Noob with iBook G4 wifi

Architecture specific questions.

Noob with iBook G4 wifi

Postby fth » 04 May 2010, 17:26

Hi all,

It seems as though wifi is too common a term, and all the tips I can find are for a PS3. I have managed to partition and install both OSX and YDL 6.1 onto a 2005 vintage macbook G4. Both work fine post the trauma of deleting my hard drive. Mac OS 10.3.9 works fine as does YDL as well except for getting my wireless to work in YDL.

Is there a simple way of doing this without using the terminal equivalent and downloading small bits of data? The ethernet works when I make a physical connection, I've tried both using a USB card and the airport directly. Am I going the wrong way about this?

Normally I expect to find 20+ wireless networks in my small Hong Kong apartment but WICD can't find any.

Thanks in advance.

FTH
fth
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Re: Noob with iBook G4 wifi

Postby aguilarojo » 23 Sep 2010, 04:13

fth wrote:Hi all,

It seems as though wifi is too common a term, and all the tips I can find are for a PS3. I have managed to partition and install both OSX and YDL 6.1 onto a 2005 vintage macbook G4. Both work fine post the trauma of deleting my hard drive. Mac OS 10.3.9 works fine as does YDL as well except for getting my wireless to work in YDL.

Is there a simple way of doing this without using the terminal equivalent and downloading small bits of data? The ethernet works when I make a physical connection, I've tried both using a USB card and the airport directly. Am I going the wrong way about this?

Normally I expect to find 20+ wireless networks in my small Hong Kong apartment but WICD can't find any.

Thanks in advance.

FTH


Ni Hao FTH! Greetings!

My apologies for discovering your query so late in September!

Using Linux well, very much requires learning the terminal commands. What if I explained that Linux has many commands which as nearly as flexible and numerous as Unix itself! What if you come to understand that what that means is that learning these command sequences executed within the terminal will allow you to control, initiate and execute real world work without the need of a Graphic User Interface (GUI) such as Windows, the Mac or other operating systems which won't function without a GUI. In time you may start to understand why Unix/Linux programming professionals call the GUI - gooey -- as in sticky ooze which slows you down!

Anyway, I know not everyone is going to be interested in programming nuances and details, but that is not my point in this discussion. My point is to share with you that many, very many tasks can be done very much faster and more accurately via the terminal, also known in Linux/Unix as the Command Line Interface (CLI).

A small experiment. Try it within the Mac OS. I've used the Mac OS all the way back when it was System 5! Believe me, when I tell you that OS X maintains behavior from that far back. What distinguishes OS X from System 5 up through 9 is Darwin which is incorporated into OS X and is based upon BSD Unix. Within OS X there is an application buried within the Utilities Folder called Terminal. The Terminal allows you to execute Unix based commands within OS X. In other words, the Terminal is your CLI within OS X!

The experiment:

There are many beautiful and fun and very easy things which OS X is quite crazy GREAT at but you've got to rely on using the OS X interface which is very much a gooey. It is also the reason why things in OS X are really slow in comparison to other Unix systems. Let's imagine I've a folder with 10,000 files and I'm looking only for those which have the word "titanium" as part of the file name.

Within OS X I could use the Search engine which is part of OS X (I forgot it's name -- Oh my! -- scandalous!) or eyeball through all those files ruining my eyesight. The quick way around this is to use the OS X CLI called Terminal.

Start the Terminal within OS X and I go to the folder I want to search:

$cd ~/References

Note: the ~ is a short reference symbol meaning all the folders starting from root directory through the user directory all the way up to where the directory or folder name I am choosing to investigate or explore.

So I'm looking within the References directory (as I'm imagining this example of course this example may not work on your system as the References directory doesn't exist on your system) for files containing the word "titanium". How can I execute this and save my temper and eyesight by having the CLI do the work for me? Here it is:

$ ls titan*

What spills out are just those folders or directories or files which contain "titan" and any combination of characters and numbers which follow. Why? Because * is a CLI command known as a "wild card" think of a symbol which means any character at all (including any symbols normally considered numbers).

