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Old 07-06-2011, 02:20 PM   #1
DeckerDog97
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Question Having WiFi issues with Xubuntu 10.04 on a Dell Latitude CPx


Thanks in advance for any help! I recently got a Dell Latitude CPx. I put on Xubuntu 10.04 and it will not work with my generic wifi plug. The plug reads: 802.11b/g 54Mbps WIRELESS USB ADAPTER. I purchased this on eBay and the disk contains the linux software but I can't get it to install. It also won't work without installing the disk (already tried that.) Can someone help me? This laptop is going to be a birthday present for my younger sister. All she wants is a fast laptop, ability to listen to music, and internet. Once internet is setup I can connect it to my SubSonic server.
 
Old 07-06-2011, 04:50 PM   #2
jefro
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I'd try a few live cd's to start and get the latest 11 or other newish cd.

Lucky you decided to buy a device with seemingly no information about it.

Not sure what the status is, try lsusb maybe or ifconfig to get some details.


Three ways to load a nic in linux. One is native support, two is add in driver and three is ndiswrapper.
 
Old 07-06-2011, 04:54 PM   #3
DeckerDog97
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I do know it has a 20 GB hdd and 256 mb of RAM. I am downloading Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. It requires less ram. Good or bad idea?
 
Old 07-06-2011, 05:42 PM   #4
TobiSGD
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Bad idea. Ubuntu 9.10 is not supported anymore, it will get no bugfixes, no security updates and you will have issues to install software on it. There are several distributions aimed to older hardware, like Slitaz, Vector Linux or antiX, but you should also be able to run any recent distribution with a less demanding desktop environment, for example Lubuntu, Debian with XFCE or Slackware with XFCE.

To your actual problem, post the output of
Code:
lsusb
with the wifi-device plugged in.
 
Old 07-06-2011, 06:53 PM   #5
DeckerDog97
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Ok I will try lubuntu and about the wifi issue how do I do that? I am pretty new to linux and I don't quite understand what you mean.
 
Old 07-06-2011, 07:05 PM   #6
TobiSGD
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Open a terminal (you should find that in the menu) type lsusb, press Enter and post the output here.
 
Old 07-06-2011, 09:49 PM   #7
DeckerDog97
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It reads:

Bus 001 Device: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

BTW I supposedly have 2 usb ports but can't find the other so I am using a 4 port usb hub with the wifi adapter plugged in one port and a cooling pad in another. Would that make a difference? I doubt it has anything to do with the wifi but I'm not sure...
 
Old 07-06-2011, 09:59 PM   #8
DeckerDog97
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I just tried lubuntu. It didn't work automatically with the wifi card like Ubuntu does... maybe I should try 9.10? I already downloaded it.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 03:59 AM   #9
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As said above, Ubuntu 9.10 is not supported anymore.
If that is all you get from the lsusb-command then your wifi-device is not recognized at all. Are you sure that it is working? May be testing on a different computer can help here.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:10 AM   #10
DeckerDog97
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I do know it does work. I used it on that laptop before i installed linux. It was running Windows XP before i installed Xubuntu. The laptop has no internet ports whatsoever. Should I get a PC card with an ethernet port? Maybe if I get it online I can try to find a way to get the card working. Maybe a different wifi card would work better?
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:17 AM   #11
snowday
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Plug the wireless card directly into the computer (not through the hub) and type:

Code:
lsusb
lspci
There is no need to switch from Xubuntu 10.04 at this time. Let's figure out what kind of wireless chipset you have first, then we'll figure out if/how we can get it working.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:19 AM   #12
snowday
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DeckerDog97 View Post
I just tried lubuntu. It didn't work automatically with the wifi card like Ubuntu does.
Hold on... I just read this part!

If the wifi card works OK in Ubuntu, then type this command:

Code:
lsmod
That will show a list of all hardware "modules" in use, from that we can figure out which module is necessary for your wifi card and load it in Xubuntu.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:32 AM   #13
DeckerDog97
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Ok we got something!

lsusb:
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp. (WiFi Device)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

The casing on the wifi plug was too big to let me plug the card in so I had to plug in the board itself. I totally powered down and unplugged the cord and removed the battery, of course.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:34 AM   #14
DeckerDog97
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Oh I just read your last post and do I type that on the laptop or my desktop, because I am using Ubuntu on my desktop.
 
Old 07-07-2011, 08:37 AM   #15
snowday
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Well I am not an expert on Ralink, and I know they actually make several different models or "chipsets". I hope you can find an answer here, I see that most of the threads are marked "solved" so that's a good sign:

http://ubuntuforums.org/tags.php?tag=ralink
 
  


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