[SOLVED] Getting wireless/wired hardware to work with Debian
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Getting wireless/wired hardware to work with Debian
So I have a Dell Inspiron laptop and I am running the latest Debian distro (2.6.32-5-686). It failed to detect my network hardware on install so now (unfortunately) I have to manually configure it.
I have done quite a bit of googling and can't really find a solid method, since a lot of problems either don't share the same kernel/laptop model/network card model that I have. Help?
For the wireless, you'll need to install broadcom-sta-source package, instructions here. Unfortunately, you need to get the NIC working first to get internet connection unless you have another means of connecting such as a USB wireless adaptor which is supported. Because there are many other packages that will need to be dowloaded and installed in the process.
The Atheros AR8132 should be supported out of the box, it uses the atl1c driver, try command as root or sudo: modprobe atl1c to see if it will get it going, with command: lsmod you should be able to see it in the list of modules loaded to the kernel. It is stored in /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/atl1c
If this laptop has Windows installed, and the NIC works there, then it should work in Debian also.
As for the wireless, as per the instructions in the wiki, step four will have the bcm80211 module blacklisted, for some reason I have found in the past that blacklisting happens before networking in the boot process and the brcm80211 still gets loaded and interferes. You may need to run these two commands as root or sudo if there is no wireless adaptor after a reboot:
Code:
modprobe -r wl ssb brcm80211
modprobe wl
If these steps are required after installing broadcom-sta, I can show how to make it automatic.
It doesn't seem to be detecting my NIC card. I plugged the laptop directly into my router and it didn't work. I know for certain that the NIC did work on Windows. Unfortunately I wiped the hard drive when installing Debian. Ugh. Any ideas?
Edit: I do have a spare wireless USB card, although I don't know how it would work on the laptop without being able to get drivers for it =\
Last edited by griffsterb; 11-23-2011 at 07:14 PM.
Can you run command:lspci -v to find out for sure. an example for the NIC would be something like:
Code:
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7V600-X Motherboard
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 23
I/O ports at a000 [size=256]
Memory at faa00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: via-rhine
For the wireless network adaptor it would have 'Network controller' instead of 'Ethernet controller'. The -v option will show which driver is in use as my example shows: Kernel driver in use: via-rhine
Many USB wireless devices are supported by the 2.6.32 kernel. What make and model is it?. If you plug it in, boot up and run command as root: iwconfig and a wireless device is found, it'll work without compiling drivers.
EDIT: BTW, since your first post suggests lspci showed the ethernet means it detects it. It is possible your cable is no good or you are using a cross over cable.
If I plug in the external card I get eth0 no wireless extensions. wlan0 and wlan1 both show an 802.11bg card but ESSID says off/any
Also, I am using the same cable as when I connected to the ethernet through Windows (which worked in the past). I tried to load the module but lsmod still says atl1c 0 when the cable is plugged in. Restarted comp, restarted router/modem etc and I still can't get online. Am I maybe missing some simple software configuration to be able to connect to the internet?
Another edit: So through lspci like I mentioned before it appears that the drivers for the network and ethernet controllers exist and are in use in the kernel. What in the heck could be preventing me from accessing the internet?
Last edited by griffsterb; 11-23-2011 at 09:58 PM.
So the NIC is detected and the proper driver is in use. It is not uncommon to find contacts damaged in computer ports as people tend to force things when it does not fall into place quickly, check in the NIC port and make sure there are eight contacts nice and straight and evenly spaced, if so, the NIC is good. Next, try a different cable to plug it into the router.
BUT:
You may not need to go through that, as you mentioned you plugged in the external card and got two wlan, one for the internal, one for the external. If both are using the b43, then you may still need to get the NIC happening.
First, try to connect with wlan1 as follows. Run command as root: iwlist wlan1 scan, (this should be the external card), you can try the same command with the wlan0, but it probably won't work with the b43 driver as mentioned in the Debian wiki link I posted in post #2. If one of them finds your wireless access point (AP), then try to connect via the networking icon next to the clock by selecting your ap from the list and enter the key.
Also, command: lsusb -v should tell a story regarding the USB wireless adaptor, post the full output regarding the wireless card if you still can't connect wirelessly.
And the wireless card LED started blinking. I then ran
Code:
iwlist wlan1 scan
And it's now showing a list of local wireless networks. New problem (which at this point seems easily solvable) is that I need to enter a network password, but it seems there is no GUI interface for this in my desktop environment.
