no sound; no wireless (gateway 7330GZ notebook )

[mcsquared]

I have a gateway 7330Gz and my sound is is conexant AC-Link audio. I have my system on dual boot and on the XP portion of my hard drive the sound works fine. I have also installed Ubuntu fiery fawn and the sound would not function on it, either. HELP.

I am also having problems getting my wireless card to work on Ubuntu or Mint, too. My network adapter is Broadcom 802.11g. My husband turned me on to both Ubuntu and Mint and on his laptop (a Dell something) and his main computer, all versions of Linux have sound and wireless working just fine.

I am presently running Mint 3.0 off CD as I write this email and have my laptop connected by cable. But I want my laptop moveable and working on its wireless capability. When I switch over to my Windows XP portion of hard drive, I am wireless without problems. Utuntu Fiery Fawn I have installed and my husband said that Mint is simply another version of this Linux subcategory. I was hoping that Mint might work my sound and wireless where Ubuntu would not, but neither sound or wireless work here, either.

Thank you for any help.
Ms. Max

[Husse]

Welcome to Mint mcsquared
Sound: Is there a modem in the laptop? Some soundchips in some environments rely on the modem to some part so it has to be turned on.
Wifi: You say Broadcom and this probably means a Broadcom in the 43 series
The solution is to be found in the wiki:
http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... adcom_43xx
Go for the solution with the Linux driver first - it seems to be working well now.

[mcsquared]

Thanks for the welcome, and yes, my gateway does have a modem, a softK56, but I have never used it. I do not understand why a modem on board should affect sound. Too, as I said initially, I have my system on dual boot and when I'm in the Windows portion of my hard drive the sound works fine. So, how does my modem being on board effect (affect?) Linux OS but not Windows on the same machine.

I went to the link you provided and it looks hugely complex, but when my husband gets home tonight I'll see if he and I can finnagle some of the instructions and get my sound working.

And to change over to the problem with my wifi, my not getting the internet wireless to work on Mint (or Ubuntu for that matter), I had purchased a new Belkin n-wireless card, but the F5D8013 card didn't work either with Mint, anymore than the Broadcom. Then I went on a website that listed all supported wireless cards for Ubuntu and Linux and my new Belkin card wasn't even listed, although a lot of the Belkin cards do not work, in any case. Any suggestions what kind of card I might buy that would sure-fire work with Mint??

Thank you so much for replying to my post.

I'm not real familiar with how postings and replies work, either and it was just by chance that I noticed I'd gotten a reply, when I googled my gateway notebook 7330gz and the word linux together.

I'm hugely frustrated right now, but each day I get up and figure I'll give it a go again. My husband, David simply LOVES Ubuntu and Mint and he has two computers a main one and a laptop that are both Dell, and he has had NO problems installing everything without problem one. Lucky me, I guess. Sigh....

Thanks again.

[mcsquared]

Husse,
This is an addendum to my earlier post.
I just went to this web address http://tcanales.cloud.prohosting.com/gateway7330gz.html
and someone using Ubuntu described how all the various portions of a gateway notebook, 7330GZ adapts to Ubuntu install.
From what I could see of the list, this person had everything working just fine. And it's the exact same notebook (ostensibly) that I have. So now I'm totally confused and depressed.
Anyway, the person who included all the information lists themselves at the bottom of the webpage above, and is a debian, which is what Ubuntu and Mint are based on? Yes?

[Husse]

I'm out of time today so I'll give you some thoughts tomorrow. The modem thing - well it's simply so that some sound cards share components with the modem - I don't know about your laptop, I just mentioned it in case....

[mcsquared]

Husse,

Thank you. I look forward to your reply. Ms. Max

[Husse]

The Broadcom has been a problem, but I think it is solved now as I see reports that people with problems get them to work with the linux driver. Now this does not mean you are sure to have success as there are so many other factors involved, the other hardware in the laptop, possibly software you have installed and what access point you use..
Irecommend you follow the wiki - it may seem complex but if you take it step by step it's not so hard.
But even most (?) of the Broadcom work right out of the box, so this is not the normal way of doing things
I'm out of more ideas

[mcsquared]

Hi Husse,

I am working my way thru the 'a howto for wifi' and have gotten to 4. Install the driver. What I did was go into my XP OS and search for bcmwl5.inf files, and then copy these inf files to my flash drive. Once done I opened Mint and copied these two drivers (bcmwl5 and bcmwl5a.inf) to my Mint main folder. Next I found the Windows wireless drivers program on Mint and installed both the inf files into Mint. Next it said (in the instructions) to test if the driver(s) was recognized by typing in iwconfig into the terminal. This is what I got for a reply doing that:
max@max-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"" Nickname:"Broadcom 4306"
Mode:Managed Access Point: Invalid
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

THis is very Greek to me. What do I do now?


Also, since I'm running along on cable hookup, what can I do about getting sound working on Mint. It's frustrating not being able to listen to radio while my head is working thru all this.

