finding wifi

ghostly61 · 03-11-2012, 07:58 PM

first of all i know nothing about all this stuff. and i've had other people look at this computer, and no luck. i can hard wire it and can get internet but i don't seem to have wifi...and if i download something fr wifi i click on it after download but it don't open.....i'm totally lost.. i've had this eee pc 701sd fr about 4 yrs, i'll give up and try again.....there's got to be an answer.....please help......

frankbell · 03-11-2012, 08:04 PM

I'm a little puzzled. If you don't seem to have wi-fi, how can you download something over wi-fi?

That aside, try running the command lspci in a terminal. The output should list your wireless chipset, if you do indeed have a wireless card.

Post the relevant output here, making sure to enclose it in "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the Quick Reply window" (the code tags make it easier to read the content).

ghostly61 · 03-11-2012, 09:23 PM

so sorry.i have internet if im hooked up to the router...i just dont have wireless wifi...i hope i explained that right. but i will try what you posted..thanks.

ghostly61 · 03-11-2012, 09:29 PM

ok s i tried lspci and a lot f stuff came up so what d i do with that?

frankbell · 03-12-2012, 08:19 PM

I can understand.

Here is the output of lspci on one of my laptops. I have highlighted the part that applies to the ethernet adapters in bold:

Code:

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)

(snip a whole bunch of USB stuff)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
06:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
06:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10)
06:04.1 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.2 SD Host controller: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: (rev 01)
06:04.4 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)

In that particular computer, the Intel adapter is wireless and the Broadcom is wired.

That's the sort of information we're talking about here. Post the relevant output to this thread, being sure to use "code" tags as I did.

When we know the precise adapter you are using, we can point you in the right direction for a solution.

ghostly61 · 03-12-2012, 08:33 PM

oh ok, well i do see the ethernet line but there is no network line.so does this mean i dont have a network card or something?

frankbell · 03-12-2012, 08:54 PM

Possibly. It was not that long ago that computers did not have wireless from the factory.

You can go to the computer manufacturer's site and look up your computer's specs. I just looked here, based on your first post, and there is a mention of "WLAN," which I assume means "Wireless LAN," but no indication of which chipset.

You haven't mentioned what Linux distro you are using. Some distros have better hardware information routines than other.

If you can't find a good hardware information routine, you can try installing hardinfo--it's very thorough. If you are using a distro with software repositories, it is probably in the repo.

If you have a distro with the KDE desktop, the Kinfocenter is quite thorough and detailed.

Here's an alternative. The amount of output can be overwhelming, but it might answer the question for us. Run the command dmesg in a terminal. Expect a lot of output that will take a while to plow through, but it will list every device your Linux kernel is seeing.

Also, please post your distro/version and the output of uname -a (that will report the kernel version, among other things).

Edit: Once you get used to it, Linux is easier to use and diagnose than Windows, but there is a learning curve. We were all newbies once.

Edit Edit: Look for any references to Broadcom or Realtek. They are both wireless cards that can be difficult to get working in Linux. They are the prime suspects.

ghostly61 · 03-13-2012, 05:56 PM

0k, not sure what you mean by distro cause i don,t see that word and don,t know what that is...sorry lol. but all i can seem to find that looks like anythings is..,,,linux kernel driver rtl8180/rtl8185 base wlan card.rtl8180:wireless extenses version 22. and a couple times i see wireless not found..sorry i'm not very good at this....bare with me.

frankbell · 03-13-2012, 08:46 PM

Don't apologize.

We were all newbies once.

Distro is short for "distribution." This article defines "distro" pretty well.

Ubuntu, Fedora, and Slackware, just to pick three, are all different distributions. They all use the Linux kernel,they do similar things and have similar capabilities (see note), but they each have their own spins on how they are configured and administered. When your computer boots up, there will usually, but not always, be a splash screen that identifies it as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, or what have you.

The reason you will frequently see posters here asked what distro they are using is because, even though they may look similar on the surface, the way you administer them (for example, installing software is an aspect of administering the system) may be different underneath.

It won't be foreign, in the sense that they speak different languages. It's more like they speak the same language, but with different dialects. Some dialects are close to each other (like New York and New Jersey) and some are very different (like Boston and New Orleans), but they are more alike than they are different.

I'm going to recommend this link: http://linux.about.com/ It was designed for persons new to Linux. I think spending a little time there will help you better understand the friendly chaos of LQ.

Note: Fans of different distros can be quite partisan about the relative merits of their favorite vs. the others. Great arguments from small differences can spring.

ghostly61 · 03-13-2012, 09:25 PM

ok well i still cant find and thing that tells me the distro.but i'll keep looking and in thhe mean time i'm going to check out the web site yu recommended and read up a little...be back soon.

frankbell · 03-14-2012, 08:27 PM

You can try this command from the command line. It works with many distros:

cat /proc/version

If there is a file named "version" in the /proc directory, cat will display the contents to the terminal.

Now I'm as puzzled as you are and want to get to the bottom of this!

ghostly61 · 03-16-2012, 08:30 AM

well i tried the cat/proc/version and nothing came up.and i tried that web site you gave me but no luck...i'm beginning to think there's no hope....still looking though. haven't given up yet.

evilputty · 03-16-2012, 09:47 AM

try this and post output
uname -a

also look for some kind of branding icon or bootup splash screen

what kind of package system used to install software? or have you been building from source?

Debian - apt-get
Centos, Fedora - yum
Gentoo - emerge

etc, etc

does it boot into console or xwindows?