First-time Wi-Fi setup

[James_McAuliffe]

Hi,
I'm completely new to any form of Linux whatsoever and so I've installed Xubuntu, and I can't seem to get the wireless working. I'm using a Belkin Play Wireless USB Adapter.
Following chapter 7 of the documentation tells me:

"If you are connecting to a wireless network for the first time, security details may be needed. If so, a dialog box will open. In most cases, the security type will be detected automatically. If not, select the security type from the Wi-Fi Security drop-down box, enter the authentication details and press Connect."

Yet I can't seem to see a connect button of any sort. Moving on to the troubleshooting section I'm told to click the NetworkManager icon and check "enable wi-fi", but no such option exists either. :S

Wat do?

[JeQhdMD]

Your adapter may not be compatible "out of the box". So, you can go to Belkin's website and see if any drivers offered for Linux . . . OR . . . you can purchase an inexpensive but known compatible adapter.

See this thread for a similar situation and note the last post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2259513

[DuckHook]

...I'm using a Belkin Play Wireless USB Adapter....

Hi James_McAuliffe and welcome to Linux, Xubuntu and the forums.

Please don't double post as it dilutes efforts to help (we helpers end up chasing too many rabbits). If you don't get a response after 24 hrs, just bump the old thread to top of page.

Let's assume the simple things first and only move on to more complex if needed:

Network Manager button should invoke a pull down menu. One entry should read "wired connection 1" (assuming you have a wired Ethernet connection) and another entry should be for wireless, which varies in description, depending on what SSID you've given your wireless network. You have to click on this entry to bring up the connection dialogue.

If nothing but the "wired connection 1" entry is present, then click edit>add and fill in the name of your SSID and your WPA password (you are using WPA, right?). Rest is self-explanatory. Close all dialogues.

If nothing happens post back and we go to second stage.

PS Getting late here and I will be signing off soon. If you don't hear back from me immediately, this will be why.

Your adapter may not be compatible "out of the box"...

Let's not jump to this conclusion too quickly. The referenced thread refers to a known problematic adaptor using the Broadcom chipset. We don't know what chipset is in OP's system. His problem may simply be not knowing how to navigate through the menus, or it may be something more. Even if more, these things can usually be solved by loading the proper Linux module.

@OP

If above doesn't work, please open a terminal, then cut, paste and run the following commands and post results back to this thread:

lsusb

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net

[James_McAuliffe]

Thanks for the response. I have no ethernet (browsing on my Win7 partition), and there was no wireless connection. Filling in the wireless details didn't seem to do anything. I tried the commands, here's the output:

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 050d:615a Belkin Components F7D4101 / F9L1101 802.11abgn Wireless Adapter [Broadcom BCM4323]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:c51a Logitech, Inc. MX Revolution/G7 Cordless Mouse
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:0752 Microsoft Corp. Wired Keyboard 400
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 09)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P8H77-I Motherboard [1043:8505]
Kernel driver in use: r8169

[sandyd]

Please don't double post as it dilutes efforts to help (we helpers end up chasing too many rabbits). If you don't get a response after 24 hrs, just bump the old thread to top of page.

FTR: I have closed other thread

[ajgreeny]

See the sticky thread at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2214110 for problems such as yours with broadcom chipsets.

Come back again if that does not work or you don't understand what it says.

[slickymaster]

Moved to the Networking & Wireless sub-forum

[Rob Sayer]

Your adapter may not be compatible "out of the box". So, you can go to Belkin's website and see if any drivers offered for Linux . . . OR . . . you can purchase an inexpensive but known compatible adapter.

See this thread for a similar situation and note the last post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2259513

After a search I have to agree ... actually I'd go further. Users of older ubuntu releases couldn't even get ndiswapper to work with that adapter.

Ndiswrapper is a last ditch Hail Mary Pass solution. If using windows drivers worked all that well, why wouldn't everyone just do that instead of coming up with open source drivers? If there's anything I know about computer programmers it's that they don't like reinventing the wheel.

I'm afraid my recommendation is getting a wireless adapter that is supported in linux.

[James_McAuliffe]

Okay, I tried running the command lspci -nn -d 14e4: but nothing happened. No error message, no output.

[ajgreeny]

Okay, I tried running the command lspci -nn -d 14e4: but nothing happened. No error message, no output.

If that is exactly how you typed the command it was incorrect, I'm afraid.
You need

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net

Note the | mark which pipes, or sends, the output of lspci -nnk to grep, which itself reports only lines containing -iA2 net

Try again.