Thinking of trying Ubuntu 9.04

AIR-AUSSIE · 11-05-2009 09:24PM

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 · 11-05-2009 09:31PM

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 · 12-05-2009 03:54PM

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 · 12-05-2009 05:25PM

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... · 12-05-2009 07:15PM

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 · 12-05-2009 07:50PM

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 · 12-05-2009 08:01PM

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 · 13-05-2009 12:36AM

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 · 13-05-2009 02:18AM

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 · 13-05-2009 02:51PM

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 · 13-05-2009 03:29PM

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

An Fear Aniar · 13-05-2009 03:35PM

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 · 13-05-2009 06:33PM

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 · 13-05-2009 06:56PM

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 · 13-05-2009 07:36PM

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 · 13-05-2009 09:17PM

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 · 13-05-2009 10:45PM

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 · 14-05-2009 12:34AM

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 · 14-05-2009 12:37AM

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.

.

Thinking of trying Ubuntu 9.04

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