Thinkpads Forum

1. What is the difference between "PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot" and "PC Card Slot & Smart Card Slot"?

2. Is there a difference between the 3 wireless cards available? Pro's and Con's? What about for Linux? I plan to order a T-series (sigh, wish X-series had a discrete graphics) for use with Windows, but also dual boot Linux.

- ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
- Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)

Intel chipsets are better supported than the Atheros(IBM) ones, the atheros requires a non-free driver which isn't included by default in most linux distributions. I run the 4965 in my T61 and it's worked in every recent linux distribution I've tried, so that is definitely a good choice. Can't speak for the 3945.

Are you sure about that?

When I used to wear the wireless driver developer hat, my experience was the opposite. At the time, Atheros with the Madwifi driver was the best supported wifi interface compared to the other hardware in that generation. The driver was wide open, which enabled me to modify the connection state machine and generate arbitrary mac layer packets for my experiments. While Madwifi has been superseded by the ath5k driver for the new network architecture, it is still as free and open source as before.

The driver for Intel includes a binary-only microcode/firmware that is loaded to the device. The license prohibits reverse engineering of the microcode. That, to me, means the driver is neither free nor open source. The source code for the kernel portion of the driver is provide, but I could not tweak as much as I could with Madwifi.

msb0b wrote:Are you sure about that?

It depends on whether you take a user's view or a sysprog's view.

Cheers,

Bill B.

"1. What is the difference between "PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot" and "PC Card Slot & Smart Card Slot"? "
There are two card slots, stacked one above the other. The bottom slot is a PC Card (PCMCIA) slot, so you can put a single or double-thickness card in. The TOP slot, is a different card and bus type. Either a PCI-E (PCI Express) slot, or "Smart Card". The top slot can only be used for that type of card, in single thickness only.

I'm told PCI-E is more common/useful.

I was addressing this statement.

tylerwylie wrote:the atheros requires a non-free driver

My choice would be atheros-based... Call me biased, but I've found they perform better with greater stability than intel cards. Don't anyone knock me because of this, just my point of view. Plus you get a 13th channel on the atheros card that you don't have on an intel card. That's why the "Thinkpad a/b/g" is labeled US/EMEA/LA/ANZ (i.e, North America, Europe/MiddleEast/Asia, Latin America/Australia-NewZealand). Many places outside North America make extensive and exclusive use of the 13th channel (d-mode switch ... so, in fact, you have a/b/d/g)

Go to www.google.com/linux (it's google that searches only linux-related sites and info) and type in intel 4965 or intel 3945 and "reception". See what pops up.

It all really depends on the choice of linux distro you'll install. If you "Ubuntu" your system, then you won't have a problem with either. If you install gentoo or slackware, then good luck getting intel cards to work right. If you install Fedora, then you may have some trouble with atheros cards (because of the change from madwifi to ath5k).... It's all in a distro.

leesiulung wrote: 2. Is there a difference between the 3 wireless cards available? Pro's and Con's? What about for Linux? I plan to order a T-series (sigh, wish X-series had a discrete graphics) for use with Windows, but also dual boot Linux.

- ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
- Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)

I would suggest to go with Thinkpad card (which is Atheros-based), unless you have a specific need for "abgn" card. In general, Atheros cards perform better and are far more compatible with various routers than Intel.

That is what I remember, the Atheros based cards were the preffered card not only for Linux, but for Windows as well. My current X31 uses the centrino.... I will look around a little more, but will probaby end up with the Atheros card.

Thanks everyone!

My T60 runs the 3945 perfectly under Linux. Either the ipw3945 or the iwl3945 modules are rock-solid from minute one.