Sierra Wireles 580 On Linux (air Card)

[uk_falang]

Hi

Has anyone managed to get sierra wireless aircard 580 (CAT telecom CDMA Evdo) to work on linux. If so, please how. And which version of linux - red heat, ubuntu. And what dialler should i use - the one in gnome or in kde

Thank you - real linux newbie

[Gumballl]

Use this link (http://www.sierrawireless.com/faq/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=608) if you plan to install Kubuntu (KDE Ubuntu).

[uk_falang]

Use this link (http://www.sierrawireless.com/faq/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=608) if you plan to install Kubuntu (KDE Ubuntu).

I have used ubuntu before and could not get it to work with a gprs aircard. Is there any advantage of ubuntu over red hat? Red hat comes packaged with more programs doesnt it?

I was told the dialer in gnome is no good for aircards, so i was going to try red hat at is comes with K desktop.

What should i go for kubuntu or radhat?

[Gumballl]

I cannot say much about whether the AirCard will work with (K)Ubuntu or not. I personally have not tried it. But I did provide you with a reference that you can research some more.

As for Ubuntu vs. Red Hat, they pretty much ship with the same packages, although it's highly probably that Ubuntu will have later versions of packages/drivers than Red Hat. Plus it is free.

I'm using RHEL Version 4 at work, and frankly I do not see the big deal with it. Sure, RH.com ensured that the distro is pretty much bulletproof, but still, the distro contains packages that are one or two versions old.

If you are looking to support some weird off-the-wall piece of hardware, stick to a later version of Linux. Otherwise you might end up spending a fortnight searching the Linux forums for a driver/solution for any h/w anomalies that you might have.

Btw, Ubuntu ships on one CD. RH ships on 6 (4 with distro, 1 rescue CD, 1 source packages CD). With Ubuntu, if you require additional packages, you can download them.

If you still feel that RH is for you, then consider Fedora Core 7. Its the latest/greatest/non-official release of RH. FC7 comes with both KDE and GNOME. It is available for download as 4 CD ISOs or 1 DVD ISO. I usually choose the latter.

[yuyi]

I had the sierra wireless aircard 550 running on SuSE Linux with great success for 2 years, but that was 2 - 3 years ago. All sierra wireless aircards, the 5xx (CDMA) and 7xx (GPRS) required some manipulation of the PCMCIA configuration files. SuSE changed the PCMCIA management in the meantime, so I do not know if that would be still necessary.

However it was necessary to switch of the "network" functionality of these cards, which was done by installing a small driver, and I assume it still is.

[yuyi]

I had the sierra wireless aircard 550 running on SuSE Linux with great success for 2 years, but that was 2 - 3 years ago. All sierra wireless aircards, the 5xx (CDMA) and 7xx (GPRS) required some manipulation of the PCMCIA configuration files. SuSE changed the PCMCIA management in the meantime, so I do not know if that would be still necessary.

However it was necessary to switch of the "network" functionality of these cards, which was done by installing a small driver, and I assume it still is.

And yes, that was with Hutch / CAT