Wireless drivers for Toshiba L40-139

You can always the (Windows) download driver from the Internet don't worry about that.

What you need to understand is that in Linux (Ubuntu) a lot of driver are integrated. This mean that you don't need to install anything manually.
Unfortunately not all type of wireless card supported out of the box. This is partially due because a some manufacturer don't care about linux support. (things are improving though)

What I need to know is which wireless card is in your laptop.
In Ubuntu open a terminal (Application > Accessories > Terminal) and type "lspci" (without quote) and press enter.
It should display a number of information about what's inside your computer. Just copy the whole thing in here.

gareth@gareth-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
05:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
05:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
gareth@gareth-laptop:~$

Hope that helps?

Richard

Sorry arekkusu, I meant to say thank you for your quick response also.

Richard

OK. The good news is that you're not the only one having problem with this wireless card... it's a know problem.
The bad news is that it will need some work to (hopefully) make it work.

Technical Note:
Although you're wireless card is written as "AR242x" in the above, it apparently isn't detected correctly. It should be detected as an Atheros 5007.
Here is the bug report if you're interested: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/209414

Hopefully this will be fixed at some point but for now you will need to use a workaround.
Especially the Atheros 5007 is not supported by the normal driver and you'll need to compile the driver with a special patch.

And those driver will *only work* on a 32bit version of Ubuntu. If you have the 64bit version installed you will need to install the 32bit version instead.

In short I recommend you follow the following instruction for installing the driver:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4791500&postcount=7

I am actually not sure if it will work properly that way but it's worth a try I think.

Hopefully I didn't scare you too much... especially if you're new to Linux (Ubuntu)
There are times where it just works and time you have to mess around.

Thank you very much arekkusu.

In Terminal I managed to succesfully (whilst hard-lined to the router upstaires) complete the first command line 'wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz', but when it came to the second one it keeps on saying E: 'Couldn't find package build-essential'.

The file has been extracted, but to no avail. It's a shame because I know that your answer is going to work, but cant get Terminal to see the file it has downloaded.

Any ideas why it cant see it? I have Copied and pasted the command lines exactly as written.

Richard

The following command should update the package list from the repositories.

sudo apt-get update

If it doesn't seem to be able to download from the server, try going to "System > Administration > Software Source" and choose another server.

Then try again:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

what do you mean by "cant get Terminal to see the file it has downloaded" ?

wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz

should download the file, then to extract it:

tar xfz madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz

and then you should be able to change to the extracted folder with:

cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007

(I am just copying the line from the link)

Did you get an error somewhere ?

Yeh, I got the error after pasting 'sudo apt-get install build-essential' into the terminal window.

I am going to try your advice after work tomorrow as it's 02:00hrs over here and I have to be at work in 4hrs, and need to hit the hay. I'll be re-trying again when I get back from work.

Once again, thank you very much for helping me. I will be so happy when I get this to work, as I have been told to get Linux on my PC by quite a few people now.

Richard

Success!!!

After I ran the line 'sudo apt-get update' in terminal that you gave me, it stated that it also had 104 other updates to add (104MB or so). I updated this and then ran the other lines of code after the required re-boot.

I have let DCHP assign his IP address as the other people in the flat have static ip's.

You really have been a great help arekkusu, as I would have been at a complete loss when it comes to Linux. Although having played about with it for the past 24 hours I am thinking of running Linux on this machine once I have finished building my new PC.

Once again thank you very much.

Richard