Why dont I have Wifi?
 

Hello all,

I have been interested in Linux for quite some time now but I have been running into issues that I can not solve, even a guy I go to school with can not solve. He is no master but with 10 years of Linux under his belt he is pretty familiar with the basics.

Issue one. To get started I wanted a bootable USB that I could boot on my Early 2011 Mac Book Pro, I understand that this is not a good way to operate but I wanted it just to play around in Linux and see what it was like.
Using the app "Mac Linux USB Loader" I created a USB with Linux Mint 17.2.

Worked fine but I did not have any Wireless internet. I could use ethernet but no wireless. Buddy googled the issue found the driver I needed and we tried installing it but still nothing. I gave up and lost interest.

My mac is getting old and its starting to have issues, being in college I cant afford to go a day without my laptop. I am scared that it may just up and quit one day. Im home for winter break and found my old Dell Laptop. This laptop is nothing special and does not have much computing power. It is running XP which im sure everyone knows is outdated. I am hoping to partition its hard drive and get a working version of Linux on it so that I have a backup.

This brings me into issue 2. Using an app from the internet I tried creating a Windows USB with Linux Mint 17.3 that I could boot from my windows PC. Got it working but here we are again, no wireless.

Am I doing something wrong or do I need to do something else?

Any and all help is appreciated.

The old Dell likely has Broadcom WiFi which can be a PITA to get working. Download MX-15, 32 bit, as it has great WiFi support built in - especially Broadcom...

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/mx

Mint is everybody's darling but it is not great with older hardware...

PUPPY try it on that OLD PC
 

linux puppy 6.0 is very lightweight 300mb install size and made SPECIFICALLY for real old computers. download the live dvd put it on thumbdrive and see if u can get the wireless up and running with puppy!

Hi...

Welcome to the forum :)

I don't think it's anything you're doing wrong, most likely it's missing the appropriate driver and/or firmware. We'll need more information on your adapter's chip before we can give you more detailed answer. Please open a terminal and post the entire output for (no screenshots, please)...

Regards...

As others have pointed out, Linux drivers for some wireless adaptors are problematic. If you can't get the onboard hardware to work, there is always the inelegant, quick and dirty (but works) option of installing a USB wireless adaptor which works out of the box with almost any modern distro; ebay has Raspberry Pi compatible adaptors starting at $1 (although I spent as much as $8 to get one that worked on my netbook). As I said, inelegant (and I have no idea how long it's going to last) but works.

Thanks guys I will run the terminal command this evening and reply with what it says.
Where is the best place to download puppy?

Download Puppy Linux from their site at the link below.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%...%20Release.htm

Update, Created a USB with Slacko Puppy 32 bit. Was able to get the wireless up and running with hardly no issues.

Tried running that command, could not get the Slacko Terminal to return anything. Not sure if I typed it wrong or if this one uses its own language?

What exactly is the difference between 32 and 64 bit?

The "width" of the data process. Up until 10 or so years ago, all hardware was 32 bit. Any machine less than 5 years old is likely a 64 bit machine.

I had success with my wifi following the links in this thread

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...fi-4175561793/

I don't recall which command I used, but I think it was this one
/etc/rc.d/rc.intel

Ahh ok. I will have to double check this laptop but I am pretty sure it has "AMD 64 technology"

I've been looking around slacko puppy. Before I fully install it to the laptop I want to check out a few others. Any other reccomendations for a light version? Will be checking out the mx15 next. Somewhere someone mentioned lbuntu?

You probably mean Lubuntu, a very good, fast, lightweight, user friendly distro.
Not a lot of features, but excellent for, email, web browsing, online shopping etc. In my opinion a better choice than Linux Puppy

Really all I need is Web, email, word processing, and then the ability to to entertain myself on a rainy day so piano bar and youtube.

Lubuntu would work for you, just download libre office 5.0, has a great word processor
and it's free.

Sorry for late reply, holidays got busy.
Created Lubuntu USB. Can not get wireless connections can't figure out how to make it work with this computers wireless card.