Linux not recognizing wireless adapter Dell Inspirion 6400

ks6p · 06-06-2009, 01:37 PM

I'm sorry, I just registered to this forum. Please forgive me if this question has already been asked and answered...

I just installed Linux and I don't know what a Distro is but maybe Ubuntu answers that. The installation went perfectly except...

It does not recognize the wireless adapter in my Dell Inspiron 6400 Laptop.

Where can I get the driver for this and how do I install it if it's not an automatic process?

Kim KS6P

jamescondron · 06-07-2009, 01:16 PM

Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type in the following.

Code:

lspci -vv|grep -A 25 Net
iwconfig
lsmod

And I'll walk you through getting it going.

Oh, and yes- Ubuntu is your distribution (distro)

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamescondron

Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type in the following.

Code:

lspci -vv|grep -A 25 Net
iwconfig
lsmod

And I'll walk you through getting it going.

Oh, and yes- Ubuntu is your distribution (distro)

Thank you for replying!

Did what you said. Got "command not found" to lspic but the other two came up with options.

Back to the ~$ command prompt. Now what?

BTW... KS6P is my ham radio callsign. You can go to www.qrz.com and in the upper left enter KS6P and click on search. You get my pic and my bio.

-Kim

noctilucent · 06-07-2009, 03:03 PM

lspci not lspic

Also, make sure you actually post the output from those commands, I hope jamescondron will pardon my assumption of his motive, but I believe he asked you to run those utilities in order to gain information regarding your system. They're not supposed to actually fix anything.

Tschuss.

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

lspci not lspic

Also, make sure you actually post the output from those commands, I hope jamescondron will pardon my assumption of his motive, but I believe he asked you to run those utilities in order to gain information regarding your system. They're not supposed to actually fix anything.

Tschuss.

Vie gehts and danke,

I speak a fair amout of German after being there for two years and wanting to learn the language, but my reading and writing skills ist kinderish.

Im'm not afraid of having him or anyone else access my system because there is NOTHING on it right now except the OS. Beside that, it is not connected to my LAN/Internet because I chose not to run a cable to it right now. I want the WiFi to work.

I hope he is helping and not hacking!

Bis Spaeter,

-Kim

noctilucent · 06-07-2009, 03:21 PM

You misunderstood. He needs (we need?) the information in order to try to help you. Once you provide those outputs, the solution will be easier to deduce. Right now we know nothing - we don't know what wireless card you've got, etc.

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

lspci not lspic

Also, make sure you actually post the output from those commands, I hope jamescondron will pardon my assumption of his motive, but I believe he asked you to run those utilities in order to gain information regarding your system. They're not supposed to actually fix anything.

Tschuss.

When you said "post" the output of the commands I assume you meant here. So here's what happened....

ks6p@ks6p-Linux:~$ lspic -vv|grep -A 25 Net
bash: lspic: command not found
ks6p@ks6p-Linux:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr

ff Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management

ff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

ks6p@ks6p-Linux:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
isofs 39844 0
udf 87716 0
crc_itu_t 10112 1 udf
hidp 22272 1
rfkill_input 12800 0
binfmt_misc 16776 1
radeon 342816 2
drm 96296 3 radeon
ppdev 15620 0
bridge 56340 0
stp 10500 1 bridge
bnep 20224 2
joydev 18368 0
lp 17156 0
parport 42220 2 ppdev,lp
arc4 9856 2
ecb 10752 2
snd_hda_intel 435636 3
snd_pcm_oss 46336 0
snd_mixer_oss 22656 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 82948 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 10756 0
snd_seq_oss 37760 0
snd_seq_midi 14336 0
snd_rawmidi 29696 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 15104 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
b43 131484 0
iTCO_wdt 19108 0
snd_seq 56880 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
iTCO_vendor_support 11652 1 iTCO_wdt
snd_timer 29704 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14988 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
mac80211 217208 1 b43
cfg80211 38032 1 mac80211
psmouse 61972 0
snd 62628 15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_de vice
soundcore 15200 1 snd
video 25360 0
ricoh_mmc 11904 0
sdhci_pci 15232 0
sdhci 23940 1 sdhci_pci
intel_agp 34108 0
agpgart 42696 2 drm,intel_agp
led_class 12036 1 b43
dcdbas 15264 0
serio_raw 13316 0
usbhid 42336 0
snd_page_alloc 16904 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
output 11008 1 video
pcspkr 10496 0
btusb 19608 3
input_polldev 11912 1 b43
b44 35984 0
mii 13312 1 b44
ohci1394 38576 0
ieee1394 94660 1 ohci1394
ssb 41220 2 b43,b44
fbcon 46112 0
tileblit 10752 1 fbcon
font 16384 1 fbcon
bitblit 13824 1 fbcon
softcursor 9984 1 bitblit

