Wireless Network Not Working

Hi Kerry

The first step is to work out what wireless card you have (as you guessed). The command you'll need is "lspci"--one line will be about the wireless device. If you post the whole output here, we can find it.

(Or there may be a shortcut--is there an icon in the system tray called something like "hardware drivers"? Or anything talking about restricted or proprietary drivers?)

OK Thomas this is what is returned when I do 'lspci' :

kerry@kerry-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 04)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 04)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 04)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 04)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01)
07:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
07:00.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
07:00.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
07:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
07:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)

I think the wireless adapter is the BCM4310 USB Controller. I've looked on the internet for various solutions and it seems this brand are notorious for not working with Ubuntu :-(

Ah, yes, I've got one of those too. Well, a broadcom 4318. Your best bet is to try the b43 driver, but that's been having some trouble, so you may have to fall back to ndiswrapper.

First, let's try the easy way. If you enter the command "jockey", a window should come up about drivers--is there a tickbox for your wireless device? If so, tick it and let the computer do its magic. If not, post back here and we'll do it the other way.

OK, I tried typing 'jockey' in a command window but I get :

bash: jockey: command not found

I then used Synaptic Package manager to search for the Jockey package and it returns 3 results, the first two having greyed tick boxes in front of them :

jockey-common (version 0.3.3-0ubuntu8)
jockey-gtk (version 0.3.3-0ubuntu8)
jockey-kde

So I'm assuming it is installed, I just can't run it from the command line nor can I find it anywhere on the taskbar (sorry Windows lingo).

I think I found jockey under System->Administration->Hardware Drivers.

A window comes up with a window giving the following :

Device Driver:
wl Enabled box is ticked Status is not in use

I think the adapter is recognised but not 'switched on'. The wireless button doesn't do anything and I've checked the BIOS to see if there is any setting in there that will enable the adapter on at bootup but there is nothing.

OK further update

I've installed NDISWrapper and downloaded the relevant windows drivers for my laptop.

I've then used the Wireless Network Manager to try and install the drivers. It tells me the hardware is present but the wireless still does not work and I cannot switch it on via its on/off button.

Under Device Manager there are no linux drivers loaded for this adapter, only for its parent 'PCI Bridge'. I attempted to blacklist the driver for the PCI bridge but that didn't work either.

(My mistake--the command is jockey-gtk. But you found it anyway)

To try with the Linux drivers, I'd suggest unticking and then reticking the box in Hardware drivers. But that driver has apparently been having some trouble.

If you want to use the windows drivers, probably the easiest way is to install "ndisgtk", and use that (it should give you a menu command called something like "Windows wireless drivers" to install the windows drivers.

O.K Thomas I've solved the problem. I used this thread :

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff#Step%201:%20All%20BCM43xx%20-%20Install%20NDISWrapper%20and%20Blacklist%20Native%20Driver

And I've got the wireless up and running. I am still experimenting as the fix is only temporary i.e. it all has to be done by hand at each boot up so I've got to make it permanent.

Thanks for your help :)

Excellent. I notice in step 3 you add ndiswrapper to /etc/modules, which should make it automatically load when the computer is started. You may also need to blacklist the b43 driver, which you can do by adding a line saying "b43" to "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist"