Problems with Wireless Internet

[kanwar07]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forums and brand-new to linux, so hi to both!

I know there are quite a few people who have had issues with their wireless internet, and I guess I am just one more to add to the list. I have gone through many forums, and read through countless posts to find an answer but to no avail. It is only then that I am posting a new reply.

I am using a Dell Inspiron 1150 Laptop with Dell Wireless 1350 Mini-PCI WLAN card. I just dual-booted today on my 100 GB hard drive in that laptop with Windows XP SP2 Home Edition and Kubuntu: 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (which I hope is the latest version?).

The dual booting process went off without a hitch, and I have been able to boot into Kubuntu. I have tried running a few programs and familiarizing myself with the environment but that will take time to learn. My main problem is that the wireless is not connecting. On the network managing widget it shows the wlan0 connection but says it is "Disconnected", not unavailable. I have manually added the network, entered the passphrase, and everything but I have had no luck.

I used the network connection tool and had it display the wireless networks but it does not detect any. This is odd since the wireless router is all of 5 feet away from me. I am completely new to linux so I don't know what to install, how to use the drivers, and what program to run to show you guys my specifications.

I am not computer-stupid though so there is no need for dumbed-down instructions, but step-by-steps WOULD help, since I have not used Linux. I do know the shortcuts to run the command line, and I have read through the Kubuntu documentation (although its way back for 5.10 so its alot different) as to what sudo is, etc. so I have a rough idea.

I will appreciate any help with this problem, and please let me know if I can provide more info. Just a note, since it is a dual boot I have access to the internet on the Windows partition and it works fine. I have my desktop on from which I am typing this post so that is also available. I am testing Kubuntu on my laptop before I devote to installing it as a dual boot on my desktop.

Thanks for any help ahead of time,
Kanwar07

[cristjc]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

I had problems with my Acer Aspire's Atheros 242 wireless using network manager. Never got it to work. Found a fix in the forum using wicd, which works great. Run sudo aptitude install wicd (or use synaptic)
it will download the packages it needs (wicd) and then start installing and uninstalling packages, so it will work. Launch it from the Kmenu>Internet. Click the > next to your wireless network name, and then Advanced Settings to enter your passphrase, then click Connect. It worked for me and should for you...

[kanwar07]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

That sounds great but if I can't get it to connect to the internet to download the packages how will I get them? Perhaps I can download them on my desktop and transfer over the files using a USB drive?

OK so I read up on wicd and since it comes with the latest kubuntu i attempted to install it but it did not work. i used sudo apt-get wicd install to try and do it but it wouldnt work. i dont seem to have synaptic installed either. it seems really confusing to install these packages......i wish i could just doubel click and let it install.

[Drake1132]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

If the wireless router is only 5 feet away, you should be able to connect to it with an inexpensive, short Cat5 ethernet cable for a wired connection. This should theoretically get you temporarily connected so you can download the wicd packages. That's a thought anyway.

Alternatively, you can boot to windows and download the wicd package from http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ease_id=659059

Hope that helps.

On a related but different note... I've had problems with my wireless in Kubuntu as well but it works fine in Ubuntu, could wicd fix that problem as well? Is it because the Network Manager is a Gnome system and not a KDE one? I haven't installed either yet, just been trying out the Live-CD versions, but I'd like to get the wireless to work one way or another before I format and install next week. I'm planning on installing Ubuntu and then installing the "kubuntu-desktop" package over it so that I have Gnome, Gnome-related apps, KDE, and KDE-related apps to give me the most freedom of choice for which apps I want to use (and I do prefer the KDE GUI). Anyway since my wireless works in Ubuntu, having Ubuntu plus Kubuntu installed might allow it to work, but I wasn't sure about it.

Drake

[kanwar07]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

I think I'm going to connect to it with a wire for the time being, to be able to download some of the packages, as you suggested. I was told its best not to download the packages and try to unpackage/compile them manually as there is a greater risk of messing up the OS.

I am having issues trying to find a good program manager (Adept, synaptic, since they apparently aren't included in my install) so once I get that sorted I will install wicd and hope I can make some progress there.

[vinnywright]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

post the output of ifconfig -a, iwconfig, and lspci if you dont have eney luck with that wicd thing!

VINNY

[kanwar07]

Re: Problems with Wireless Internet

OK So alot has happened in the past 2 days. I decided to hard-wire my computer to get the major updates, and I installed Synaptic as well as the other major updates (Synaptic, bfwcutter, and some updates).

I actually had a friend send me http://fourlovesfour.blogspot.com/2008/05/setting-up-broadcom-b43-wireless-with.html"] THIS LINK [/url] and it walked me through step-by-step in getting my wireless set up. I did not even need to use wicd or ndiswrapper or any other program to get it working. The only problem I had was it wouldnt download the bfwcutter file but I just manually downloaded it, copied it over, and it worked fine. So my laptop is now officially connected and running smooth. My next project will be to get my desktop booted with Kubuntu as its a bit faster than my desktop, and easier to work with.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I hope that link I posted will help future users, as this seems to be a major problem.