Hi,

I've used windows for almost 20 years, but am considering moving to linux. I wanted to play around with it so I installed Mint 17.2 32 bit w/Xfce desktop on an old Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. The laptop stopped recognizing its onboard wifi card a couple of years ago (while still a windows machine) but has worked fine with a USB adapter since then. However, now that I've installed Mint I can't get the adapter to work, I can't even get the computer to detect it.

I've read through quite a lot of similar situations online and tried to take the steps that others took, but I can't get it to work. Actually, the very first distro I installed was Mint 17.2 Cinnamon 64 bit (uninstalled because computer wasn't powerful enough), and I did somehow get the adapter to work, but (as ridiculous as this will sound) didn't realize it at the time and I tried quite a lot of things, so I'm not sure what actually worked. The good news is, the port will currently recognize a USB flash drive, the wifi adapter will work in another machine, and as I just said, I was able to get it to work once, so I would think all the hardware is ok.

The adapter is pretty old, it has the Atheros AR5007 chipset, which (from what I read) I think requires the ZD1211 driver. I checked the firmware folder and it's in there, but that doesn't seem to help. When I enter lsusb and lspci the device doesn't show up. I've tried various other things, including ndiswrapper, to no avail. If anyone has any ideas on how I might get this to work I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Scott

Edit:

After some more googling, I found this:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...x-mint-as-well
Which would make me tempted to take the dangerous approach of downloading and installing this:
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/firmware-zd1211
If no one has any better ideas.

Thanks for the reply! I tried your first suggestion and got this:

/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl/ath6kl_usb.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl/ath6kl_core.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl/ath6kl_sdio.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_hw.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_htc.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_common.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath5k
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath5k/ath5k.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k/ath10k_core.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k/ath10k_pci.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/md/dm-multipath.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/md/multipath.ko
/lib/modules/3.16.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/ath3k.ko

So it looks like the ath5k files are already installed. Regarding your other suggestion, I'm willing to try something risky (this is just a build to mess around with, I don't mind reinstalling everything) but in the /lib/firmware directory I already have a zd1211 folder with zd1211_ub, zd1211_uphr, zd1211_ur, zd1211b_ub, zd1211b_uphr, and zd1211b_ur files. Would the package you refer to have anything in addition to these?

Thanks again,

Scott

You're welcome! Sorry I'm not more help.

There are a few more files, though I couldn't tell you what they do...
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/a...d1211/filelist
My guess would be to go ahead and install the deb (dpkg -i, you can backup the files you've already put there if you're worried. you can also see what files will be clobbered with dpkg -c) then try plugging the device in, and if it doesn't work please report the results of:
Edit: throw in a lsmod | grep wrapper while you're at it. If multiple wireless modules are being loaded it probably won't work, so you have to blacklist the unused ones. Another option is updating your kernel, you never know when driver stuff's going to have some bug fixes added in.

Installing the package didn't work.

sudo lsmod | grep zd returns nothing.
sudo lsmod | grep ath returns:

dm_multipath 22373 0
scsi_dh 14458 1 dm_multipath

sudo lsmod | grep wrapper returns nothing (I assume I was supposed to type it this way, if not please let me know).

Hmm, my last guess is to take out the USB, run

and plug it back in again, then check to see if lsusb finds it. After that I'm out of guesses (other than updating the kernel and making sure any other wireless modules you might have loaded aren't in the lsmod results).

Tried sudo modprobe ath5k, then lsusb, the device is still not found. In case it's helpful here's what lsmod finds:

