Thinking of trying Ubuntu 9.04

AIR-AUSSIE

I have a laptop with only Win2000 - 1Ghz Intel, 512mb memory.

I'm trying to get some extra speed out of it and try linux. Will Ubuntu improve its speed on start up firefox etc?

Also I have a wireless logitech laser mouse which uses a bluetooth dongle and a logitech wireless keyboard which I connect to the laptop using a bluetooth adapter.

I understand that ubuntu is apparently good at recognising different hardware and drivers, will it be able to recognise and use these? Will it take some program writing to get to work or anything?

Also would it be benficial to install it using virtual desktop and keep win2000?

Orion

Don't know about bluetooth but I believe it will work - haven't tried it myself.

That's a fairly old laptop tho - I'd be tempted to go with a low-spec-targetted distribution like PuppyLinux or DamnSmallLimux on that one. Ubuntu might be a bit heavy for it. You could try Xubuntu tho - XFCE has a lower footprint than Gnome (default desktop for Ubuntu).

Dartz

Try it as a live CD first. That'll tell you, and save you the bother of installing if it doesnt. Also try Xubuntu.... which is the same but with a lightweight window manager, that'll do well on your laptop

Johnboy1951

Also would it be benficial to install it using virtual desktop and keep win2000?

You do not have sufficient memory to give a good experience with two operating systems running, so I would say not a great idea.

Check DistroWatch listings for "lightweight" distros. Puppy would fly on that rig ..... but it is a little 'odd'. Nonetheless it would work well I expect.

ynotdu

You could try wubi,search for it on download.com.

It installs ubuntu as a programme on windows(700MB)

no partition needed(it will suggest 6gb as comfortable on your hard-drive,i gave it 8)only problem i have is i cannot configure wireless on it but only installed it two days ago and if i cannot get it working on wireless can get free tech support from my isp)works fine with ethernet connection.

The beauty of it is gives the whole ubuntu experiance and if you dont like it ya can just remove it by windows add/remove.

once installed when you boot-up your computer it goes to windows OS unless you use arrow down to boot to ubuntu.

one minor thing at set-up(only took me 40 mins from start of installation to having it fully installed)you enter a user name and a password.
when you boot to ubuntu after entering username you then press enter,
same with password,it really is that easy to try out linux based OS and is just simply downloading a file like any other.

Khannie

I'd also recommend xubuntu. Try the livecd first. I'm running it here on a relatively low end laptop. Even with a fair few apps running it's only using 330MB of ram. Bluetooth worked out of the box for me (though I don't use it).

syklops

If I were you I would ditch the idea of using a virtual implementation of linux, while on a Win2k machine, With a higher spec machine - ok, but with what you have I would say no.

Many here have said try a Live CD, I would recommend that first. Also, I am not sure if I would try the latest version of Ubuntu. I was not mad about 8.10 either. Too many things i had to fix after install. If I were you, and bearing in mind you have an older laptop, I would try a live CD of 8.04, and if you like it, install it on your harddrive. You will have less memory going to your VM, and more memory for Linux.

Also remember that the Ubuntu installer will see that you have a windows install and allow you to continue using it.

AIR-AUSSIE

Khannie wrote: »

I'd also recommend xubuntu. Try the livecd first. I'm running it here on a relatively low end laptop. Even with a fair few apps running it's only using 330MB of ram. Bluetooth worked out of the box for me (though I don't use it).

OK I'll try Xubuntu. It is straightforward to setup a wireless internet connection with it though?

My main question is will it be worth it trying Xubuntu? Will I get a decent improvement in speed of startup and using firefox?

Dartz

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

OK I'll try Xubuntu. It is straightforward to setup a wireless internet connection with it though?

My main question is will it be worth it trying Xubuntu? Will I get a decent improvement in speed of startup and using firefox?

Wireless can be a bit of a gamble, but the older the hardware, the more likely it will work. 9/10 it does.

Speedwise, it will boot faster than Windows, espcially since you're not loading an AV, or any bloatware.

Khannie

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

OK I'll try Xubuntu. It is straightforward to setup a wireless internet connection with it though?