noctilucent · 06-07-2009, 03:38 PM

Once again: lspci. You keep typing "lspic" and are getting "command not found". Read and type carefully: lspci

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

You misunderstood. He needs (we need?) the information in order to try to help you. Once you provide those outputs, the solution will be easier to deduce. Right now we know nothing - we don't know what wireless card you've got, etc.

The wireless card is a Dell 1390 WLAN Minicard (built in) which I assume is some kind of Intel card that Dell slapped their name on.

-Kim

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

Once again: lspci. You keep typing "lspic" and are getting "command not found". Read and type carefully: lspci

I'm sorry....brain malfunction....

Here you go....

ks6p@ks6p-Linux:~$ lspci -vv|grep -A 25 Net
0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0007
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at efcfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: wl, ssb

noctilucent · 06-07-2009, 04:21 PM

I don't know an Ubuntu-ish way to do this [as I do not use Ubuntu], but the following should work: first you need to use a computer which has network acess to fetch the b43-fwcutter Ubuntu package [see http://packages.ubuntu.com/ ] + eventual dependencies. Then you will need to fetch http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2 . Once you have the package(s) and the tar.bz2 file, transfer them to your Ubuntu system [by means of an usb memory stick, or whatever - your choice]. Install the b43-fwcutter package. Once this is done, do something along the lines of (as root):

Code:

tar xvf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
b43-fwcutter -w "/lib/firmware/" wl_apsta_mimo.o

Note that you have to be in the directory where you put broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 on your system.

Then: reboot.

ks6p · 06-07-2009, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

I don't know an Ubuntu-ish way to do this [as I do not use Ubuntu], but the following should work: first you need to use a computer which has network acess to fetch the b43-fwcutter Ubuntu package [see http://packages.ubuntu.com/ ] + eventual dependencies. Then you will need to fetch http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2 . Once you have the package(s) and the tar.bz2 file, transfer them to your Ubuntu system [by means of an usb memory stick, or whatever - your choice]. Install the b43-fwcutter package. Once this is done, do something along the lines of (as root):

Code:

tar xvf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
b43-fwcutter -w "/lib/firmware/" wl_apsta_mimo.o

Note that you have to be in the directory where you put broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 on your system.

Then: reboot.

Got both on a flash drive now plugged into the Dell/Linux Laptop.

You said> transfer them to your Ubuntu system...

What folder? In "file browser" there are several folders. SYS, LIB, ROOT, etc. does it matter?

Thanks to you I'm so close I can taste it! :-)

-Kim

noctilucent · 06-08-2009, 12:00 AM

For example, put them on your desktop.

ks6p · 06-08-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noctilucent

For example, put them on your desktop.

OK..I extracted the cutter to my desktop and have broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5 there too.

Now what?

-Kim

ks6p · 06-08-2009, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ks6p

OK..I extracted the cutter to my desktop and have broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5 there too.

Now what?

-Kim

I am using the Dell laptop now wired directly to my modem. Working fine in this configuration, but as I think you know by now, the point is to get the wireless card on this computer to work so I can put the CAT5 back on the router and connect to it wirelessly. Sorry if I'm just restating the obvious, but I wanted to add to this thread that a wired connection to the modem works. I'm sorry that I don't have another 100' of CAT5 so that the modem could go to the router and this computer (the Dell running Linux now) at the same time, but that shouldn't be necessary and what I am trying to solve.

-Kim