The Linux Wireless LAN Support site is a pretty useful resource if you find yourself wrestling with WiFi compatibility on your shiny new Linux laptop. It contains just about everything you need to know about the wireless cards, chipsets and drivers.
(Speaking of which, I successfully ran up the Ubuntu LiveCD on an ancient laptop here at Ferret Towers yesterday without a glitch, which was rather excellent. But oh I do wish they’d configure these things to connect to the Net out of the box, without having to go through a connection wizard. How hard can it be?)
This is an attempt to create a, more or less complete listing of wireless devices with information about the chipset they are based on and whether or not they are supported in Linux. The basis of this list came from this list (thanks to AbsoluteValue Systems for the permission to use it!). This list isn’t complete, so if you have any information about a wireless card, its chipset and whether or not it is supported, please drop me a line.
I bet that laptop wasn’t an IBM – I spent 10 hours or so trying to get Ubuntu on my T-22 and had zero luck whatsoever…. Arggghh
Heh, feel your pain. No, it was an olllld Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook.
I seem to remember hearing something about major problems with T series IBMs and Linux wireless. Got a feeling it was something to do with incompatible Wireless chipset issues on the internal WiFI module. Could be wrong though….