It came with Windows XP and had stayed that way until recently when I decided to move to a more efficient OS - Linux
After looking around, Linux Mint won the contest so, using the Ethernet wired connection, I installed Linux Mint 13 Maya - Nate edition and I love it
Because it has only 1GB RAM, I had to sudo apt-get remove ubiquity-slideshow-mint before running the 32- bit installer, but after that, the install went fine
I ran apt-get update && apt-get upgrade and all went well
Problem: I cannot get the wireless card to work and I am getting inconsistent results from the command-line entries (see below) and I am wondering if there is a hardware problem with the wireless card or if it is an install configuration error on my part. When I run
Code: Select all
lshw -C network
Which tells me the wireless mini-pci card is there and recognized but I cannot get the wireless hookup to work.*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82551QM Ethernet Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 00:00:39:65:8b:e0
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100 driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=half firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.152 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:11 memory:f7eff000-f7efffff ioport:eec0(size=64) memory:f7ec0000-f7edffff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: eth1
serial: 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=orinoco_cs driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=Lucent/Agere 9.48 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b
but when I run
Code: Select all
lspci
which does NOT show a wireless card, just the wired Ethernet interface00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1644/M1644T Northbridge+Trident (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c3)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 01)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535/M1543 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82551QM Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
00:0c.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.1 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
00:0c.2 USB controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
00:10.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)
00:12.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1 (rev 82)
When I run
Code: Select all
mintwifi
which again shows the existence of a wireless card-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo no wireless extensions.
eth1 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: None
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Sensitivity:1/0
Retry limit:8 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/70 Signal level=-122 dBm Noise level=-122 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:6
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
eth0 no wireless extensions.
-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:39:65:8b:e0
inet addr:192.168.1.152 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::200:39ff:fe65:8be0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7445 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7038 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:186 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:494361 (494.3 KB) TX bytes:2102710 (2.1 MB)
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:2d:6c:e5:db
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x100
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:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 B) TX bytes:480 (480.0 B)
-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service smbd reload
Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the reload(8) utility, e.g. reload smbd
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server: 192.168.1.1
Address: 192.168.1.1#53
I have read numerous postings, some of which say that, since 2010, Linux Mint does not need to use ndiswrapper to load Windows many drivers but so far, I am tearing out my (already thin) hair trying to get it to work natively. I have read that once you initiate ndiswrapper, it then prevents any native drivers from being usable so I do not want to try this until I have exhausted the native Linux Mint options.
I think the Windows driver that was used for this card was net5211.inf and I did find this at
so if needed, I think I know how to try using the Windows driver within ndiswrapper but do not want to go there if I can get the system working natively./usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/drivers/i386/Atheros_AR5007eg/net5211.inf
Interestingly, when I run
Code: Select all
iwlist eth1 scan
which makes it look like the card is actually working.eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:50:7F:AB:C4:00
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=70/70 Signal level=-21 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:"RC_DraytekWAP"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000aa08d6d1e
Extra: Last beacon: 188ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000D52435F4472617974656B574150
IE: Unknown: 010882848B961224486C
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32040C183060
IE: Unknown: 2D1A6E1017FFFFFF0001000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1606000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3E0100
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: 0B050000107A12
IE: Unknown: 7F0101
IE: Unknown: DD07000C4300000000
IE: Unknown: 0706545720010E10
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C336E1017FFFFFF0001000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C3406000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD9D0050F204104A0001101044000101103B00010310470010BC329E001DD811B2860100507FABC4001021001852616C696E6B20546563686E6F6C6F67792C20436F72702E1023001C52616C696E6B20576972656C6573732041636365737320506F696E74102400065254323836301042000831323334353637381054000800060050F20400011011000952616C696E6B415053100800020084103C000100
Cell 02 - Address: 00:14:D1:E6:6D:74
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality=29/70 Signal level=-81 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:"TRENDnet652"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000017323b5b052
Extra: Last beacon: 156ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000B5452454E446E6574363532
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
IE: Unknown: 03010B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: Unknown: 2D1A6C181EFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D160B000300000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C336C181EFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C340B000300000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD0700E04C02022000
But I cannot get connected to any wireless network. The RC_DraytekWAP shown above is my wireless access point so I thought that maybe the encryption was preventing connection so I disabled all security encryption and tried to connect but no luck.
Sorry for the long and rambling post, but I have been working on this for days and cannot get it to work so wanted you to know I have tried all the obvious things I can think of.
Questions:
1) Do I need to use ndiswrapper to get the Windows drivers to work? I have the Windows drivers available if needed.
- if so, can someone give me clear step-=by-step instructions on how?
(I have read conflicting posts on how to do this)
2) If I do NOT need to use ndiswrapper, how do I get the native Linux Mint wireless drivers to work?
Thank you in advance
Ramblin