Progress but Wifi problem using Atheros AR5005G

[natwestcup]

Help!

OK so second week into Linux experience.

Made the decision to install Mint Celina on my Fujitsu Siemens Amilo laptop on a dual boot basis with Windows XP which uses an Atheros AR5005G wireless network adapter.

Install was quite painless really. I didn't understand partitioning so choose the "Guided" option which seems to do everything for me. Grub installed and I can boot up either system.

Connecting to the network and internet is the problem. I can do it easily enough via a wired connection, but after 3 days messing around and reading Wiki and forum stuff I still can't get connected via the Wifi.

I followed the help at
http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/MintWifi
and seem to have got as far as installing a driver (net5211) from Windows XP - well the "Currently installed drivers" window says "Hardware present : yes"

The restricted drivers window tells me that the "Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL) is also in use.

Now here's the bit I don't understand. When I use wifi with Windows XP I have to press a button on the laptop and a little blue light comes on, the network is found and it all logs in automatically. On linux Mint if I press the Wifi button nothing happens. Is that the problem or does Linux not need this button, it's not mentioned in Wiki.

When using Network manager to "Connect to other wireless network" I enter the network name (which I got from the Windows XP info window) and the encryption key - I don't know which type of Wireles security to use so I tried all combinations "Wireless Security" and "Authentication".

Is there any way to find out which combination I should be using or doesn't it matter?

In Network Manager I get a deactivated radio button with the name of my network next to it but it doesn't do anything. The network manager icon changes to a empty bar chart saying "connect to ... 0%".

I have tried "manual connection" and a different drivers but to no avail.

Is there something simple I'm missing or is this a task too far for a newb?

[blu3ness]

Sometimes the linux driver cannot activate a wifi device, this might vary depending on the manufacturers of your laptop, what happened to me a while back was that my wifi can only be turned on/off in windows xp, in other words, if I left my wifi off in XP and booted into ubuntu, it would not work no matter how hard i try to enable it. Right now I used a different firmware I got from the internet (I hav BCM4318 wireless adapter), it works fine.


I'm not sure if this is the same scenario for you, but best of luck to you ;P

[natwestcup]

Thanks I will try that now..

.. booted into Windows switched Wifi on then rebooted Mint but still can't get a connection - thanks anyway