Module Size Used by
zd1211rw 57589 0
ath5k 134997 0
ath 24182 1 ath5k
bnep 18895 2
rfcomm 58045 4
bluetooth 391253 10 bnep,rfcomm
6lowpan_iphc 18262 1 bluetooth
arc4 12536 4
gpio_ich 13315 0
dell_wmi 12665 0
sparse_keymap 13708 1 dell_wmi
binfmt_misc 13140 1
uvcvideo 71465 0
videobuf2_vmalloc 13048 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops 13170 1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core 48344 1 uvcvideo
v4l2_common 15132 1 videobuf2_core
videodev 131265 3 uvcvideo,v4l2_common,videobuf2_core
media 20899 2 uvcvideo,videodev
b43 369555 0
dell_laptop 17808 0
dcdbas 14448 1 dell_laptop
bcma 46331 1 b43
dm_multipath 22373 0
scsi_dh 14458 1 dm_multipath
snd_hda_codec_idt 53704 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 62931 2 snd_hda_codec_idt
mac80211 559100 3 b43,ath5k,zd1211rw
snd_hda_intel 29285 5
snd_hda_controller 29252 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec 120371 4 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep 13272 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 87194 4 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_seq_midi 13324 0
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi 25722 1 snd_seq_midi
r852 17739 0
coretemp 13201 0
sm_common 16772 1 r852
nand 63100 2 r852,sm_common
nand_ecc 13136 1 nand
nand_bch 13067 1 nand
snd_seq 56592 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
cfg80211 418839 5 b43,ath,ath5k,mac80211,zd1211rw
joydev 17113 0
bch 17197 1 nand_bch
nand_ids 8547 1 nand
r592 17728 0
serio_raw 13251 0
memstick 16174 1 r592
snd_seq_device 14137 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
lpc_ich 16877 0
snd_timer 28648 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
mtd 52813 2 nand,sm_common
ssb_hcd 12764 0
snd 66670 19 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_code c,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore 14599 2 snd,snd_hda_codec
shpchp 32143 0
mac_hid 13059 0
parport_pc 32021 0
ppdev 17391 0
lp 13299 0
parport 40836 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
dm_mirror 21756 0
dm_region_hash 20121 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 18072 2 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror
b44 35514 0
psmouse 91277 0
sdhci_pci 18640 0
firewire_ohci 35647 0
sdhci 38345 1 sdhci_pci
firewire_core 61867 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 12627 1 firewire_core
i915 808682 3
mii 13654 1 b44
pata_acpi 12901 0
ssb 51835 3 b43,b44,ssb_hcd
i2c_algo_bit 13197 1 i915
drm_kms_helper 55007 1 i915
video 19475 1 i915
drm 255469 5 i915,drm_kms_helper
wmi 18689 1 dell_wmi

Well, this is entirely bizarre. I once again somehow got the adapter working, and not only that, the onboard wifi card that hasn't worked forever is now showing up again. The only thing I can think of is I deleted all the files in the ZD1211 folder when trying to install the deb package because I kept getting an error that the deb couldn't overwrite a file. Even after the files were deleted I still got that message so I gave up. I then went to this site (http://sourceforge.net/projects/zd12...1211-firmware/) and downloaded the tarball, then unzipped and put the files in the ZD1211 folder, just to replace what was already there. Now both adapters work! Just beyond weird.

I think I'm going to reinstall the Mint distro and see if I can replicate the result (with all the installing and deleting I probably messed something up anyway). I guess we'll see what happens. Thanks so much for your help!

Scott

EDIT: There's a good chance that deleting the firmware made it revert to that b43 stuff, which turned out to work? Hard to say. You can be sure by playing with the kernel modules probably. Glad it works at least, haha

ANOTHER EDIT: The dpkg command probably didn't work because you needed to do sudo dpkg -i, I forgot to say that.

ORIGINAL POST:
Ah. Looks like that b43 module is what the kernel is trying to use. I'd try unplugging it, then
Then replug, lsusb.

If that doesn't work, unplug and try

My logic here is that anything depending on mac80211 is probably a wireless driver, and we want to have just one at a time so we can be sure which one we're testing.

Well, after getting the adapter to work for a third time without realizing it, I'm pretty sure the issues I've been having are more related to me being a noob than any hardware problems. Most recently I got the adapter to work by doing a clean install, running update manager, and issuing a sudo modprobe command for both zd1211rw and ath5k. I did not delete any files or install any new ones. It would appear that, while the drivers came with the distribution, for whatever reason the modules weren't loading at startup.

To get the onboard card to work I did have to go to this website (http://askubuntu.com/questions/55868...reless-drivers) and follow the instructions for the b43 module, but once I did it worked no problem. I'm still pretty surprised the onboard card works at all, like I said it hasn't worked for years as a windows machine, the bios didn't even find it, but whatever, it's back. Even with ath5k, zd1211rw, and b43 all loaded everything works, I can choose between 2 wireless and 1 wired connection.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for looking, and especially to crazy-yiuf for his suggestions, they were key to figuring this out. I don't feel particularly smart at the moment, but hopefully this helps someone else figure their own issues out.