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Linux Issues

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summerpewp

Member
I tried doing all my research but every time i try to access a help faq or forum it is either down or doesn't provide the appropriate information I need...

I just installed Ubuntu, which i was told was a great beginner linux os.

Well, my first issue which I wouldn't know if this would be a networking issue or driver issue, so I'm posting here.

My Compaq laptop has all stock parts, which i was told should have all the appropriate drivers in them, isn't connecting to my wireless network at home.

Driver found in device manager is : BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN

I read somewhere saying to disable all the other connections (eth0 - my ethernet adapter). Which i did. Which left my eth1 card, my wireless adapter.

I ran ifconfig and got the following.
Lo Link: encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:107 erros:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:107 erros:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:8704 (8.5 Kib) TX byes:8704 (8.5)

I also ran Kernel IP routing table and got nothing.

I'm assuming my network card is either not installed properly, or the configurations are incorrect. The local loopback doesn't seem to be appropriate as if i'm not even connected to anything but myself?

My router is a Linksys with no WEP key.

I was told to leave the configuration at DHCP. and other than that, I think I covered everything.

If you need any other information please feel free to ask, as well please leave feed backs and comments. or links to where I can find the appropriate information. Everywhere I looked for a few hours last night and a few today, have left me to this point of posting.

If you care to contact me and walk through in person, that would be splended. If not I'll be able to follow the posts and links given! 🙂

AIM - Summerpewp

Thanks again!
SP
 
You have a broadcom chip that probably doesn't have a native linux driver. There is hope. I found a tutorial on ubuntu forums with instructions to set up ndiswrapper so you can load the windows driver.

here

Personally, I haven't used this, because I replaced my already supported intel 2100 wireless adapter, with another that has native linux support.
 
Some bleeding edge distros have support for that common WiFi card, but for now you are better off with ndiswrapper (utility that lets you use windows driver in linux). Ubuntu must have ndiswrapper in its repositories, so installing it shouldn't be problem. And else you have to do is to find INF and SYS file from Windows driver and load it. Ndiswrapper has tuturial for it.
 
I would suggest starting <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx?action=show&redirect=W
fiDocs%2FDriver%2FBroadcom43xx">here.</a> This is the Ubuntu documentation specifically for getting the broadcom wifi to work.

edit: oops, thanks cleverhandle.
 
after a long time of searching, and with the help of you guys, i'm glad to announce that I have internet access with my linux ubuntu!!!

had to install the driver from the windows xp driver set from the original laptop drivers... and now, at last i'm connected to the internet!

THANKS EVERYONE!

if you have any suggestions for me now, i would greatly appreciate them before i do something stupid... haha
 
Originally posted by: summerpewp
had to install the driver from the windows xp driver set from the original laptop drivers... and now, at last i'm connected to the internet!
Click to expand...
I think that you'll find the better long-term solution is to get the native drivers working. But as long as it works for now, it's all good. Much more fun to explore what the system can do than fight with a network card.
if you have any suggestions for me now, i would greatly appreciate them before i do something stupid...
Click to expand...
If you never did anything stupid, you wouldn't learn. One of the reasons people like Linux is because it doesn't try to second-guess you and "protect you from yourself". I doubt there's a person in this thread that hasn't rm -rf'ed some critical system directory at some point.

Have fun...

 
If you have it working via ndiswrapper and it's working, then this is a sort of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type situation.

One thing to watch out for is if your running a new kernel and your having wifi problems with ndiswrapper make sure that the 'bcm43xx' modules isn't loaded, this can cause issues. You can 'blacklist' it so it doesn't get used.


However for future reference you can use the native drivers for it. The current driver for these guys is in the bcm43xx module, which is a standard part of the 2.6.17 and newer kernels.

To use it you need the firmware packges (or extract them yourselfs) and a newer kernel.

This document is about running a Broadcom 43xx series 802.11g (54Mb/s) on Dapper. <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Dapper">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Dapper</a>

Just for future reference.

I have a Bcm43xx series card in the form of 'airport express' (which is just Apple's fancy marketting term for generic wireless stuff) which I use on a daily basis.

I also suggest setting up 'network-manager'. That way you can move around and connect to various networks easily without having to reconfigure your network stuff all the time. I don't know how well it works with ndiswrapper based drivers though.


These things are VERY common devices. If you bought a laptop with Wireless 'G' built in and it's not Intel wifi device then you have about a 90%+ chance that it's a broadcom unit.
 
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