old Acer aspire 3000 , no wfi driver

[johanna]

I still own my first Acer Aspire 3000 laptop with 40Gb.
A friend put May 13 on it, but I can't get the wifi to go, I looked in drivers, but can't find any. Could anybody please help me?
I know it is a very old laptop, but it is a nice standby, just incase...

[ktheking]

Try booting it with the Mint17 XFCE -32 bit version (livecd). Add more memory for speed.
Mint 13 XFCE 32-bit will boot a little bit faster ,but less drivers. But try installing ,and do updates.
Overall wifi is a bit better in Mint 13. XFCE means another graphical interface (gui) ,that uses less resources.

Mint 17 XFCE 32-bit : http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=169
Mint 13 XFCE 32-bit : http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=113

Give that a try first , if none of them work ,post us back.

[gold_finger]

Boot into your system, open a terminal window and enter this command:

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inxi -Fxz

That will list out the various hardware specs of your computer, including your wifi card. Copy the entire output, then paste it back here for us to see. From that, hopefully we can point you in the right direction to get wifi solved.

[johanna]

Screenshot.png

Thank you borh for your help.
This is what the terminal came up with.
I don't undertstand or know the terminal that well, but looking at it, I can't see any drivers....
regards, Johanna

[MartyMint]

Is there a physical wifi switch on the unit?

[gold_finger]

johanna,

As MartyMint hinted at, it looks like you need to push the button on your computer that activates wifi. Your output only showed the ethernet connection and didn't show anything at all for wifi under the "Network" category.

Looked up and found a manual for your machine here: [url]ftp://ftp.acer.ch/notebook/aspire_3000/manual/as3000_5000_en.pdf[/url]. On page 10 of the pdf file you'll see a picture showing what I mean.

Have a feeling that as soon as you do that wifi will work without needing any special drivers. If it doesn't, run this command after activating wireless with the button:

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inxi -nz

It should now show both the ethernet and wifi devices. Copy/Paste the output back here for us to see.

[JeremyB]

This might be better

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sudo apt-get install pastebinit

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lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net | pastebinit

And just copy the URL that the second command returns

[johanna]

Thank you all again to taking the time and effort to help me.
I downloaded the manual, but I actually still own the manual and had a look at it before. There is a wifi switch at the front of the machine, which I have pressed upteen times, but nothing happens....
The four buttons at the right hand top don't seem to work either.
Do you think perhaps they have given up the ghost with old age?
This is what the terminal returned:

Screenshot-1.png

regards, Johanna

[gold_finger]

Your pastebin output also did not show any wifi device. It's possible that it is just not working anymore. You could get a USB wifi device and use that instead. They are pretty cheap and readily available in stores and online. Many work fine on Linux computers, but do a little research first to make sure you don't get one that is not compatible. You might want to make a new post asking for advice on which model(s) work with Linux. Tell people which country you are from in that post. (EDIT: Just noticed your signature already says you're from New Zealand. You still might want to state it in the post so dumb people like me don't miss it. ) Hopefully people in same vicinity will have good idea of what's available in your area.

Meanwhile, here is a link to a page that shows many popular USB wireless devices. Click on the various models, scroll down to their "Reviews" section and enter "Linux" as a keyword in the search box. That will filter the reviews down to ones that have "Linux" mentioned in them. Keep a list of the ones that people seem to say work well in Linux and try to find one of those models near where you live if you can't order from that site.

[johanna]

Thank you so much. I actually have one of those usb wifi sticks; when I bought it I was assured it worked for linux, but this old acer does not seem to recognize it.
It works ok on my acer netbook (much newer), but I have mint 17 cinnamon installed on that one.
Do you think, it might work, if I install mint 17- 32bit on this old dear, like ktheking suggested?

[gold_finger]

I actually have one of those usb wifi sticks; when I bought it I was assured it worked for linux, but this old acer does not seem to recognize it.

Just to be sure, try it in more than one USB slot just in case the one you plugged into doesn't work right.

Do you think, it might work, if I install mint 17- 32bit on this old dear, like ktheking suggested?

That's a possibility, but you won't know for sure until you try it. Make sure you use either Xfce or Mate version on the old computer -- Cinnamon or KDE will be too much for it to handle. Make a live DVD/USB from Xfce 17 32-bit and boot from it. First see if it happens to work with the integrated wifi. If not, plug in the wifi USB stick, give it a little time to be recognized by the system, then see if that works. If it works on 17 Cinnamon, I can't imagine it wouldn't on 17 Xfce.

If all goes well, go ahead and install 17. Good luck!


P.s. Another thing suggested by ktheking was to install more RAM. I looked up your system on http://www.crucial.com/ and it shows that yours can hold up to 2GB of RAM. Assuming that you're able to get the computer setup with wifi for use as you want to, it might not be a bad idea to buy another 1GB of RAM and add it to your computer. (Two sticks of 1GB RAM would be even better if you don't mind spending the money.) That will likely make operate much faster with less hesitation because of the small amount of RAM you have on it now. Will be a very noticeable improvement.

If you've never done it and want to know, installing new RAM is pretty simple. Instructions for that should also be in the user manual you have, or the link to it I gave you. Basically you'll just be unscrewing a cover plate on back of laptop to reveal the two slots for RAM sticks. You'll either have 1 512MB stick in one slot, or 2 256MB sticks using both slots. If there are two sticks already there, pull one out and put your new one in its place. If you buy two 1GB replacement sticks, you'll replace both old sticks.

[johanna]

Thanks for that, I was planning to put mate. I put cinnamon by mistake on the netbook, but it works, so I am lucky.
A friend of mine had suggested to get more ram, I did have a look under the cover, so I think (if I go ahead with it) I will be able to put it in.
I will let you all know how I got on later. Many thanks and regards, Johanna

[gold_finger]

I was planning to put mate.

Xfce uses slightly less resources, but Mate should also work if you prefer that one. If you upgrade the RAM you definitely won't have any problems (performance-wise) with either one of the two.

Not to put a damper on expectations, but I just glanced back at your inxi -Fz output and noticed that the computer uses an old SiS graphics card. That might be a problem in Mint 17 that wasn't in Mint 13. You'll find out for sure when you try the live DVD/USB, but just figured I'd warn you. (If you can't boot to a working display, then that's probably because support for the old graphics card was discontinued in the newer 17. Test it out though, because I could be wrong about this. I hope I am wrong.)

If 17 does not work because of graphics card, boot back into installed 13, plug in your wifi USB stick, open a terminal and enter:

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inxi -nxz

Paste the output back here. Maybe the wifi stick will show in the output and we can try figuring out how to get it working.

[johanna]

Have installed mint17Xfce, wifi working with usb!
For the moment all is working well. If the problems arise like you think they might, I will install mint17 mate.
I think I prefer Mate, but I'd like to give this a go anyway.
I don't know how I would manage without all you wonderful helpers on this forum!
Thanks again, you are wonderful!
Regards, Johanna

[gold_finger]

Have installed mint17Xfce, wifi working with usb!
For the moment all is working well. If the problems arise like you think they might, I will install mint17 mate.

That's great news!

If you didn't run into problems immediately with that graphics card, that means (thankfully) I was wrong and you should be fine with either Xfce or Mate if you switch to that.