I didn't have to do anything. I just turned on my wireless card, it scanned for networks. I picked mine and stuck in my password. Here's a screenshot of the network manager.

You'd just select "my network" and it'll ask for your password.

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

My main question is will it be worth it trying Xubuntu? Will I get a decent improvement in speed of startup and using firefox?

Yes and yes (both IMO).

AIR-AUSSIE

Dartz wrote: »

Wireless can be a bit of a gamble, but the older the hardware, the more likely it will work. 9/10 it does.

Speedwise, it will boot faster than Windows, espcially since you're not loading an AV, or any bloatware.

Right so i've downloaded the zip file, all I do is unzip it and rip the image onto a CD? Pop the CD in the drive on startup and I can choose to run it or install it?

velocirafter

From experience I wouldnt recommend going with a virtual machine, not for any technical reason I just found that I kept using windows because I knew my way around it better. I put no effort into trying to get linux working and eventually stop using it all together.

When I switched completely to linux, most everything worked straight away, I had all the major issues sorted with a couple of hours work and after a couple of months I was comfortable doing most things.

The best thing you can do is google searches and using the ubuntu forums because there is always someone else who has had the same problem and you usually get it solved quicker than waiting for a microsoft patch.

AIR-AUSSIE

velocirafter wrote: »

From experience I wouldnt recommend going with a virtual machine, not for any technical reason I just found that I kept using windows because I knew my way around it better. I put no effort into trying to get linux working and eventually stop using it all together.

When I switched completely to linux, most everything worked straight away, I had all the major issues sorted with a couple of hours work and after a couple of months I was comfortable doing most things.

The best thing you can do is google searches and using the ubuntu forums because there is always someone else who has had the same problem and you usually get it solved quicker than waiting for a microsoft patch.

Yea me using a virtual machine was more of a thought den a serious consideration.

If I was to change to Xubuntu what media player would I use?

ynotdu

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Yea me using a virtual machine was more of a thought den a serious consideration.

If I was to change to Xubuntu what media player would I use?

A lot highly recommend VLC media player it has a very plain look but plays virtually every video file format known and no need to go searching for codecs.

Dartz

Seconded for VLC. Also look at Rhythmbox for music. VLc is better suited to movies and such. Just be aware that by default Ubuntu distro's don't include multimedia codecs, you have to install these manually yourself.

This is easy enough to do.
Just open a Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

It's ask for your login password, which you type in. It won't appear on screen (this threw me a bit when I started lol). Then it'll go away and install those codecs for you, along with other useful things like Flash and Java for Firefox.

Installing vlc is the same,

sudo apt-get install vlc...

Always remember, if you have problems, Google is your friend.
99/100 your answer is there, somewhere. If you have a problem, chances are somebody else has had the same one and solved it.

<problem> <distro> <version> <computer>

That'll usually get you the information you need.

AIR-AUSSIE

Dartz wrote: »

Seconded for VLC. Also look at Rhythmbox for music. VLc is better suited to movies and such. Just be aware that by default Ubuntu distro's don't include multimedia codecs, you have to install these manually yourself.

This is easy enough to do.
Just open a Terminal and type:

It's ask for your login password, which you type in. It won't appear on screen (this threw me a bit when I started lol). Then it'll go away and install those codecs for you, along with other useful things like Flash and Java for Firefox.

Installing vlc is the same,

sudo apt-get install vlc...

Always remember, if you have problems, Google is your friend.
99/100 your answer is there, somewhere. If you have a problem, chances are somebody else has had the same one and solved it.

<problem> <distro> <version> <computer>

That'll usually get you the information you need.

Cool thanks for the help.

So I've downloaded Xubuntu & Puppy, will I just try both out for myself or will this take too long? Which one would be more user friendly? More useful?

Dartz

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Cool thanks for the help.

So I've downloaded Xubuntu & Puppy, will I just try both out for myself or will this take too long? Which one would be more user friendly? More useful?

Xubuntu by far.

Puppy is really for people with either very low-end hardware, or who are very mobile with it.

