Dell Wireless 1490 support in LM20.1

[nobler]

I have a Dell Precision M65 with the Dell Wireless 1490 card. Newly installed LM20.1 doesn't seem to notice that the card even exists. I had LM17 on this PC before, wifi worked fine. System is dual boot; Windows sees and uses the wifi just fine. I have been searching for answers and trying multiple "proven" fixes all day. Asking now for some help. Thanks.

[sleeper12]

We need more details, post results of:

Code: Select all

 inxi -Fxxxrz && rfkill list && iwconfig && mokutil --sb-state 

[nobler]

Over in Windows, Belarc Advisor reports "Dell 1390 WLAN Mini-card" so apparently the unit did not come with the 1490 card as noted. I found your other posting:

< viewtopic.php?f=52&t=317357&p=1797069&h ... s#p1797069

sudo apt remove bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt install --reinstall firmware-b43-installer

Rebooted per your instructions. Wifi working, but it's pretty slow at ~12Mbps.

I may have the wrong driver at this point.

Thanks in advance!

[nobler]

Here is the system info you requested:

[sleeper12]

You seem to have the right driver now. Just a guess, but your wifi might do better with LM 19.2 Xfce on that older machine. LM 19.2 comes with the 4.15 kernel which is generally better on older hardware.

[nobler]

In case anyone else sees this problem:

After I had fixed the problem using the driver reinstall suggested by sleeper12 (thank you!), I ran the LM20.1 Device Manager. It suggested a different Broadcom driver. I tried the driver-- it does not work at all. Fixed it again with the aforesaid driver reinstall.

I ordered an Intel 3945ABG wifi card (the higher end card sold with the Precision M65) to try and get a faster connection. The router near me is dual band and only a year or two old.

Also, this link was informative:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/i ... ss-drivers