I am on a Dell Latitude e6400 with a Dell Wireless 1397 Wlan mini-card. Linux Mint 17 Mate does not see the wireless card so will not install. How can I get it to see the card to install Linux Mint? ifconfig does not see it either.

I really want to get rid of windows as I can't stand the constant problems with it.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Please consider reading the 'man ifconfig' to see options. You can use the 'man command' to understand the commands along with options. Where 'command' would be the name of the bash keyword such as 'ifconfig' to post the man page by 'man ifconfig'.

From cli do a 'ifconfig -a'(this option will show all devices, even ones that are down) & post output. Then do a 'lspci -vv |grep -i wireless' (| is the pipe character, shift \ on most qwerty Keyboards) & post the output for the wireless. Looking at 'dmesg |grep -i wireless' will show state at boot. I believe your card uses BCM4312 chipset & module would be Broadcom's b43 driver. Look at 'lsmod' for the installed driver then you do a 'modinfo nameofmodule' to confirm firmware and module are valid for the device. You can do a 'lspci -vv' to see recognized devices and the last entry for each device should show the kernel module in use.

EDIT:For future references http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers

Be sure to use the vbcode tags, # is for code & quote is to the left of # at the top of your reply to thread window to keep your post cleaner therefore easier to aid you in diagnosis.

Some helpful information;Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Sounds like I need to be a programmer to use linux.....guess I'll just go to an older verion of windows that is stable.

Thanks anyway.

Onebuck gave a good starting spot for you. There's no need to be a programmer to install a driver.

It does take a bit of searching, just as finding a Windows device driver sometimes does.

To aid in this, there are Hardware Identification programs and bootable cd's. From there you can search for the driver for your OS. Mint is based off of Debian, and Debian has drivers for plenty of devices.

Give it a try. It can be irritating for sure. But in the end it is valuable information to know, and can be rewarding when you get it working correctly knowing that you did the research and tasks to get your system up and running.

Hi,

Learning the semantics along with syntax will be required if you expect to do any in-depth work with any systems. One reason to post the references that will help you to learn how to get things done.

I do not want to discourage you but maybe a hold your hand distribution like Ubuntu or derivatives will be of use to you. MS Windows has it's place in the computer world. Personally,I do prefer to use Slackware which happens to be 21 years old and has many forks or derivatives. I have been in the computer field for over 40 years and I still learn something new everyday.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

All I know is I tried the ifconfig -a as I had seen it on another thread. But nothing shows up but my ethernet. But how do you install a driver when there is no OS to install it into? I am completely new to linux and other than windows have only played with DOS some 30yrs ago. So a lot of this language is knew to me and unless someone tells me how to get somewhere I will be lost.

Start out in Mint linux with

to give info on this forum on what wireless chip your dell has (probably broadcom)

Then give output of

More than likely either the wrong driver loaded or youy need to install firmware probably.
The instructions I gave you will give members here enough info on where you can proceed from there.

Lastly

may list if you are missing firmware or not.

Happy Trails from a GED educated Linux using Biker who knows diddly squat about being a programmer, Rok

Hi,
In your OP you stated;Linux Mint 17 does not see the wireless, Mint is the Gnu/Linux which is your OS.

The instructions that I provided will help to diagnose the present issue. We need to see if any drivers for the BCM4312 are installed along with proper firmware. I tried to provide some insight with each command and if you have any doubts then do a 'man command' to understand what was being done. 'dmesg |grep -i wireless' should provide any initial information at boot. That is when the kernel will discover the device and attempt to use available modules along with firmware. If not then we will need to get the module & firmware installed.

Here is a Linux Mint tutorial that will hopefully help you insure that; Install Broadcom BCM4312 802.11/bg Wireless LAN

Be patient and follow the above tutorial. If you have any questions then please post back. If this does solve your issue then provide feedback so this thread may/will help fellow LQ members.

One other point, Please read the feedback comments on the linked tutorial site for additional useful information.

Again, hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

2 members found this post helpful.

onebuck,
I appreciate your trying to help but much of what you are telling me I have no idea how or where to do what you are asking. Linux mint will not let me install the OS onto the drive because I do not have an internet connection because I have no wireless showing anywhere and only can run mint off the cd. So I have no OS Installed yet.


rockytnji,
I tried your inxi -f command. Becaause I have no wireless on that computer I can not just send a screen capture. There is way too much to type. The miniwifi did nothing and the other command only gives list of options and supported logs.

Now I know why the only couple of people I know running linux were techs.

Linux is not hard, but it is different. Expect it to be different. There was a learning curve for Windows, too; you just learned it a little bit at a time.

Try this: open a terminal and run the command lspci (that is list pci devices) on the command line. In the output, there should be an entry showing the wireless chipset (the brand of the card doesn't matter, just the chipset--odds are that Dell is rebranding a card OEMed by someone else).

Then post that information here and we will be able to help you.

1 members found this post helpful.

lspci finally showed the wireless network card. The last line read as follows.

0c:00.0 Network Controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

I figured it out. Took me a while but am on here now through Linux Mint Went to driver manager and found setting to change to broadcom driver. Then set up a wireless connection.

Thanks for helping !!!

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,
Once you boot the system with the LiveCD you can use the before mentioned commands to confirm system states along with modules & firmware. Post the output for 'lsmod'.

You can still use the information provided to get a device working while using a LiveCD. System response while using a LiveCD will be slower and that speed is dependent on the system hardware.

Do you have a Ethernet (wired) available? We could use Ethernet to get the wireless up. If only the wireless device firmware is missing you can use for the firmware:Install b43-fwcutter

Information on the linked Linux Mint tutorial can be helpful. Unknowns can be discouraging and challenging for everyone. Rewards for completing a task are just around the corner.

Thanks for sharing the solution.

Hi,

Yes, thanks for the feedback. It helps everyone that may/will have the same issue(s).