I have Xubuntu 9.04 working on a 600mhz pentium, with 192Meg of RAM. It'll run quite happily on your laptop, and be much more convenient to use

An Fear Aniar

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Right so i've downloaded the zip file, all I do is unzip it and rip the image onto a CD? Pop the CD in the drive on startup and I can choose to run it or install it?

Dunno why is it a .zip file? You should have a .iso file which is a CD image file: like this one here:

http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/jaunty/release/xubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

.

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Dunno why is it a .zip file? You should have a .iso file which is a CD image file: like this one here:

http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/jaunty/release/xubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

.

Sorry it is a iso file, but WinRAR is my default program to open it. Do I just burn this file to a CD?

bushy...

When WinRAR was installed , it usually makes itself the default program to open .iso files for the craic.

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download will burn it for you .

AIR-AUSSIE

bushy... wrote: »

When WinRAR was installed , it usually makes itself the default program to open .iso files for the craic.

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download will burn it for you .

Think I'll just use wubi. probably a stupid question but can I use Wubi to uninstall windows? Or do I need to do that using a Xubuntu CD?

bushy...

It'd be better to make an install cd , if it fails halfway through ( possible given Ubuntus legendary "quality control" ) you may be left high and dry.

An Fear Aniar

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Sorry it is a iso file, but WinRAR is my default program to open it. Do I just burn this file to a CD?

Yeah, browse to the .iso file and burn it to CD as an image.


.

ynotdu

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Think I'll just use wubi. probably a stupid question but can I use Wubi to uninstall windows? Or do I need to do that using a Xubuntu CD?

AIR AUSSIE hi!

Trying wubi as a first resort can do no harm,as i said it gives you the UBUNTU experiance whilst no need for to create a partition.wubi will install it to windows as a programme you can boot to at start-up or chose your windows operating system instead(like one arrow down press to get the Linux experiance)It will not delete your windows operating system,but if You end up preferring Ubuntu You can overwrite the partition containing windows with an UBUNTU installation cd,its like taking Linux/ubuntu for a test drive!

There are posters here who know much more than me,but like anything somebody is expert at sometimes computer terms they assume are common knowledge leaves a newbie scratching their heads.:)

try wubi if *Live cds*or iso etc etc is something you dont fully understand.


good luck

Hydrosylator

If you are using Ubuntu or Xubuntu, I wouldn't use 9.0 or Jaunty Jackalope, just yet.

I'm still on Hardy Heron (8.something) and it works fine. It's often best to wait for the dust to settle, on any new version of an OS including Linux, before installing.

I had a disaster when I upgraded to Gutsy Gibbon, and didn't use Linux again for about nine months.

I'm all about it these days though. I'm a web developer and it's got loads of handy software and does things a lot quicker than XP.

I still use XP for Photoshop and Skype. (64-bit Ubuntu doesn't have a Skype, but 32-bit does).
You can run Photoshop in Wine, but I wouldn't bother, the program is severely retarded in Wine. If you want to do something with an image and it's not worth booting into Windows, just use the Gimp.

AIR-AUSSIE

hey

Was trying wubi and I also made a image CD. I've two questions:

1) I want to stop using the wubi version of the Xubuntu, do i have to uninstall this? Or is this automatically uninstalled after it is finished?

2) I don't think Xubuntu has the driver for my wireless internet card. What would be the best way to find this? Google? I tried downloading something which i thought was the driver but I could not get Xubuntu to recognise it.

An Fear Aniar

In Xubuntu, run

lshw -C network

In the product line, you will see the name of your wireless card. Google for this along with the word "ubuntuforums". This is the quickest way to see if other ubunteros have got your wireless card working.


.

AIR-AUSSIE

Khannie wrote: »

I didn't have to do anything. I just turned on my wireless card, it scanned for networks. I picked mine and stuck in my password. Here's a screenshot of the network manager.

You'd just select "my network" and it'll ask for your password.






Yes and yes (both IMO).

Hi I don't seem to have the VPN option in that menu. And when I go into edit connections and the VPN tab I cannot click on the option to add a VPN..

What should i do to get this working?

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

In Xubuntu, run

lshw -C network

In the product line, you will see the name of your wireless card. Google for this along with the word "ubuntuforums". This is the quickest way to see if other ubunteros have got your wireless card working.


.

I've been reading some posts on the issue, except to be honest what they're talking about goes over my head... I dont really know my way around the 'run terminal' tto start doing what they are outlining..

Dartz

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

I've been reading some posts on the issue, except to be honest what they're talking about goes over my head... I dont really know my way around the 'run terminal' tto start doing what they are outlining..

Might help if you told us what they were telling you to do or what model card you have?

I'm annoyed because I did the same thing with my other laptop about a month ago, and forgot just how I went about doing it. In that case though, I had a specific error code for the wireless failing. If only I could remember what it was... goddammit

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/67649

Have a look at this thread.


It should be easy enough once you figure out the model of your Wireless card though.

lspci -v

An Fear Aniar

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

I've been reading some posts on the issue, except to be honest what they're talking about goes over my head... I dont really know my way around the 'run terminal' tto start doing what they are outlining..

I know it looks a little scary, I've been there (just last year). You don't have to understand it, just follow instructions and copy and paste command into the terminal. In Linux, the terminal really is your friend - it can do a whole lot of things with a few simple commands.

The command I asked you to run is simply to ask the terminal to display your network hardware - it's like going into the Device Manager in Windows. So please, run the command, and copy and paste what you get into your next reply. Then we can start helping you get your wireless up and running.

You can find the terminal in Applications/Accessories in your menu. Just copy and paste the command and press return.

We'll help you as much as we can.:)
.

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

I know it looks a little scary, I've been there (just last year). You don't have to understand it, just follow instructions and copy and paste command into the terminal. In Linux, the terminal really is your friend - it can do a whole lot of things with a few simple commands.

The command I asked you to run is simply to ask the terminal to display your network hardware - it's like going into the Device Manager in Windows. So please, run the command, and copy and paste what you get into your next reply. Then we can start helping you get your wireless up and running.

You can find the terminal in Applications/Accessories in your menu. Just copy and paste the command and press return.

We'll help you as much as we can.:)
.

I'm not scared of it, its more that when I try something it doesnt work. Think Ill wait until I have access to a wired connection as it will be easier to show ye what im doing.Thanks for the help anyway.

ynotdu

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

I've been reading some posts on the issue, except to be honest what they're talking about goes over my head... I dont really know my way around the 'run terminal' tto start doing what they are outlining..

Hi AIR,

at the risk of repeating myself: wubi installs ubuntu not xubuntu.

I did not get the image as shown on how to connect to a wireles network as shown in the diagram either.
Yes I could connect by ethernet but UBUNTU seemed to generate its own wep/wpa key despite the fact that i entered my correct wpa for my eircom connection.

the latest routers by eircom have a much higher level of security(since a guy showed how easy it was to crack wep).You may not be with eircom but i guess other isp,s increased their encryption level too.

a previous poster did warn that your wireless might not work.

They are ALL based on Linux/unix Operating Systems(OS)UBUNTU,XBUNTU,Puppy etc

The real experts here have an understanding of DOS(where every command had to be typed)

why get ahead of yourself and lose interest in open source through frustration?

journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step:)

I know wikipedia is not perfect but since you are so interested in open source why not search it for any terms ya dont understand?(try ISO&its many links)
Posters here often can not give the time needed to go in to long detail.

Hope you keep your interest alive by small victorys of learning stuff!
Nobody has ALL the answers.

Enjoy&good luck!

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

In Xubuntu, run

lshw -C network

In the product line, you will see the name of your wireless card. Google for this along with the word "ubuntuforums". This is the quickest way to see if other ubunteros have got your wireless card working.


.

Here is what came up when i typed lshw -C network
________________________________________________________________

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:0f:1f:a2:1e:20
width: 64 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.94 firmware=5705-v3.16 latency=32 mingnt=64 module=tg3 multicast=yes
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:02:03.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=32 module=ssb
*-network:0 DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:90:96:ac:6f:9f
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
*-network:1 DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 3
logical name: pan0
serial: 6e:33:20:5a:f3:d5
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$
________________________________________________________________

Does this mean my wireless is disabled?

I also tried installing the driver for this from http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/utils/bcm43xx-fwcutter

but xubuntu said it was already installed.

The person at this link seems to have had a similar problem to me:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-950600.html

And here also:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-laptop-and-netbook-25/dell-latitude-d600-brodcom-wireless-problem-help-550488/

I just beginning to read these posts. I will keep you updated.

Dartz

Odd.

It could be disabled in BIOS, switched off (I've done this, and spend 3 hours troubleshooting :P) or outright broken. Hardware failure?

btw, run that as administrator/super-user. It might give you more information. See the warning?

sudo lshw -C network

bushy...

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

I'm not scared of it, its more that when I try something it doesnt work. Think Ill wait until I have access to a wired connection as it will be easier to show ye what im doing.Thanks for the help anyway.

The rant below gives a bit of background info that might make explain why wireless can be painful , apologies if you know already. Also its not accurate , but close enough for me and not worth getting excited over unless you have issues . Sorry for the long ranty nature of it in advance too - it will need serious tidying up/deletion


Some wireless cards can be a bit of a problem under Linux because the manufacturers did not release a linux driver for them .

Why ?

Because some cards have the capability to go way outside the frequency band they should be using. The manufacturers got worried they may be held responsible ( esp in the USA ) .
This isn't much of a problem in Windows , the software would just restrict it to where it belongs and you can't (normally ) get the source code to modify the driver easily .
Linuxy type stuff is usually open-source so it would be much easier to make the wireless card work on frequencies it shouldn't be on.


Different approaches to whole situation were applied by different groups.

Some manufacturers ( Broadcom being one I think) just didn't bother providing a driver or any help how to write one - you can see their point , just not worth the potential hassle. So a few lads wrote a "wrapper " that used the windows driver in linux. Happy (enough) days.

Some others ( Atheros ) put a lad on the case and he organised providing a program ( without source code ) that would sit between the card and the driver the linux lads came up with .
He described how to interface to "his" program , and "his" program would pass on the instructions to the wireless card IF they were within the limits.
It was a good compromise, everyone was 90% happy - except those few that were a bit * butthurt because they didn't get the source code and cried into their forums.


*butthurt - need a more suitable word to describe that type of posting in a forum that isn't as insulting etc.
Example of butthurt posting :

http://tinyurl.com/o2puuy
http://tinyurl.com/qqb4zr
http://tinyurl.com/o2aecz

AIR-AUSSIE

Dartz wrote: »

Odd.

It could be disabled in BIOS, switched off (I've done this, and spend 3 hours troubleshooting :P) or outright broken. Hardware failure?

btw, run that as administrator/super-user. It might give you more information. See the warning?

sudo lshw -C network

Cool thanks. It shouldn't be a hardware failure. As I am using the same laptop now with windows 2000 without changing the BIOS.

AIR-AUSSIE

ynotdu wrote: »

Hi AIR,

at the risk of repeating myself: wubi installs ubuntu not xubuntu.

why get ahead of yourself and lose interest in open source through frustration?

Well the wubi I downloaded gave me the option of what I wanted to 'liveCD' when I ran it. Here is the link
http://download.cnet.com/Wubi/3000-2094_4-10701841.html?tag=mncol
- you can try Ubuntu Kubuntu & Xubuntu.

But I'm now using a CD I burned with Xubuntu 9.04 onto a CD.

I don't think trying to get wireless internet working is getting ahead of myself, I find it a bit of a basic necessity for a OS.

An Fear Aniar

It says the driver is already installed but perhaps it's not loading on startup so post the result of

dmesg|grep b43

l
This might give us some clues....


....however, looks like there's a big wireless phail with 9.04 - lots of people reporting problems with the Broadcom 43xx wireless drivers:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1134787

But the guy on this thread got his working after enabling wireless in the BIOS - so worth a try.

Perhaps try the method here, with ndisgtk

https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/internet/C/troubleshooting-wireless.html#troubleshooting-wireless-ndiswrapper


Another option... you could roll back to 8.10, see how that works.

