FreeBSD WIFI USB adapter

[Warren Block]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2011, Christian Barthel wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 04:27:29PM -0000, bud at taiotoshi.org wrote:
>>> Folks:
>>>
>>> I have a Dell XPS Studio laptop with a broadcom wifi adapter built in.
>>> I've had no luck trying to compile in the BWI option into the kernel to
>>> get it to work and think that buying a cheap usb WIFI adapter is the
>>> quickest way to make wireless 802.11 b/g work.
>>>
>>> Realizing that some chip sets are better supported than others, I was
>>> hoping some list subscribers might be able to identify currently offered
>>> USB WIFI adapters that they know to work.  I will then purchase one that
>>> has a good track record.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions/comments on adapters that work would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Here is a list with different chips...
>
> http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.2R/hardware.html#WLAN
>
> "The rum(4)  driver supports USB 2.0 wireless adapters based ..."
>
> I don't know any Dell devices, but maybe it's possible to replace the
> builtin chip with another wireless lan chip.

Usually yes, with some details.  Any recent machine will use mini-PCIe 
wireless cards.  There are full-size 30x51mm and half-size 30x27mm 
spaces.

IBM/Lenovo and HP have BIOS code that only allows certain cards, 
generally ones they sell.

Atheros AR5BXB63 b/g full-size cards have worked well for me in place of 
Broadcom cards.