Ubuntu

rt2500 wireless problem on Ubuntu 7.04 Beta

Asked by EvanF

I installed the Ubuntu 7.04 Beta, and would appreciate help solving a problem that is preventing me from connecting to my wireless network.

My wireless card is a Zonet ZEW1501 802.11g PCMCIA card, which uses the rt2500 chipset.

When I click on the networking icon on the right side of the menu bar on the Ubuntu desktop, I can see that some wireless networks have been detected, including my network. However, the signal strength for all networks is not shown (zero, I guess). This is strange since I was right next to my wireless access point, and the signal strength was very high when I tried the same thing on another operating system.

By clicking the radio button for my wireless network, I tried to connect to it, entering the wireless authentication information, but I was never able to connect successfully. I even tried shutting the encryption for my wireless network, but I was still unable to connect.

I have seen suggestions to install ndiswrapper and ndisgtk in the case of problems getting a wireless card to work. I don't know whether that would be appropriate since I can see that my wireless network is being detected (with no signal strength shown), but I cannot connect to it.

Since I am new to Ubuntu and GNU/Linux generally, I would appreciate suggestions on what to investigate or attempt next.

Thank you.

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Sam Cater (wraund-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

I will say that since the BETA release, feisty has had networking trouble straight off.

I will also say that we are working VERY hard to get everything perfect for two days time.

Try installing ndiswrapper and ndisgtk anyway, I doubt it will hurt, and will prove they have no effect on your particular problem

You may also want to make a bug report out of this question, if you haven't already.

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EvanF (efrisch) said : 		#2

I have now installed the release of Ubuntu 7.04, and I am experiencing the same problem that I had with the beta, which is preventing me from accessing my wireless network. I would appreciate any suggestions.

This time, after I was unable to connect to the wireless network as described above, I installed ndiswrapper and ndisgtk. I then used the GUI for installing Windows wireless drivers. I chose the Rt2500.INF that my wireless card's Windows driver had provided. It then installed a folder with files in it inside etc/ndiswrapper. However, the GUI for installing Windows wireless drivers still does not show that any drivers have been installed.

I would appreciate suggestions on how to investigate and resolve this. If there is a command or commands that would provide diagnostic information about this wireless problem, please let me know.

Thank you.

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Best EvanF (efrisch) said : 		#3

I have been able to solve my problem through manual configuration of my wireless settings.

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SlickMcRunfast (ketnay) said : 		#4

Could you please post what manual config changes you did? My friend has the same card in his laptop and had to downgrade to 6.0X to get it working.

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EvanF (efrisch) said : 		#5

SlickMcRunfast,

I unchecked "Enable roaming mode" in "Settings for interface ra0" from Network Settings for the wireless connection, set configuration to Automatic Configuration (DCHP) under Connection settings, and set the DNS server and search domain. That's the extent of what I remember.

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SlickMcRunfast (ketnay) said : 		#6

Thanks for the quick reply.