Linux Mint Forums

Newbie Q:

Problem – accessing home wifi.

Hw setup:
Pentium 4; 1.5G RAM; IDE HDD; running on Intel MB d865glc. A bland, old, and tired PC.
Internet access provided by ATT Uverse with modem/router/wifi combo box.
Mint 14 Cinnamon 32bit
Runs fine. Internet access works well with wired connection to the ATT box.

Goal:
I would like to get either one of the following two wifi devices to work (and remove the wired connection):
Linksys wusb54gs v1 (usb connected wifi adaptor; the preferred device); or
Linksys wmp54g v1.1 (pci card).

Problem 1 (WUSB54GS)
When I connect Linksys WUSB54G (version 1), an external wifi adaptor (via USB), a dialog box pops up requesting the encryption key.
When I enter the encryption key (the key works under WinXP and Win7), it fails to connect and, after a few seconds, the same dialog box pops up requesting the encryption key. This is repeated.
Since the encryption key dialog box pops up, I assume that Mint 14 has detected the adaptor and detected that there is a wifi to connect to.
It just will not connect, even with the encryption key. I double, triple checked to make sure that I am using the correct key.
Is this some settings issue?

Problem 2 (WMP54G)
Mint 14 does not recognize the pci card.
I searched Mint forums and found the following link:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 06#p475967

Per the forum posts, I used the Software Manager to install the following (using wired Internet access):
b43-fwcutter
firmware-b43-lpphy-installer
firmware-b43legacy-installer

Reboot, but no change (not recognizing the WMP54G card).

How do install the drivers/programs I downloaded? I cannot even find the files that were downloaded.

For example, when I open System Tools / Administration / Wireless Network Drivers, I cannot even find the downloaded drivers in the list, and I do not know where to go to find these drivers?

Sorry for a lame newbie question.

Summary:
It looks to me that Problem 1 is more easily solved since it looks like the system is at least recognizing the device and detecting the presence of the local wifi. But what do I know? Not much.

Thanks for your help.

James C.

Can we assume you are using WPA2 security?

Yes, WPA2 Personal.

1. Should work. If you do 'Show Password' your sure it's correct?

2. The broadcom drivers, assuming you correctly identified the device, using your wired connection: Sometimes it's necessary to do the following You can read about the devices here: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

You can identify yours with

Thank you for your help caf4926.

1. Should work. If you do 'Show Password' your sure it's correct?

Yes, I did. No, it still will not work; however, the second solution worked.

2. The broadcom drivers, assuming you correctly identified the device, using your wired connection:
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

Worked. No need for other steps that you listed.

YEA! Yet another plus for Linux Mint - unmatched community support and answers via its forums.
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