ubuntu 8.10 networking problem with broadcom chipset pcmcia card
 

Hi

some time ago I installed 8.10 on my x20 thinkpad. I at the time was trying to get it going on a Netgear WG511 v2 card. I was eventually successful in getting it going with ndiswrapper and all has been happy until...

I decided to give my laptop to an elderly friend for his first computer. He is living in a location where (for a variety of reasons) he is sharing a network connection to the internet with a few people. The protocol there WPA2 TKIP (IIRC) and no matter what the bloody thing won't connect. Here at home I run a different setup so its not a big deal

So, I thought I'd try another card to get it going there. I chose a "Aironet" card (badged a Dell 4800 LT) and tried to install this on 8.10

I expected it would install out of the box, but did not "seem to".

I followed the steps on this page, but still it won't connect to my WiFi at home (which I am using to connect to with this x31 thinkpad)

I am using Network Management Applet 0.70 and this works fine with the Netgear card, even showing all the local networks it finds.

When I plug in the Dell card it blinks the activity light and the status light in seemingly meaningful ways, but nothing seems to connect and I find nothing listed in the Network Applet.

I suspect that the OS is discovering the card as when doing an iwconfig I find two entries that would be that card:

eth1 and wifi0

iwlist scan returns:

lo interface doesn't support scanning.
eth0 interface doesn't support scanning.
pan0 interface doesn't support scanning.
eth1 no scan results.
wifi0 no scan results.

which makes me think two interfaces are taking the same hardware...

iwconfig returns idential results for eth1 and wifi0

anyone have any suggestions?

Hi, some laptops have a button to enable/disable the wireless network, did you check this?

I'd check the modules, with you get a verbose output of lspci. There on the last line of every devicesection is the module shown, which the device is using. You may check if there is an apropriate module loded.

Be aware that Ubuntu 8.10 is outdated (well, I don't have any experience with Ubuntu), it maybe you'll have to update at least the kernel in order to get recent drivers, notably if the devices you've tried are relatively new.

Markus

Hi

this one does not, nor have I seen such which engage or disengage the external pcmcia card. However as I mentioned the card is visible in some ways ... but
there is nothing in the list from that which would be the right one as far as I can see.

I am aware of that ... later versions will not run well on the laptop, although I have not tried 10.

thanks for the thoughts and suggestions