cause issues with users later. If you would like to enable MadWifi at a later time and disable ath5k you can run:

sudo athload madwifi

To revert back to ath5k you can run:

sudo athload ath5k

Why was this work done?

It was done for users or developers stuck on older kernels that want to help test or patch wireless work. Additionally if you're on a recent kernel this lets you get the latest and greatest wireless-2.6 git work without much effort. This may mean new drivers for some users. Last but not least we hope this will encourage vendors and developers to post patches upstream first rather than forking or maintaining their own code with their own patches for their own drivers.

Firmware

If your driver needs firmware please be sure to check the driver page for that driver.

What's the difference between compat-wireless-2.6 and John Linville's tree?

This package is based on linux-next.git. John sends 802.11 updates to the linux-next.git tree based on wireless-next-2.6.git . This package then just provides the latest wireless driver updates with some compatibility work on top.

Linux distributions packaging compat-wireless

There are a few Linux distributions using or packaging compat-wireless. Here we document a bit of that information. If you know of more please expand this section.

Getting compat-wireless on Ubuntu

With Ubuntu you have the option of either installing compat-wireless yourself or of installing the package that provides it built by the Ubuntu kernel team. The Ubuntu package that carries compat-wireless is called linux-backport-modules and it has more backported modules than just your wireless subsystem. Its updated whenever major updates are pushed out into the wireless-testing git tree.

# For Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid users:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid

# For Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty users:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

# For Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic users:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-karmic

# For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid users (one of the following depending on the installed kernel.

Most user should choose generic):

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic-pae
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-preempt
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-server

# For Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick users (one of the following depending on the installed kernel.

 Most user should choose generic):

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-compat-wireless-2.6.36-maverick-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-compat-wireless-2.6.36-maverick-generic-pae
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-compat-wireless-2.6.36-maverick-server

Please note that if you are installing linux-backports-modules-karmic and you later decide to install compat-wireless by building it by yourself you are highly encouraged you first remove linux-backports-modules-karmic first otherwise you can run into module dependency conflicts.

Getting compat-wireless on Fedora

This is documented onsgruszka's compat-wireless page

Getting compat-wireless on ChromeOS

ChromeOS integrates releases of compat-wireless into its main releases.

Building for external kernels

If you have a kernel you do not have installed but yet want to build the compat-wireless-2.6 drivers for it you can use this syntax:

make KLIB=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.27.22 \
   KLIB_BUILD=/home/mcgrof/kernels/linux-2.6.27.22

Bugs

If you've found a bug please report it to our linux-wireless mailing list:

linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org

Report the bug because you are working with the latest and greatest. If your bug is compatibility-related then we should still try to fix it within the compatibility layer.

ChangeLog

linux-next ChangeLog

See the wireless-testing ChangeLog to see the list of latest changes to all 802.11 drivers, the 802.11 core and Blueooth. Since this package is based on the linux-next.git latest means patches which John has accepted a couple of days ago.

compat-wireless ChangeLog

See the compat-wireless-2.6 ChangeLog to view changes made necessary in order to keep advancing this package.

License

This work is a subset of the Linux kernel as such we keep the kernel's Copyright practice. Some files have their own copyright and in those cases the license is mentioned in the file. All additional work made to building this package is licensed under the GPLv2.

Hacking compat-wireless

If you'd like to hack on compat-wireless of make your own releases refer to the hacking compat-wireless page.

Administrative

The way compat-wireless releases are made, where they are kept are detailed in the compat-wireless admin page.

Read more

at 10/28/2011 03:24:00 am

Existing Linux Wireless drivers

We currently have a fair number of working drivers that cover most of the available WNICs on the market. However, most don't implement all possible features and many have issues. Hardware by companies not providing complete specifications, free firmware and drivers can be more problematic to support. The switching of chipsets by manufacturers without changing model numbers also makes this list less useful to those purchasing new hardware. Except for a handful of WNICs with free software drivers and free firmware, like e.g. the Penguin 802.11N, most available wireless hardware can not be exhausted when used with Linux. Below is an alphabetically sorted list of existent Linux drivers and their current capabilities.

See also:

wireless drivers status
wireless drivers capabilities
Seattle Wireless: Features Comparison

NOTE: All drivers can of course run in station mode, but only a few drivers support the other available wireless modes! Support of cfg80211 also offers benefits.

