wireless, Realtek 8180 (was Re: [vox-tech] Force-setting IRQ of a PCI device)

[Jonathan Stickel]

> PS: The Installfest went as usual (mostly working except certain
> hardware,) except for one system that came in with a wireless NIC that
> nobody could get to work.

This one was another of the new cardbus (32bit) wireless cards with the 
Realtek 8180 chipset.  This chipset is showing up in numerous wireless 
cards of many brands, and is notorious for its sketchy Linux support 
(based on personal experience and much web searching).  For now, there 
are 2 options that I know of:  use the partially closed driver from 
Realtek 
(http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?keyword=8180) 
which has worked for some people but not others, or use DriverLoader 
from Linuxant (http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/), which is also 
iffy, plus its not free.

There has recently been a thread on vox-tech about this chipset 
(http://lugod.org/mailinglists/archives/vox-tech/2004-01/msg00039.html), 
but I bring it up again to see if anyone has more knowledge or a success 
story.  I'm sure it is just a matter of time before a better driver 
comes along, but for now this chipset is frustrating a lot of people!

Jonathan