Handy wireless networking with Knoppix Linux

Last year I bought an IBM T30 Thinkpad, intending to install Linux on its hard drive sometime. Meanwhile, using a Knoppix LiveCD let me run Linux on the laptop while retaining the factory Windows XP installation. The notebook is my travel machine, so I also bought a Linksys WPC55AG PC Card wireless network adapter that supports 801.11a/b/g for the Thinkpad. For secure wireless Linux surfing, I was determined to find some configuration that would work with minimal intervention at boot time and that was easy enough that my wife could load it.

Few LiveCD distros come configured with support for the Linksys WPC55AG adapter, which requires the MadWiFi modules with a correctly configured kernel. Mepis Linux, Kanotix, a modified Knoppix, and the latest Knoppix v3.4 can configure this card.

I succeeded in configuring the Linksys adapter with both Kanotix Bug Hunter 05-2004 and Knoppix v3.4 with the default 2.4x kernel. The latest Mepis Linux version locks the machine up upon configuring the card. I prefer the simple startup of the original Knoppix.

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