Ethernet lost after installing 12.04 on Dell Inspiron 6400

[ahallubuntu]

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[varunendra]

Many solutions involve typing terminal commands; one of the criticisms of Linux on the Desktop still is that you have to be an expert with the terminal just to use the operating system. We should strive to get away from that impression.

Must agree with that.

However, I don't see it as a downside. We do need to 'Create' a new impression, but that does not need to take away the CLI ways. While being able to provide GUI ways to do things is great and desirable (and you must agree too that a lot of progress has been made in this area), the terminal is the real power of all Unix-based OSes.

Personally I prefer the terminal commands (while most often there are GUI alternatives) simply because it is short, quick and almost always uniform across various distros. While the GUI ways keep changing dramatically across different DEs and it is difficult (if not impossible) to keep up with all of them.

And as for broadcoms, we can always tell users to open synaptic/USC > search for broadcom > click install (or mark > apply in synaptic). Or, if it is the 'other' variant, download "linux-firmware-nonfree" (a single package with no dependencies) > double-click to install (or do that from USC/synaptic as well).

So both the fixes never really need CLI. It's just the way we prefer just to save a few extra lines and to avoid confusion of different GUIs.

It is good if we get the 'choice' of GUI for everything, but if in the process of trying to become the deceptive and delusional term "User-Friendly", Linux lost its true power, I'd find myself looking for yet another alternative. (I know this was slightly off-track, well..)

I still contend that Broadcom wireless issues on the forums are far more prominent and frustrating for users here than for any other brand of wireless cards. (One of the three "Sticky" threads in this forum is a long thread with various solutions for Broadcom wireless cards.)

..And I wouldn't even try to change your or anyone else's opinion about that. Like I said, different people, different experience.

But maybe the reason why there are no other stickies is only because the developers, us, the mods/admins know 'exactly' what problems are going to arise, and 'exactly' what their solutions will be. Meaning everything is predictable and easy enough to write once and trust that it'll work for everyone.

The lack of stickies about others may instead be an evidence or something 'otherwise'

The length of the stickies is a misleading thing. Most of their parts are just about teaching people the basic terminology, basic sanity check and how to identify their card, rather that actual fix. The actual fix is just as simple as I stated above. There are only three cases -

1. The card will work out-of box (brcmsmac driver will deal with it, no intervention needed)
2. It will need the firmware file (for b43 driver, download > double-click > done)
3. It will need the proprietary wl driver (click "Use this driver" in Additional Driver dialogue > done).

I don't see these fixes needing more than two-three very short posts, IF we strip down the "how to find your way around in Linux" part of the stickies. If we go into complexities, that's where a "General Guide" or manual fails miserably in achieving its goal. So if that makes it confusing and/or frustrating, it is the failure of the guide, not the device or driver itself.

But yes, if a device does not work out-of-box (which is not always as stated above), it IS a problem. You see it as a big one while I don't. I see it as a problem too, but not so big. For me, if I am capable enough to download an ISO and install it on my system, then digging up a fix as easy as this one shouldn't be a thing of least concern if it proves rock-solid afterwards. (oh, maybe I spoke too much about its reliability, I take the term "rock-solid" back, just to be safe.. )

In the last, we'd still be getting issue threads regarding both chips (and others), suggesting more or less the same fixes over and over again, and pulling out our hair in the process until we get completely bald.

I'll shut up now.
Cheers !!