Atheros AR5008/Gigabyte GN-WI06N-RH driver install problems, Dell Mini, Kubuntu 8.1

[NoobBiscUiT]

Bump W/ edit on first post.

help please

[frone]

Next time you are in your BIOS to double-check that wireless setting, can you check the PCI slot to see if it reports the card being installed by name/model#?

[NoobBiscUiT]

i can try,

i am in it right now and i'm not seeing anything about advanced slot information/options.

i toggled every setting under bios, like wlan control and slot enabling.

hopefully that will help recognize the card...?

any other ideas??

[frone]

Just trying to help narrow the scope of your problem. Haven't worked on the new Mini, but just about every other recent Dell laptop seems to actually list the model number of the card installed in the miniPCI slot from the BIOS/setup. If yours does, you can rule out your card/laptop incompatibility concerns...

[NoobBiscUiT]

I recently RE-Installed XP on the machine and then installed the absolutely correct drivers for the card, updated and everything and the computer still cant find the Gigabyte card.

if i cant find the card in xp after doing all this work, i don't think i am going to find it at all.

[frone]

Agreed. If you have a spare or can borrow a friend's, you might want to swap out the card and see if it appears in the BIOS. Alternatively, you could pop your card in another laptop and see if it is still not recognised...

[NoobBiscUiT]

yeah, i put the card in a friend's eee1000HD and it worked / was recognized with no problem.

this tells me that its not the card,

when i put it in my laptop nothing happens.. at all.

dell support (through chat) has told me numerous times that they have no black/white listing of any cards in their Inspiron 910 mini.

i have tried installing madwifi in ubuntu 8.1, kubuntu 8.1, OpenSuse (newest) and nothing happens.. was recognized.

i tried multiple methods of installation in both XP and linux variations w/ nothing happening.

the BCM4312 works in the card fine though... so either somebody is lying or there is a small piece of information that i don't know that i need to.. to get this working.

my original intention was to get this thing working w/ backtrack but that wont work unless the actual computer recognizes the card.

this guy got it working somehow but is no help to me.. (http://mini.9mods.com/index.php?topic=14.0

to be continued i guess, or im switching to a EEEpc


any ideas gladly accepted

[frone]

That certainly helps. No reason to try anything under any OS until you can get the laptop to see the card. First steps - Do you have the latest BIOS revision on the laptop? Is there any chance the card is not seeded properly in the slot? Do you have another card that we can try in the slot (just to rule out the slot as being faulty itself)?

[NoobBiscUiT]

Ya i just upgraded the bios.

in the (old) bios i cannot see any application or information about any system info related to the card.

The card is keyed so it really only goes in one way.

The Stock BCM4312 works fine w ubuntu and XP, but it doesn't support packet injection or monitor mode so its basically worthless, which is why i purchased the Gigabyte card.

I talked to dell for 3 hours yesterday w/ no solution to the problem ..

i quoted a support technician saying "well what do you expect us to do"

i was forwarded around to 14 different people, and none of them were able to do anything, even their "senior hardware technician" and their "dell mini inspiron 910 professional panel".


i am still talking to the manufacturer, but all they can really tell me is that "install drivers and it SHOULD work" and it doesn't so there's really not much they can do, bucause it sounds like a problem w/ my computer. it's not the card cuz it works fine in other laptops, and evidently its not my actual laptop because the stock BCM4312 works fine in that cardslot (mini pci) on the motherboard.

As of right now, i have no idea.. this is just crazy.
i just want stuff to work and that's it

[frone]

I want to say 'get another card', but it worked in a friend's machine. I want to say it's incompatible with the 910, but I've seen some threads with people accomplishing this (and your posts in them). I want to say it's the mini-pci slot, but the original worked. The BIOS is up to date, and you have checked all of your BIOS's wireless settings.

you have done everything you can - at this point it might be time to look into another card that supports packet injection or ask for a replacement ar5008. Just doesn't make sense to me...