#qualcomm atheros

[andi-vs-linux]

I now have Internet and I am more frustrated about it than I should be

So: Linux working. Ready to use. Yay.

I have this really ridiculous story here about following the existing instructions written by Yoga 3 Pro users to get the Broadcom drivers working, and going to ridiculous lengths tricking apt-get into thinking the USB LiveCD was a CD-ROM so I could install the Broadcom drivers, but I’m not going to tell that story because it doesn’t matter. The end of the story is, I don’t have Broadcom wifi to start with.

Apparently, in the couple months between the release of the Yoga 3 Pro and the Yoga 3 (yes, the Yoga 3 is newer), Lenovo switched to from Broadcom to something called “Qualcomm Atheros”. This is apparently a good thing. The Broadcom drivers are closed source and apparently very, *very* poor quality-- their name seems to be cursed by everyone who has encountered them. The Atheros drivers are open-source, Qualcomm-blessed and from what I’m told pretty good.

However, the specific Qualcomm Atheros chip in the Yoga 3 ( “[168c:0041] rev 20″, according to lspci -vnn, and I guess if you’re a kernel engineer that means something) apparently is so new, it isn’t covered by the Atheros drivers. The Yoga 3 14″ is about two months old; as a coincidence of when I happened to order, I got one of the first ones. Apparently the Yoga 3 14″ is also the first time the Linux community had seen that particular chip revision.

So this is game over. There is nothing I can do, except wait a couple months for the Linux community to figure this out and write new drivers. This is being discussed on the Atheros driver mailing list, it’s on the Ubuntu bug tracker, but this just takes time, I guess.

Then somebody on Twitter mentions they successfully tethered their Nexus to Linux using USB. After some fiddling, it turns out if I (1) set my Android phone to be an MTP media device under “Storage” in Settings, then (2) turn on USB tethering under portable hotspot, when I plug in to the laptop Kubuntu cheerfully gives me a notification I have internet and everything works.

I now have my phone plugged into my laptop, connected to our wifi, serving as an external wifi card. Apt is downloading several hundred megabytes of updated packages as I write this.

This is silly.

[techhorizon-blog]

Wi-Fi is About to Get Even Faster

Everybody knows that when it comes to electronics, faster is always better.  Well, we are about to get a nice speed boost in Wi-Fi thanks to the recently launched 802.11ac standard.

The last increase in data transfer rate we got was in 2006 when the 802.11n was launched.  It brought us to top speeds of 600 Mbit/s, up from 54 Mbit/s with the previous generation 802.11g standard.  I know, all these numbers and letters can get confusing - all you need to know is GIGABIT WiFi!  The 802.11ac standard will top out at speeds of 1.3 Gbit/s, comparable to the performance of wired LAN networks (and even faster in some instances).

The new standard has been in development for some time.  Today, Qualcomm Atheros launched an 802.11ac ecosystem that covers all aspects of wireless networking - mobile devices, computers, and other electronics.  The chipset will scale from home all the way to enterprise applications.   Qualcomm Atheros is the second company this year to announce the production of a chipset of this standard, Broadcom launched an 802.11ac ecosystem earlier this year.  You can expect to see this chipset to be shipping in devices in the second half of 2012.

This is great news for tech junkies, as it frees up bandwidth for more of your devices to get Wi-Fi.  Don't expect the implications of this technology to stop at your Hulu videos loading faster.   Imagine your refrigerator ordering it's own groceries when they run out...your oven sending a message to your iPhone when your baked potato is done...your shower turning on to warm up immediately after your cell phone alarm clock goes off!  Tech companies will put this technology to work.  The good news is that the possibilities are endless!

P.S.  Check back soon to read about Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset and why this summer will be a great time to buy a new computer.