I'm going to apply the above within YDL was that is the environment I'm using as I write this.

Keep in mind OS X has one gooey, however within YDL you can have as many as you can install into YDL -- I have 12, use mostly 1 called xfce. There is only one Terminal in OS X; in YDL again, you can have as many terminals or CLIs as you wish. What can be allowed as Root within OS X is limited compared to what can be done as root within YDL. However, using root within Linux does mean becoming more knowledgeable and confident regarding what one is choosing to do within the CLI.

Code: Select all
[aguila@arakus .themes]$ time ls -n
total 652
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May  9 02:46 23oz
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Jan 31  2007 23ozglass
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jun 27 03:36 5552
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Aug 19 16:20 Abstract-DarkGlow
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Mar  5  2007 Aerolite
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Aug 13  2008 A. I. CORE xfwm4
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Jan  9  2007 Airlock
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:39 AlienMindII
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Sep 16 19:48 Alienware-Alienware-LaGaDeskBlue
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Sep 16 22:57 Alienware-Alienware-SeBlue
drwxr-xr-x 13    0    0 4096 Jan 24  2010 Alienware_Darkstar_Pack
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Feb  7  2010 AlienwareInvader
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Jan 12  2010 Alienware-Invader
drwxr-xr-x 16  500  500 4096 Aug 23 21:03 AlienwareStarThemesPack
drwxrwxr-x  6  500  500 4096 Oct 14  2009 AquaSilver
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May  1  2008 Aquatic Black
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:39 Arkanus
drwx------  5  500  500 4096 Oct 26  2009 Azel
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Oct 26  2009 Azel New
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Oct 26  2009 Azel Round
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Oct 26  2009 Azel Round Original
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Jan 15  2010 Azenis
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 17 16:10 Azenis_2_gtk_by_seanbarman
drwxrwxrwx  4    0    0 4096 Sep 16 22:45 AzenisGreen
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Oct 22  2009 Azenis-Orange
drwx------  3  500  500 4096 Jun 13  2009 Azenisv3
drwxrwxrwx  3    0    0 4096 Dec 17  2009 AzenisXF
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 May 27 21:47 Black & Blue
drwxrwxr-x  5  500  500 4096 Jun 26 09:43 BlackFate
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Jun 26 07:43 Black Fate-Black Fate-Alien
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Jun 26 08:18 BlackFate-BlackFate-Griffin
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Jun 26 08:26 BlackFate-BlackFate-Xquisite
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Blue
drwxr-xr-x  2  500  500 4096 Feb 19  2010 blueambience
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 17 17:57 blue carboon
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:40 Bluedrop
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Mar 19  2009 BlueGlassGTK
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Apr 27  2008 Blue-Joy
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Blue-light
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jul  1  2008 BlueNeon
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jun 16 15:43 BrushS
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Dec 26  2009 Candido-Dark-Remix
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 May  9 21:14 Capsula
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Apr 15 21:16 Carbonfire-blue-Darkside2-Cryo
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Oct  4  2005 Chrome4
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:40 ChromeGlass
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Feb  8  2010 ColdSteel
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:40 Constantine
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Nov 27  2009 CopperDeck
drwxrwxrwx  3 1000 1000 4096 May 12  2009 CopperDeckII
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 17 17:58 Crystal dlb
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Aug 20 09:38 Dakota
drwx------  7  500  500 4096 Oct 18  2009 Dark_Star
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 May 19 02:40 ddragon-ddragon-bluenight
drwxr-xr-x  4    0    0 4096 May 13 16:58 ddragon's GTK Blue-rounded
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 May  6  2008 Deepblue
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 11  2008 Deepgreen
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May  6  2009 Deep Purple
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Sep  1 21:40 Deep Purple - Alienware Invader - LinuxLex
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 DigitalDark-2-Brass-1.2
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 DigitalDark-2-Copper-1.2
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 DigitalDark-2-Mercury-1.2
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Sep 10 12:11 DigitalDark-2-Orange-1.2
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 DigitalDark-2-Valorite-1.2
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 May 30 15:42 Dragon  (Controls)
drwxr-xr-x  3 1000 1000 4096 Nov  4  2009 DragonsJewel
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Aug 28 17:55 Elegant Dark
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jul  2  2008 Ferrari
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 Mar 29 21:47 FireDragonGtk
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Jun  3 13:24 gold SlicknesS
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Green
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Green-light
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 May 31 13:13 GT3
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:42 GT3-azure
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Apr  1 19:41 GT3OS
drwxrwxrwx  4 1000 1000 4096 Sep 13  2009 GT4 Black
