Internet is dying - diagnostics

Gene Heskett gheskett at shentel.net
Mon Oct 30 02:26:31 UTC 2017


On Sunday 29 October 2017 22:02:50 Doug wrote:

> On 10/29/2017 07:47 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Sunday 29 October 2017 18:39:30 Eddie G. wrote:
> >> Off Topic:
> >>
> >> Ok so I apologize for this, but it seems my repeated cries out to
> >> the developer communities are just falling on deaf ears. I figured
> >> since this one has some form of issue with Internet / connectivity
> >> that it would fit:
> >>
> >> I have been using Linux for quite a while now, and I love promoting
> >> it in all its variations, from Ubuntu and it's "offspring"
> >> (Lubuntu...Xubuntu....Kubuntu..etc) to the flavors of CEntOS and
> >> Red Hat.....(Fedora...OpenSuSE etc) I just have this to say. I have
> >> a friend that lives too far away for me to assist physically and
> >> in-person, and he's recently decided to try Linux,....where he
> >> lives there's only a wireless connection and not a wired one. I
> >> spent the better part of an afternoon and early evening trying to
> >> help him get his wireless working. He tried everything, from
> >> installing the b43-fwcutter installer to the Broadcom 4311 wireless
> >> drivers, and everything in between. Nothing worked. Was he
> >> installing on some esoteric or exotic piece of machinery? No. It
> >> was a somewhat older Dell Inspiron 15 inch laptop. In the end he
> >> had no choice but to go install Windows 10. I feel for him, since
> >> he's not in a place where there's a lot of help. And I won't get
> >> into any more particulars about that.
>
> The Broadcom hardware is resistant to many of the Linux distros.
> I speak from the experience of PCLinuxOS, which is my primary
> operating system. (I avoid Windows about 99% of the time.)
> While it has been possible to install Broadcom software and get it
> working, it has not be easy at all.
> However: I installed Mint 17-3 LTS on a Dell laptop, and I found that
> the wifi worked out of the box with that distro!  So it IS possible!
> I can't tell you why other distros don't follow Mint's lead. I wish
> that PCLOS would. I like Mint, but I like PCLOS better.  And you don't
> need Windows, 99% of the time!
>
> --Doug

I have to give broadcom some credit, they have actually been throwing 
some code over the wall occasionally, which has helped with the newer 
stuff. But in the end that was only to prove they could build working 
code for selected chips still shipping. By no means complete.  what it 
means to me is that when I'm in the market for some new dongle, I search 
the packaging, and put it back on the pegboard if the word broadcom is 
anyplace on it. I was not aware that some of the raspberry pi used 
broadcom stuff or I likely would not be running 1500 lbs worth of cast 
iron with a 70 yo Sheldon label on it. But I am and because the spi 
interface bypasses the usb2 pinhole all the non-machine control data has 
to go thru, its actually doing a great job of running that lathe.

As for pclos, I gave up on it because you either did it with what texstar 
wanted you to use, or you did w/o. It was generally stable, but if you 
wanted to do something different, you went someplace else or pulled the 
srcs and built it yourself.  About the time I was tired of that, the 
linuxcnc.org crew put together an install based on wheezy, and that was 
such a breath of fresh oxygen that I am still running it on 5 of my 8 
machines including this one right now.

