Very much a newbie :(

[tabbycat529]

Hi. So my boyfriend has been using linux on and off for several months, and has had little to no problems. :roll: However, not so with myself. He recently brought home the ubuntu linux for human beings version 5.04. I finally agreed and started to try it. The only problem he has and I have is that we cannot get our wireless cards to be configured I guess. I will let him try to figure out his on his own...afterall, he does get angry when I am right. :grin: I have a Averatec 3250 laptop and I hardly know a thing about computers. I do know the general stuff, but that is about it. I am hooked up through a router from my parents host computer. I hope that someone will be generous enough to help me. If you need any more information, let me know so I can get helped!!!

Sincerely,
Someone who needs LOTS and LOTS of help!

[nrayever]

u r in the right place to ask for help!!! ubuntuforums!! but maybe on a wrong subforum. give a try in hoary subforums related with hardware. there u may get more help!! try to calm down your boyfriend and use the forums to get help. there's a lot of nice people in this forums which will help u!! it's great to hear that more people is changing to linux and ubuntu. welcome to the community!! :grin: :grin:

[matthew]

Hi, tabby. Welcome.

The previous poster was right. Here is a link to where you want to post.

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=63

Before you do, try to figure out what type of wireless card you have, maybe by going to google and typing the name of your laptop and seeing if you can find the exact name/model etc. Also, I strongly recommend clicking on and reading the first two links in my signature below. They will help you to post in a way that you are very likely to get a quick and helpful response to your question.

I am sure we can get the wireless connection working for you! Again, welcome.

EDIT: wouldn't it be cool if you posted such a clear question that the first person to read it could answer your question perfectly and you got your wireless card working so quickly that your boyfriend begged you to help him... :)

[Apocalypse53]

This is the boyfriend here. Problem isn't that I don't know what I'm doing, the problem is that I'm too lazy to try to fix the Broadcom support gap (I have my system set up with a winXP / Kubuntu dual-boot). We both have virtually the same wireless controller, though she has an Averatec and I have an HP (both laptops). I did a search on the forum for Broadcom and came across a very nice HowTo (didn't check if it was listed in the Horay forum area). Thanks, nrayever, for your quick and helpful reply.

[matthew]

lol. Glad you were able to find what you needed. I hope my feeble attempt at being lighthearted was taken that way. It sounds like the two of you are having a bit of a friendly competition to see who gets the answer first. Have fun.

[tabbycat529]

Thank you for your help/advice matthew. I know that I can be a complete idiot sometimes. It was very helpful for me. Thanks!

[nrayever]

i hope that helped u Apocalypse53. let us know who won the match, ok?? lol

[matthew]

Thank you for your help/advice matthew. I know that I can be a complete idiot sometimes. It was very helpful for me. Thanks!
We all start out feeling that way. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, just trying to help you overcome the "what do I do now and how do I get help" freak out that we all experience at the beginning. Believe me, we all started out as newbies that didn't know anything.

Ignorance isn't something to be ashamed of. Admitting it is the first step to learning and gaining knowledge. The tips in the pages I recommended you look at will help you learn more quickly and get past the "I don't know what I'm doing" phase more easily and with less stress than you might otherwise.

I'm tired. Going to sleep now. Let us know when you get it all working!

[Galoot]

The saying used to be "If you can survive wallpapering a room together, the relationship can last forever," but that was before the computer era. :D

Welcome to Ubuntu and to the forums!

[bjweeks]

Welcome. If you cant get the brodcom cards to work(I gave up on mine) and you feel comfortable with hardware you could replace the mini-pci cards with ones that work with linux.

[Dragonfly_X]

Apocalypse, splendid job on getting you GF involved with the community! I think more blokes should involve their loved ones and lady friends with Linux and the community. We need more diversity in the community... :)

[Apocalypse53]

bjweeks: although that is feasible, shouldn't a PCMCIA card work just as well (although the Linksys B card I have has yet to work)?

Dragonfly_X: I really didn't do anything for her. I work in a PC repair shop, and one of the techs brought about 10 professionally-made Ubuntu CDs. All I really did was show her the UbuntuLive CD and her eyes lit up from there. From the GUI perspective, I'm not sure that I like the version I got her -- I like the K desktop much better -- but down under all those menus and wallpapers beats the same heart. I let her play on my Kubuntu (when I had a 75 foot network cable running through the house, connecting me to the internet) and she seemed to like it just fine, so if I can figure out the wireless problem (which has, by the way, plagued me across RedHat 9 and FC2), I think I can convince her to dump Windows, or at least drop it to something like a 10GB secondary partition.

[tabbycat529]

Haha, I think part of the reason my eyes "lit up" is cause i think the linux penguin is so freaking cute!!!

[poofyhairguy]

bjweeks: although that is feasible, shouldn't a PCMCIA card work just as well (although the Linksys B card I have has yet to work)?

Yep. An old Prism one (the version 3 of the popular Linksys cards) will work fine.




Dragonfly_X: I really didn't do anything for her. I work in a PC repair shop, and one of the techs brought about 10 professionally-made Ubuntu CDs. All I really did was show her the UbuntuLive CD and her eyes lit up from there. From the GUI perspective, I'm not sure that I like the version I got her -- I like the K desktop much better -- but down under all those menus and wallpapers beats the same heart. I let her play on my Kubuntu (when I had a 75 foot network cable running through the house, connecting me to the internet) and she seemed to like it just fine, so if I can figure out the wireless problem (which has, by the way, plagued me across RedHat 9 and FC2), I think I can convince her to dump Windows, or at least drop it to something like a 10GB secondary partition.

Try SUSE. Seriously. I have better luck with it an wireless (plus it has a polished KDE).

[Apocalypse53]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and kindness. We are both going to be without internet for a while, though I'll still have the router to test the wireless. I hope that by the time we get our link back to the internet, we'll both be able to use our wireless connections on Ubuntu. Right now, that's the only thing stopping me from using it for everything but the few games I have.