wireless is not working.

[vivalaleah]

I have a Compaq Presario 2200 notebook that I just put Ubuntu 8.10 on yesterday. My wireless isn't working at all on it, and internet is basically the only thing i use my laptop for, and this is extremely frustrating. I've tried several things posted here on the forums, and none of them work. When I click the physical wireless switch on my computer, nothing happens, where a blue light should come on. Wireless is the only thing that isn't working. Video, sound, etc all work without problem.

I don't even know all the specs to my computer any more, because it is super old. Whatever the specs are, they are all default. The only modification I've made to the computer is adding RAM, which brought it up to 750, or somewhere around there. If someone could give me some simple to follow instructions, I'd love it a ton. My computer is pretty much an empty shell to me right now. Oh I have Ubuntu installed on a WD Elements 250 GB External HD. So if that has something to do with it.

[vivalaleah]

My driver even shows up in System>Administration>Hardware Drivers, it just will not activate.

[acmariner99]

What wireless card do you have and do you have a hardwire connection.

[Idefix82]

Let's start by finding out what wireless card you have. Please open the terminal and type in

lshw -C network

and post the output here.

[vivalaleah]

According to the Hardware Drivers list on Ubuntu, it is a Broadcom B43 driver. And no, it is completely wireless. Our router is a LinkSys of some variety.

[acmariner99]

input sudo modprobe b43 in a terminal, then sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

if this does not work you need to install the app fwcutter

[vivalaleah]

Let's start by finding out what wireless card you have. Please open the terminal and type in

lshw -C network

and post the output here.

I'm typing this from my laptop screen. Since I can't copy/paste right now.

*-network:0
     description: Ethernet interface
     product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
     vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
     physical id: 0
     bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
     logical name: eth0
     version: 10
     serial: 00:c0:9f:60:7c:55
     width: 32 bits
     clock: 33MHz
     capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
     configuration: broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 latency=64 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=8139too multicast=yes

*-network:1
     description: Network controller
     product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
     vendor: Broadcom Corporation
     physical id: 6
     bus info: pci@0000:02.06.0
     version: 03
     width: 32 bits
     clock: 33MHz
     capabilites: bus_master
     configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64 module=ssb

*-network:0 DISABLED
     description: Wireless interface
     physical id: 2
     logical name: wlan0
     serial: 00:90:4b:9c:f0:83
     capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
     configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

*-network:1 DISABLED
     description: Ethernet interface
     physical id: 3
     logical name: pan0
     serial: 06:99:d5:31:51:d5
     capabilities: ethernet physical
     configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes

[vivalaleah]

input sudo modprobe b43 in a terminal, then sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

if this does not work you need to install the app fwcutter

Tried both, when installing b43-fwcutter, I get this

E: b43-fwcutter: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Idefix82]

Thank you. One more thing: can you post the output of

lspci | grep BCM

[acmariner99]

try sudo aptitude install b43-fwcutter, then the restart command, then load the b43 module with the modprobe and restart command above. (You may need a hardwire connection to install the application) There is an extensive thread on b43, but I cannot find it. I used it to get my wireless up and running and it worked perfectly, until it stopped working this morning.