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Thread: [SOLVED] Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    187

    Unhappy [SOLVED] Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    I've tried all the advice I can find on this forum, including using ndiswrapper to install a fresh driver for the wireless card and editing the network interfaces file, but the wireless connection just won't work (I'm using a wired connection now). I'm a noob (cf. my user name!) and am at wit's end. Any help from those more experienced much appreciated.

    Thanks. Details:

    The command ~$ sudo lshw -C network gives the following (note the "Network DISABLED" statement near the end):

    *-network
    description: Network controller
    product: BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
    version: 01
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
    configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0 module=ssb
    *-network
    description: Ethernet interface
    product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
    logical name: eth0
    version: 02
    serial: 00:19:b9:5a:d3:cb
    size: 100MB/s
    capacity: 100MB/s
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
    configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.4 latency=64 link=yes module=ssb multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
    *-network DISABLED
    description: Wireless interface
    physical id: 2
    logical name: wlan0
    serial: 00:19:7d:8c:9b:73
    capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
    configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

    ifconfig gives me (keeping in mind that I'm wired in):

    eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:b9:5a:d3:cb
    inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
    inet6 addr: fe80::219:b9ff:fe5a:d3cb/64 Scope:Link
    UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    RX packets:1244 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:1274 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
    RX bytes:1106140 (1.0 MB) TX bytes:260689 (254.5 KB)
    Interrupt:22

    lo Link encap:Local Loopback
    inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
    inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
    UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
    RX packets:1674 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:1674 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
    RX bytes:83700 (81.7 KB) TX bytes:83700 (81.7 KB)

    And the network interfaces file reads as follows:

    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    iface eth0 inet dhcp

    auto eth0

  2. #2
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    Exclamation Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    OK, found a possible clue. I went back to the live CD, and it identified a missing piece of firmware, which I installed. Then, voila! I had wireless networking--all the nearby networks were visible, and I was able to log onto mine and access the Internet, use Firefox, etc.

    However, when I removed the live CD and rebooted from the hard drive, I was back to the same non-wireless status (also, oddly, my sound stopped working, and again, it was fine with the Live CD).

    Would a reinstall from the live CD be indicated? If so, will I be able to save my Windows partition (which I still need for some purposes)?

    Thanks.

  3. #3
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    187

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Anyone?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
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    57

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Use sypnatic to remove Network Manager (including the gnome counterpart) and wicd.

    Try these commands at the terminal & post the output here

    Code:
    dmesg | grep ndiswrapper
    ndiswrapper -l
    Code:
    dmesg | grep wlan
    cat /var/log/messages | grep wlan
    Code:
    ifconfig
    cat /etc/network/interfaces
    Code:
    iwlist wlan0 scan
    iwconfig wlan0
    Are you trying to connect to an encrypted wireless network? Is it WEP or WPA?

  5. #5
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    187

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Thanks for the reply. Yes, the network is encrypted with WEP, but I don't think that's the issue. First, when I connect with a cable, the encryption isn't a problem. Second, I turned the encryption completely off and still had the same problem.

    Here are the answers to the terminal commands--any clues?

    :~$ dmesg | grep ndiswrapper
    :~$ ndiswrapper -l
    bcmwl5 : driver installed
    device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

    ~$ ifconfig
    eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:b9:5a:d3:cb
    UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
    RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
    Interrupt:22

    eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:b9:5a:d3:cb
    inet addr:169.254.9.221 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
    UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    Interrupt:22

    lo Link encap:Local Loopback
    inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
    inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
    UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
    RX packets:1130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:1130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
    RX bytes:56652 (55.3 KB) TX bytes:56652 (55.3 KB)

    $ cat /etc/network/interfaces
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    iface eth0 inet dhcp

    auto eth0

    stephen@stephen-laptop:~$ iwlist wlan0 scan
    wlan0 No scan results

    ~$ iwconfig wlan0
    wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
    Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
    Tx-Power=0 dBm
    Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2346 B
    Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
    Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
    Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

  6. #6
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    Distro
    Kubuntu Development Release

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Can you also post your lshw -C network? The information you posted in your earlier post should now be different since you have installed NDISwrapper.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
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    57

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Your wireless adapter is not picking up any wireless network at all.

    Please run each of these commands at the terminal & post the output here
    Code:
    dmesg | grep ndiswrapper
    Code:
    dmesg | grep wlan
    Code:
    cat /var/log/messages | grep wlan
    Code:
    uname -mar

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    187

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Thanks.

    Here is the result of lshw -C network:

    *-network
    description: Network controller
    product: BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
    version: 01
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: bus_master cap_list
    configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0 module=ssb
    *-network
    description: Ethernet interface
    product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
    logical name: eth0
    version: 02
    serial: 00:19:b9:5a:d3:cb
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
    configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 ip=192.168.1.5 latency=64 module=ssb multicast=yes
    *-network DISABLED
    description: Wireless interface
    physical id: 2
    logical name: wlan0
    serial: 00:19:7d:8c:9b:73
    capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
    configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

    Still showing network as DISABLED. (The card is ENABLED in the BIOS, I already checked that).

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    187

    Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    The output of the set of commands from Popkipoki08 is:

    Linux stephen-laptop 2.6.24-19-386 #1 Wed Jun 4 15:54:02 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

  10. #10
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    Nov 2005
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    Solved-Re: Need help with wireless on Dell Inspiron 1505

    Solved, kind of. All my playing around hosed my Windows partition (luckily everything is backed up), so I just reinstalled Ubuntu on the entire disk. I then reinstalled b43-fwcutter, which was the firmware the Live CD identified, and voila, my wireless network appeared.

    I'm finding the computer to be clean, quick, and fast, which is great. If I decide to reinstall Windows, I may do so via Parallels or a similar solution.

    Thanks to everyone who responded.

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