Driver	Manufacturer	cfg80211	AP	IBSS	mesh	monitor	PHY modes	Buses
adm8211	ADMtek/Infineon	yes	no	no	no	?	B	PCI
airo	Aironet/Cisco	no	?	?	?	?	B	PCI / PCMCIA
at76c50x-usb	Atmel	yes	no	no	no	no	B	USB
ath5k	Atheros	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A/B/G	PCI / PCI-E / PCMCIA
ath6kl	Atheros	yes	no	yes	no	no	A/B/G/N	SDIO
ath9k	Atheros	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A/B/G/N	PCI / PCI-E / AHB / PCMCIA
ath9k_htc	Atheros	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	B/G/N	USB
atmel	Atmel	no	?	?	?	?	B	PCI / PCMCIA
b43	Broadcom	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(2)/B/G	SSB/PCI/PCI-E/PCMCIA
b43legacy	Broadcom	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(2)/B/G	PCI/SSB
brcmsmac	Broadcom	yes	no	no	no	no	A(1)/B/G/N	PCI/AXI
brcmfmac	Broadcom	yes	no	no	no	no	A(1)/B/G/N	SDIO
carl9170	ZyDAS/Atheros	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G/N	USB
hostap	Intersil/Conexant	no	?	?	?	?	B	PCI / PCMCIA
ipw2100	Intel	no	no	yes	no	no	B	PCI
ipw2200	Intel	no	no (3)	yes	no	no	A/B/G	PCI
iwl3945	Intel	yes	no	yes	no	no	A/B/G	PCI-E
iwlagn	Intel	yes	no	yes	no	no	A/B/G/N	PCI-E
iwmc3200wifi	Intel	yes	no	yes	no	no	A/G	SDIO
libertas	Marvell	no	no	yes	yes (4)	no	B/G	USB / PCMCIA / SDIO / GSPI
libertas_tf	Marvell	yes	yes	no	yes	?	B/G	USB
mac80211_hwsim	Jouni	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A/B/G/N	NONE!
mwifiex	Marvell	yes	?	?	?	?	A/B/G/N	SDIO
mwl8k	Marvell	yes	yes	?	?	yes	A/B/G/N	PCI
orinoco	Agere/Intersil/Symbol	yes	no	yes	no	yes	B	PCI / PCMCIA / USB
p54pci	Intersil/Conexant	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(1)/B/G	PCI / PCMCIA
p54spi	Conexant/ST-NXP	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(1)/B/G	SPI
p54usb	Intersil/Conexant	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(1)/B/G	USB
*prism2_usb	Intersil/Conexant	no	?	?	?	?	B	USB
ray_cs	Raytheon	no	?	?	?	?	pre802.11	PCMCIA
rndis_wlan	Broadcom	yes	no	yes	no	no	B/G	USB
rt61pci	Ralink	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G	PCI
rt73usb	Ralink	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G	USB
rt2400pci	Ralink	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	B	PCI
rt2500pci	Ralink	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G	PCI
rt2500usb	Ralink	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G	USB
rt2800pci	Ralink	yes	yes	?	?	yes	A(1)/B/G/N	PCI
rt2800usb	Ralink	yes	?	?	?	yes	A(1)/B/G/N	USB
rtl8180	Realtek	yes	no	no	no	?	B/G	PCI
rtl8187	Realtek	yes	no	no	no	yes	B/G	USB
rtl8192ce	Realtek	yes	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	PCI-E
rtl8192de	Realtek	yes	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	PCI-E
rtl8192cu	Realtek	yes	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	USB
rtl8192se	Realtek	yes	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	PCI-E
*r8187se	Realtek	yes	no	no	no	?	B/G	PCI-E
*r8192u_usb	Realtek	no	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	USB
*r8712u	Realtek	no	?	?	?	?	B/G/N	USB
*vt6655	VIA	no	?	?	?	?	A/B/G	PCI
*vt6656	VIA	no	?	?	?	?	A/B/G	USB
*winbond	Winbond	yes	?	?	?	?	B	USB
wl1251	Texas Instruments	yes	no	yes	?	yes	B/G	SPI / SDIO
wl1271	Texas Instruments	yes	yes	yes	no	no	A(1)/B/G/N	SPI / SDIO
wl3501_cs	Z-Com	no	?	?	?	?	pre802.11	PCMCIA
*wlags49_h2	Lucent/Agere	no	?	?	?	?	B/G	PCI/PCMCIA
zd1201	ZyDAS/Atheros	no	?	?	?	?	B	USB
zd1211rw	ZyDAS/Atheros	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	A(2)/B/G	USB

Note: * staging drivers

Out of the tree drivers(Unsupported)

Notes:

802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used.
802.11a devices exist, but currently can't be used with this driver, A/B/G devices will work in B/G mode only.
There is support with a special, out-of-tree driver and special firmware, see http://sf.net/projects/ipw2200-ap.
Slightly different mesh implementation than mac80211's, in firmware.

Abandoned/Deprecated Drivers(Unsupported)

Driver	Manufacturer	cfg80211	AP	ad-hoc	mesh	monitor	PHY modes	BUS	Replaced by
ar9170usb	ZyDAS/Atheros	yes	no	yes	no	yes	A(1)/B/G/N	USB	carl9170
arlan	Aironet/Cisco	no	?	?	?	?	pre802.11	ISA	-
at76_usb	Atmel	no	no	no	no	no	B	USB	at76c50x-usb
netwave_cs	Netwave/Xircom	no	?	?	?	?	pre802.11	PCMCIA	-
otus	ZyDAS/Atheros	no	?	no	no	no	A/B/G/N	USB	carl9170
prism54	Intersil/Conexant	no	?	?	?	?	A/B/G	PCI / PCMCIA	p54pci
stlc45xx	ST/Nokia	yes	no	no	no	no	B/G	SPI	p54spi
wavelan	Lucent	no	?	?	?	?	pre802.11	ISA / PCMCIA	-