[mcsquared]

Husse,

Regards the sound issue, Jon has emailed me a link (from Shadowfire at Ubuntu Forms) that ended up working great. I now have sound.

Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - Conexant AC-Link Audio audio card no sound !!!!!

Thread: Conexant AC-Link Audio audio card no sound !!!!!
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#8 Report Post
Old April 5th, 2007
Shadowfire Shadowfire is offline
Spilled the Beans

Join Date: Jul 2006
Beans: 14
Re: Conexant AC-Link Audio audio card no sound !!!!!
To all you guys struggling with the Conexant AC-Link Audio audio card. Phantom, a friend who has a Gateway Laptop (7330GZ model). In his quest of moving Ubuntu to his laptop (not just his desktop). He was able to cure his no sound blues on his laptop by doing the following:

1. Open up the volume control.

2. Go to Edit.

3. Go to Preferences.

4. Scroll down list to Extrenal Amplifier. (check it)

5. Once it is check - close that out.

6. Go back to the volume control panel.

7. You should now see a Switches TAB at top. (select it)

8. Search for the External Amplifier on the list you see.

9. Uncheck the External Amplifier.

10. Now close out and go test your sound.


Phantom and I hope this will help everyone who is having no sound issues with the Conexant AC-Link Audio.

*Please understand that it is very hard to cover every nook and cranny with all the items that Linux covers, especially when the main maufactures of these devices don't help out much if any with the creation of drivers or software for linux.

A big thanks to the very hard working Open Source community, because of them, we are able to benefit with such a great OS like Linux. Share or help when you can!

Cheers!
Shadowfire
__________________





Thank you for all your help, Husse.

I'm thinking your suggestion about downloading wicd did the trick on the wireless. When I open up Mint, I got into Internet from the start section, and then scroll down to Wicd and click on it. This takes me to a window where I say what network to connect to and then I'm online.
Is there some shortcut way to do this process?

[Husse]

wicd seems to be good - we are contemplating to include it possibly in Celena. I've never used it and the laptop with wireless I have is soo sloow that I don't want to experiment to much (takes a minute - or more - to open Firefox)
But if I'm not mistaken you could add it to the panel and one of the two top alternatives. Should be somewhat easier and you can remove the networking applet now (unless you also use a wired network from time to time)

[mcsquared]

Dear Husse,
the wicd worked so well and I was free of cable till this morning when I went to Automatix (sp) and tried to install Sun Java plugins, (whatever) and things got so mixed up that trying to uninstall/remove the 'mess' wouldn't allow me to close the error window. Finally I gave up and simply re-installed Mint from Cd. I did what I did previously to get sound so sound is working, but installing wicd didn't get me wireless. Then I tried wifi-radar and still no wireless. Finally I tried the cable again, and wicd told me I was wired but any window on Firefox, anything do with internet kept telling me no server could be found.

That woman who did a chart of my gateway 7330gz where she showed each function on her notebook working, wrote me back when I wrote her and she gave me this link to try for getting wireless. Here's the total of her email to me.


Sure!! i'm away from my gateway right now, so i can't double check the things i'm going to tell you, but don't feel this is the end of the road, cuz it's not.. i had problems with the wireless and sound, too.

Did you check the notes I wrote down for sound and wifi at the bottom of the page? that's how i solved it, i have it written down and published on spanish, but i have a friend with the same machine who posted it in english. Give these a try

http://www.segundanariz.com/ubuntu/?p=31
http://designedfor.wordpress.com/2007/0 ... ay-laptop/

basically, the sound is sending the output to a device that doesn't not exist...and when it does it, it mutes the regular output... don't ask me why. But when u mute that "master device" you'll get your sound back.

On the wireless part, basically if you have tried installing your card, you might have two drivers competing for the same card and that causes trouble. Follow the blog's directions or the directions I refer on the linux-on-laptops page, and i´m sure you´ll get connected. Remember to apt-get a wifi widget or little program that will manage your connections and u´ll be allright.

best of luck

Tatiana Canales Opazo.



I tried following the instructions for getting wireless but it didn't work either. So I'm back to square one save, I do have sound (that's nice)

I don't know what I did with installing wicd and wifi-radar, too that other day but I'm without wireless even though I've now removed wicd AND wifi-radar so I could at least use my cable.

Thank you for all your help.

Ms. Max

[mcsquared]

Husse,

I fnally removed wicd and wifi-radar and then followed the directions the individual at
http://www.segundanariz.com/ubuntu/?p=31 (4 steps) recommended, along with a final (edit) which said that AFTER reboot, in network manager it will show network enabled, and to uncheck (disable) that and close network manager. Then open it again and check enable. and then I was online.
AFter doing that, I rebooted again, and this time I was automatically online with wireless without doing anything further. I am so THRILLED.

If I ever have to re-install I now have a sure-fire way of getting my Broadcom 43xx working my wireless without fail. Thank you for all your help! Ms. Max