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Apr 30 07:25 HiRo1.0
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 12  2008 Hydrangea Black
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 12  2008 Hydrangea Blue
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 12  2008 Hydrangea Green
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 12  2008 Hydrangea Pink
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 12  2008 Hydrangea Silver
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Apr 11 22:12 Image-LaGaDesk Blue-Azenis XF
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Oct 27  2009 K15
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:42 KnotVista
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Dec 30  2009 kore
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Apr 18 17:05 kore-black
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Apr 18 13:44 Kore-GTK
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:42 Krakin
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Feb  9  2008 Kuviksz-OSX-xfce
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jun 10 11:12 Liberty
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jun 10 11:12 LibertyDark
drwxrwxr-x  2  500  500 4096 Jun 13 17:40 LibertyDark-LibertyDark-LaGaBlue
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:43 Liquidox
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 May 30 19:30 [malys][AMBY_NighT_01]
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Apr  1 06:50 [malys_GlaSS_NighT][02]
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Apr 20 21:39 [malys_GlaSS_NighT][03]
drwx------  5  500  500 4096 Apr 29 19:32 [malys_GlaSS_NighT][04]
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Feb 18  2009 Mardi Gras
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jun  8  2009 Matrix_Xtream
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Sep  6 02:04 Metal-0.6
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 20 12:35 Metalix
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Sep 20 12:35 Metalix.Gold
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Sep 20 12:35 Metalix.Silver
drwx------  3  500  500 4096 May 26  2009 Metalized V4.1
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Aug  9 16:15 MetalLex
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  6  2008 MetalOscuro-amarillo
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  6  2008 MetalOscuro-azul
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  6  2008 MetalOscuro-blanco
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  6  2008 MetalOscuro-naranja
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  5  2008 MetalOscuro-rojo
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Oct  6  2008 MetalOscuro-verde
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Dec  6  2008 MetalOscuro-violeta
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jan  3  2007 MidnightMac
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jan  4  2007 MidnightOSX
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:43 ModelTwo
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Mar 22  2008 moomex
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Dec 30  2009 Moonlight2
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 May 24  2007 Muku
drwxr-xr-x  3    0    0 4096 May 18 22:43 NeoAlien
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Orange-light
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Apr  8  2008 Overglossed
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 15  2009 OverglossedHuman
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 14  2009 OverglossedWine
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 May 14  2009 OverglossedWise
drwx------  4  500  500 4096 Jan 18  2009 paladium
drwxr-xr-x  7  500  500 4096 Jan 18  2009 Paladium
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Nov 25  2009 Prototype02
drwxr-xr-x  5    0    0 4096 May 18 22:48 Prowler
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Oct 21  2008 psu
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jun  7  2008 Purpleglossed
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  3  2010 Red
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Red-light
drwxr-xr-x  5    0    0 4096 May  2 12:14 Reduce
drwxrwxrwx  4  500  500 4096 Nov  9  2009 Royal dragon azenis
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jan  5  2010 Sage
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Dec  7  2009 Silent Night II dark
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Dec  7  2009 Silent Night II light
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Apr 14  2009 Skylight
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Feb 10  2008 SlicknesS-black
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Sep  6 20:39 SlicknesS-blue
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Dec 17  2007 SlicknesS(golden)
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jun 28 15:42 Sonic
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Dec 20  2009 SotArtII
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 May 10  2008 TechniXWindows
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jul 25  2009 The_Alien
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Jan 26  2010 ThunderStorm
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 May  1 02:52 Toxic2-Blue
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Jun 10  2009 Tracer
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  3  2010 Turquoise
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Turquoise-light
drwxrwxr-x  3  500  500 4096 Sep 10 10:38 Velvet Defin
drwxr-xr-x  4  500  500 4096 Mar 20  2010 Verde
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Violet-light
drwxr-xr-x  6  500  500 4096 Oct 16  2009 Woody
drwxr-xr-x  3  500  500 4096 Aug 24  2008 Xaphire
drwxrwxrwx  2  500  500 4096 Jun 24 09:29 XFCE-Pewterburg-Gold-1.6
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Mar 11  2010 XFCE-Starzburg
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Mar 11  2010 XFWM-Pewterburg-Gems
drwxrwxrwx  3  500  500 4096 Dec 24  2009 XFWM-Works4Me
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Yellow
drwxr-xr-x  5  500  500 4096 Mar  6  2010 Yellow-light
drwxrwxr-x  4  500  500 4096 Sep  9 19:15 Ypsilonium