> >> What I want to say/ask is this: How is it....in an era where we
> >> have cars that have AI......we have virtual machines of virtual
> >> machines that can host yet more virtual machines....we have "smart"
> >> homes...containers....cloud technology......servers nested within
> >> servers,.....big data that can be crunched onto a SQL database and
> >> then compressed even further.....we have medical procedures that
> >> actually require logins and are computer/robot based....in short we
> >> have made technological advances in the world of computing and
> >> science. YET.....THERES NO WAY TO BUILD A LINUX OS THAT COMES WITH
> >> THE NECESSARY DRIVERS SO THAT WIRELESS CAN WORK OUT-OF-THE-BOX?
> >> Like how is that even possible from a "Spock-Vulcan-Logic"
> >> perspective. Doesn't the demand FOR it "demand" that SOMETHING  be
> >> done? Is no one on fire enough to see that it gets done? Or has the
> >> entire Linux community gone
> >> dormant.....complacent to just sit back and coast on whatever
> >> technology is current and that will please the masses? I consider
> >> us a "family" of sorts, and we "lost" a family member to
> >> Windows.....WE LOST HIM TO WINDOWS!....the same OS we tell others
> >> to avoid because of security issues, because of its great big
> >> "bullseye" on its back.....seems no one cares anymore...or else
> >> someone would have done something by now about this. And yes, I
> >> also understand that it would take a lot of
> >> "programming power" to get something to work that might not include
> >> proprietary software, and yes, I know that its a thankless job and
> >> you might even be crucified if something else "breaks" when you
> >> install it or create it...or modify it....but I thought that's what
> >> the Open Source community WAS!...a group of brave souls....the
> >> modern day pirates who forged their own paths and didn't let the
> >> conforms of society dictate their destinies. I cannot fathom how
> >> someone can install
> >> Xubuntu....Kubuntu...Ubuntu....Linux Mint....and a slew of other
> >> OS'es and NONE of them have the necessary drivers to connect to the
> >> internet....unless you're willing to go through all these needless
> >> excess steps. Its sad, because I have admired the Open Source
> >> Community all my life, but to see this guy go the route of Windows
> >> 10 all because he couldn't connect to the internet easily.....well
> >> it just seems like no one cares enough......if I had the time to
> >> sit and learn programming at my age?.(almost 48!).

Where can I send a dry towel so Eddie can dry behind his ears? I am 36 
years his senior. :)

> >> ..I would do 
> >> it....but I don't so I can't And I understand that it might be some
> >> kind of gargantuan undertaking, but if no one "dared" back
> >> then.....where would we all be today?.....if no one "tried" where
> >> would our files and folders be right now?....on a Windows 10
> >> machine?....or maybe a MacBook? Well I hope someone finds this and
> >> reads it....and gets inspired to do SOMETHING......ANYTHING about
> >> it. Because it doesn't make our cause of trying to help others make
> >> the switch any easier if they're not able to do the "basics"! Just
> >> thought I'd put that out there....oh and?
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks For Listening!
> >>
> >> L "Cubed" (L-ong L-ive L-inux!)
> >
> > I and the rest of the list can commiserate with you, even to the
> > point of some name calling, but let me point out, and its a huge
> > problem, every countries equ to our FCC has issued a mandate that in
> > the world of radio communications, the user cannot be allowed to
> > have any access to the programming of a software radio, which is
> > what all these wifi chips are and have been for at least a decade. 
> > So the chip maker does not publish any data other than the high
> > level api's to control the channels it can use, with each country
> > having its own legal to used channel #'s vs frequencies that
> > translates to, and varying max power levels from one jurisdiction to
> > the next.
> >
> > So you are yelling at the wrong people.  Yell at your regulatory
> > agencies for a better solution, they are the cause of all the
> > secrecy wrapped around the wifi stuffs. They know what the hackers
> > are capable of, not the least of which is turning up one of these
> > chips to quite illegal power levels, or making them work on an
> > illegal channel that unknown to the perp until the federal marshals
> > come calling, is blanketing the local fire/rescue channel.  The only
> > universal solution was to put it all under an NDA such that only the
> > device maker$ can afford a 5 to 7 digit $eat at that table.
> >
> > So be nice Eddie, its not our fault. FWIW, winderz folks also
> > suffer. Lots of lappies were sold a decade back, with pcmcia wifi
> > cards with broadcom bcm-4318 radio chips on them. But even windows
> > never had a WORKING driver for that radio. I know, I have one. So I
> > use an aftermarket usb dongle. And I am also a licensed broadcast
> > engineer, with what used to be a 1st phone card in my billfold, but
> > they knocked us out and threw us under the bus 30 years ago.  So now
> > its a general license you could probably test for and get, without
> > cracking a book.
> >
> >> Eddie G.
> >>
> >> On 10/22/2017 04:44 AM, Volker Wysk wrote:
> >>> Hello
> >>>
> >>> It may be the router. I've reset it (power off and on), and the
> >>> connection came back. It's not clear, though. I'll try again.
> >>>
> >>> Volker
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>




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