[Cialug] looking for help with wi-fi

Scott Prader sprader at iastate.edu
Wed Nov 3 12:14:33 CDT 2010


Hi Chris,

Beware of 10.10, it is new, and thus it has many issues.  10.04 is still the
LTS (Long Term Supported) version of Ubuntu and you may find it easier to
find a solution with it.

Is your wifi card builtin?  If so, does it show up under the list that the
lspci command provides?

-Scott

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 9:40 AM, chris rheinherren
<c.rheinherren at gmail.com>wrote:

> bynw at whitestar:~$ dmesg | grep eth
> [    1.449305] eth0: RTL8101e at 0xf829e000, 88:ae:1d:e8:7f:f3, XID
> 0c200000 IRQ 36
> [   18.893341] r8169: eth0: link down
> [   18.893574] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
>
> System-->Administration--Hardware Drivers. Only driver is for the Nvida
> graphics card.
>
> bynw at whitestar:~$ sudo rmmod wl
> [sudo] password for bynw:
> ERROR: Module wl does not exist in /proc/modules
>
>
> I am going to check out Ubuntu 10.10 today.
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 08:36, Matthew Nuzum <newz at bearfruit.org> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 7:38 AM, chris rheinherren <
>> c.rheinherren at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey All.
>>>
>>> I need a bit of help with my laptop's Wi-Fi.
>>>
>>> I have a Toshiba Satellite A665-S6094 running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
>>> On a wired connection I have no trouble connecting at all. But Wi-Fi has
>>> some troubles connecting.
>>>
>>>
>> Hi, do you happen to know what kind of wifi card you have? I do this:
>> dmesg | grep eth
>>
>> And I see about a dozen lines mostly related to the wired ethernet, but
>> this line shows me what kind of wireless card I have:
>>
>> [   26.960393] eth1: Broadcom BCM432b 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller
>> 5.60.48.36
>>
>> Also, in the desktop you can go to System -> Administration -> Driver
>> Manager (can't remember the precise name in Lucid but it has "driver" in
>> it). You'll see a screen like the one attached. Sometimes a proprietary
>> driver is needed and needs to be enabled. Sometimes there are more than one
>> driver options available and the other one works better. (Ubuntu does this
>> as a compromise, preferring more open source compatible drivers over
>> non-open source options)
>>
>> If you have a wired network connection available this part might work
>> better if you're plugged in via ethernet since it will often need to
>> download the driver.
>>
>>
>>> 1) Takes several attempts before Wi-Fi connects even if there is no
>>> security at all on the wireless signal. Sometimes this takes several reboots
>>> to get it to connect. This will happen even if the computer was connected
>>> via Wi-Fi and went into hibernation due to the lid being closed on the
>>> laptop. It doesn't reconnect without being rebooted several times.
>>>
>>>
>> I used to have a problem with my wifi. The Canonical support dept gave me
>> this suggestion, instead of rebooting:
>>
>> sudo rmmod wl
>> sudo modprobe wl
>>
>> However that is a hack, it would be better to fix the prob. But at least
>> you don't have to reboot. At one time I had commands like that in the init
>> scripts that ran after resume. (I can't remember what those scripts are
>> called at the moment)
>>
>>
>>> 2) The network manager applet while attempting to connect and doesn't
>>> will sometimes just vanish from the Gnome panel.
>>>
>>
>> That is not good, but maybe it will self correct when the other problem is
>> solved.
>>
>> The rule of thumb with any Linux is that newer is better when it comes to
>> drivers. If you're having trouble with Lucid, try 10.10 live cd or thumb
>> drive version to see if it helps.
>>
>> --
>> Matthew Nuzum
>> newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter
>>
>> "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Cialug at cialug.org
>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>>
>>
>
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>


-- 
Scott Prader
Undergraduate Electrical Engineer
CARC, SSCL
sprader at iastate.edu
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