Edit: So I tried
Code:
iwconfig wlan1 key (my wireless pwd)
but that was giving me an error. I read somewhere that it only lets you put in WEP keys I guess? Mine was WPA so I switched it to WEP. Then the command worked (no error) but I still can't connect to the internet. Ugh!
Last edited by griffsterb; 11-23-2011 at 11:10 PM.
Run command: dpkg --get-selections | grep network
If these two packages are listed (assuming your desktop environment is gnome):
Quote:
network-manager
network-manager-gnome
You should have a double monitor icon next to the clock in upper right task bar. Click on it and select the AP you want to connect to. If you are runnin a different desktop environment you may or may not have the second network-manager package installed which is the one needed to give a GUI applet for connecting with.
For connecting via command line, run command: ifdown wlan0 to make sure the internal wireless device doesn't conflict. If the key to connect to your wireless access point is a bunch of numbers, it is a hex key, if it is a paraphrase, like a word or two with numbers or characters, it is an ascii key. The two examples below show the different command structure for each type, the second one with the s: is the one to use with ascii.
Next, try these commands:
iwlist wlan1 scan <.....to see available access points iwconfig wlan1 essid NETWORK_ID key s:WIRELESS_KEY <.....to configure your ap particulars dhclient wlan1 <.....to aquire a IP address and connect
If after those three commands the prompt comes back without saying anything, you should be connected. Example
How did you install Debian?
Was it a net install or did you download a CD/DVD?
If you used a CD/DVD, did you get it from a reliable source?
Because if that dpkg --get-selections command didn't return anything means you probably don't have network software installed. The Debian installer installs network-manager by default.
Your problem is starting to show, look at what that command shows what's installed in my Debian in order to get networking:
I'm using KDE instead of Gnome for a desktop environment, none the less, most of the packages listed in the code above should have showed up after you ran that command, if nothing showed up, you have a botched installation and you'll never get online. Very puzzling!
EDIT: well, maybe not never, the error you got after trying to add the key is due to using the wrong method. The different method needed between hex and ascii. Try the other option. And for ease of assisstance in the future, don't just post the error you got, post the step you took to produce the error, just make sure to not post confidential stuff, like put random key information instead of actual key.
Last edited by Brains; 11-25-2011 at 06:29 AM.
Reason: added some
Interesting. A friend of mine at work runs a server using Debian at home. Him and I got to talking about it and I had him bring in a bootable USB and we installed it on my laptop from there. He said that he wasn't sure if the info he put on the USB had all of the installation software.
I actually tried to do it myself on Wednesday night with my own flash drive but for some reason couldn't get it to work. Tried a bunch of different directions from websites. Would a net install iso for a eeePC work even though I don't technically have an eeePC?
No, you should get the proper architecture. On the Debian site under "Getting Debian", click on "Network install". You can go for a Small CD, or Smaller CD. The smaller CD image is designed for just that, the little business card CD, but the image can still be burned to a regular size CD if you prefer not to download the Small CD version which is around 200 or more megabytes.
I usually go for the USB stick version which does not require burning to disk by downloading the appropriate hdmedia/bootimg.gz file for my architecture, zcat the image to a flash drive with no important data on it, needs to be over 254MB in size, as per instructions in section 4.3.2 of the Debian installation manual to which there is a link under the "Tiny CDs, USB sticks, etc." section where you would also get the hdmedia/bootimg.gz file. Then download the business card net install CD image and copy it to the flash drive. Then boot the flash drive to do the installation.
This sounds like what I already tried... zcat the image and then copy over the iso. When I booted from the USB it just went into a black screen with "No operating system detected" or something like that. I'll try it again when I get home from work and post an update. Thanks for your help so far.
Edit: It looks like I can just write a full CD image to the USB using 'cat' and then boot:
Edit2: Got the internet working. I ended up using Unetbootin to configure the USB drive for me. For some reason I couldn't get it to work manually through the terminal. Ethernet and my external card are working. Now I need to get the internal card working. Gonna try your suggestions from earlier in the thread.
Edit3: It works! Followed the instructions you posted up top, so now internal/external wireless and ethernet all work. I really appreciate your help. Thank you so much! I have 2 hardware related issues now but they aren't big: can't alter screen brightness. When I hit the key for up/down the little window pops up on the screen and the bar moves up/down but the brightness doesn't actually change. The other issue is that I can't tap the touchpad to click. I can click it down and it will move the cursor but the tap to click doesn't work.
Seems like a lot of people have had screen brightness issues with their laptops. It's a little bright now but not much of an issue. I'll do more research into the touchpad stuff to see what I can find.
Again, thank you so much!
Last edited by griffsterb; 11-25-2011 at 10:33 PM.
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