real    0m0.067s
user    0m0.016s
sys     0m0.012s



Explanation: I told the CLI to time how long it took to look for anything within the .themes directory. This and other directories are known as dot (.) directories and are invisible to users unless users know of their existence and how to find them. The list command sees the flag n and numbers all the directories it sees listing all the essential details pertaining to those directories including when those listed directories were last accessed. It is clear that the total amount of items within .themes number 652 directories! The time command tells the CLI to list how long it take to display all that information! Although the time command allows minutes and seconds, if you are paying attention you'll note that the output is in 100ths of a second!

Now for something a little different. I only want to have listed particular files which exist within the .themes directory. How to go about it? Use the wildcard as so:

Code: Select all
[aguila@arakus .themes]$ time ls -Cn Dig*
DigitalDark-2-Brass-1.2:
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 500 500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 gtk-2.0
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  245 Apr 15  2006 index.theme~

DigitalDark-2-Copper-1.2:
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 500 500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 gtk-2.0
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  245 Apr 15  2006 index.theme~

DigitalDark-2-Mercury-1.2:
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 500 500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 gtk-2.0
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  245 Apr 15  2006 index.theme~

DigitalDark-2-Orange-1.2:
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 2 500 500 4096 Sep 10 12:11 gtk-2.0
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  251 Apr 18  2006 index.theme
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  251 Apr 15  2006 index.theme~
drwxrwxr-x 3 500 500 4096 Sep 10 12:11 metacity-1

DigitalDark-2-Valorite-1.2:
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 2 500 500 4096 Sep 10 16:08 gtk-2.0
-rw-r----- 1 500 500  245 Apr 15  2006 index.theme~

real    0m0.012s
user    0m0.004s
sys     0m0.004s
[aguila@arakus .themes]$



You should be able to decipher the above now. The ls command is obeying the C and n flags. If you want to learn what they mean within Linux/Unix (executing man and info within the Terminal application of OS X will also work as described) just do:

$man ls

or

$info ls

a whole library of stuff will appear explaining that command together with the flags or options it obeys.
You can see that what is happening is that anything matching Dig* is being listed. The time command lists how long it took to execute this particular listing.

Doing these things within the CLI is merely a tiny, very tiny and perhaps silly set of examples of what may potentially be useful in the right context. Which brings us back into the value of the CLI versus the GUI -- it depends on the context of the job to be executed. The CLI and the GUI have their value as tools in the proper context. To use both well such that a person is not wasting time requires planning and understanding regarding precisely what tasks one is intending to execute.

As for what all the other things I've not discussed any good book discussing the details of Linux/Unix System Administration should help you.

Now regarding the details you need to get wicd working refer here. By this time hesitation regarding using the CLI should have dissipated as it is merely more tool amongst others. Although the instructions address Airport Extreme, there are several instructions which remain useful.

By the way, this page discussing wireless tools within YDL should be helpful. Also if wicd just quits here is a fix.

If there is further information I can provide, ask.

Everything on the Earth has a purpose.
Every disease an herb to cure it.
And every person has a mission.
This is the Indian Theory of Existence.
-- Morning Dove, Salish (1888-1936)
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