.

ynotdu

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Well the wubi I downloaded gave me the option of what I wanted to 'liveCD' when I ran it. Here is the link
http://download.cnet.com/Wubi/3000-2094_4-10701841.html?tag=mncol
- you can try Ubuntu Kubuntu & Xubuntu.

But I'm now using a CD I burned with Xubuntu 9.04 onto a CD.

I don't think trying to get wireless internet working is getting ahead of myself, I find it a bit of a basic necessity for a OS.

I've been reading some posts on the issue, except to be honest what they're talking about goes over my head...(copied&pasted from AIR AUSSIE)
Sorry if You feel patronised,but when it suited you your quotes often indicated You are a newbie and people threw in anything they thought might be of help to You.


Sorry for trying in my limited knowledge way to have been someone that was trying to be helpful.

Hey good luck with your wireless:pac:

A better computer is proably more important than Your OS.

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

It says the driver is already installed but perhaps it's not loading on startup so post the result of

dmesg|grep b43

l
This might give us some clues....



.

Just to clarify is that a l (L) you've written in that code?

velocirafter

i think its the straight vertical line, its shift \. it creates a pipe

An Fear Aniar

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Just to clarify is that a l (L) you've written in that code?

It's called a "pipe" and it's the thing above the \ on your keyboard. You can just copy and paste the commands from here into the terminal, no need to type anything.

.

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

It's called a "pipe" and it's the thing above the \ on your keyboard. You can just copy and paste the commands from here into the terminal, no need to type anything.

.

I could if I had a Lan or wireless working. I have to reboot into Xubuntu or use another computer.

AIR-AUSSIE

sudo lshw -C network

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:0f:1f:a2:1e:20
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.94 firmware=5705-v3.16 latency=32 link=no mingnt=64 module=tg3 multicast=yes port=twisted pair
*-network:1
description: Network controller
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:02:03.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=32 module=ssb
*-network:0 DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:90:96:ac:6f:9f
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
*-network:1 DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 3
logical name: pan0
serial: 9e:c1:8a:ba:77:e8
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$

dmesg|grep b43

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ dmesg|grep b43
[ 3.935334] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
[ 61.637951] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
[ 83.509360] input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input11
[ 83.556061] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 84.014165] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 84.014172] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[ 84.038155] input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input12
[ 84.068283] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 84.070888] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 84.070895] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$

OK so as far as I can see I need to extract the Broadcom 'firmware' from the Broadcom driver using b43-fwcutter as described at this link - http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware.

How do I find which b43 my wireless card needs?

Is this the method I should use?

You are using the deprecated bcm43xx driver

If you are using the old deprecated bcm43xx driver, follow these instructions.

Use version 006 of bcm43xx-fwcutter.
Download, extract the bcm43xx-fwcutter tarball and build it:

wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2
tar xjf bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2
cd bcm43xx-fwcutter-006
make
cd ..

AIR-AUSSIE

I think I've carried out the procedure below. Is there a way to see if it worked correctly?

Use version 006 of bcm43xx-fwcutter.
Download, extract the bcm43xx-fwcutter tarball and build it:

wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/bcm43x...er-006.tar.bz2
tar xjf bcm43xx-fwcutter-006.tar.bz2
cd bcm43xx-fwcutter-006
make
cd ..

Dartz

If your wireless is working... you did it properly. :P

Check to see if it's enabled/disabled, same way as before.

An Fear Aniar

Hey, just looking at that instruction page, it looks like all you need to do is this:

in latest versions of Ubuntu (all flavors) and Debian just need to install the b43-fwcutter package:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

when you are asked "Fetch and install firmware?" answer "Yes" (just press "Enter)

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

Can you not plug in a wired internet connection and do it that way?

.

AIR-AUSSIE

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Hey, just looking at that instruction page, it looks like all you need to do is this:



http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware

Can you not plug in a wired internet connection and do it that way?

.

Yea think I'll hav to. Its too much of a pain doing it the other way.

An Fear Aniar

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Yea think I'll hav to. Its too much of a pain doing it the other way.

Definitely, much easier if you have internet.

.