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-   -   Why is my wireless card not working? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/why-is-my-wireless-card-not-working-902994/)

Belindayr 09-14-2011 09:45 AM

Why is my wireless card not working?
 
I really want to like Ubuntu.. I am home schooling my two girls and computer has not been fully functional for two weeks now because I don't understand the language. There are two things I need to work right away and can't get it going.... My wireless card(message - disabled by hardware) and my Lexmark x7170 printer. These two are critical to educate my children. Is there any clear text that can walk me through this process without patching 30 threads? I can't afford to give Gates another $300.

jdkaye 09-14-2011 11:35 AM

Hi and Welcome to LQ!
Let's start with your network card. What kind of card is it? Built-in? usb plugin? something else? Can you post the output of
Code:

sudo ifconfig
Just type that command into a terminal.
ciao,
jdk

Belindayr 09-14-2011 01:36 PM

Here is the reply: (I do know that its b4306)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:c0:9f:b9:64:0f
inet addr:192.168.2.104 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:feb9:640f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:48597 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:44338 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:19696666 (19.6 MB) TX bytes:6207249 (6.2 MB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0xa000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB) TX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB)

jdkaye 09-14-2011 01:57 PM

And what kind of wifi adapter do you have?
jdk

Belindayr 09-14-2011 02:08 PM

I wish I could tell - my laptop is a HP Pavilion ze2000

salasi 09-14-2011 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belindayr (Post 4471503)
...(message - disabled by hardware)...

That message sounds like the one meaning 'the wireless off switch is in the off state'. I know it sounds very basic, but are you sure that there is not a little slide switch somewhere turning it off?

Belindayr 09-14-2011 04:26 PM

i have a button on my keyboard that use to light up. but since the install seems inoperative.

schneidz 09-14-2011 04:45 PM

these commands are to help us to know what your system thinks is installed (not necessarily to get you connected).
Code:

lspci # will tell us the pci devices you have in your system.
lsusb # will tell us the usb devices you have in your system.
ifconfig # will tell us what network interface cards you have turned on in your system.
ifconfig -a # will tell us all the network interface cards you have in your system.
iwconfig # will tell us which of your network interface cards has wireless capability

now that we know that, this should get you connected:
Code:

sudo iwlist device scan # this will use the device interface (that from the above command, we found out has wireless capability) and scan for wireless routers that are accessible.
sudo iwconfig device essid "myssid" # assuming no security, use that device to connect to your router.
sudo dhclient # will attempt to get ip-address, subnet mask, dns server information automatically from your router assuming dhcp is turned on on your router.

as far as the printer goes... i have a lexmark x5470 that does not work with linux (since lexmark does not provide linux drivers).

Belindayr 09-14-2011 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schneidz (Post 4471862)
these commands are to help us to know what your system thinks is installed (not necessarily to get you connected).
Code:

lspci # will tell us the pci devices you have in your system.
lsusb # will tell us the usb devices you have in your system.
ifconfig # will tell us what network interface cards you have turned on in your system.
ifconfig -a # will tell us all the network interface cards you have in your system.
iwconfig # will tell us which of your network interface cards has wireless capability

now that we know that, this should get you connected:
Code:

sudo iwlist device scan # this will use the device interface (that from the above command, we found out has wireless capability) and scan for wireless routers that are accessible.
sudo iwconfig device essid "myssid" # assuming no security, use that device to connect to your router.
sudo dhclient # will attempt to get ip-address, subnet mask, dns server information automatically from your router assuming dhcp is turned on on your router.

as far as the printer goes... i have a lexmark x5470 that does not work with linux (since lexmark does not provide linux drivers).

Trying this now. BTW Lexmark website has this driver posted for Linux - x7170llpddk-2.0-4.i386.rpm - I just don't know what to do with it???

Belindayr 09-14-2011 05:37 PM

interface doesn't support scanning. Network is down.

schneidz 09-14-2011 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belindayr (Post 4471888)
Trying this now. BTW Lexmark website has this driver posted for Linux - x7170llpddk-2.0-4.i386.rpm - I just don't know what to do with it???

nice... i'm gonna' try to hook up my printer tomorrow. i rarely print and the times i do i restart my pc into windows.
that driver seems like it is for redhat based distros... is there an installer on their site for debian based distros (look for something like x7170llpddk-2.0-4.i386.deb.

there doesnt seem to be a debian installer but this looks promising:
http://www.opendrivers.com/download/driver-31844.html

schneidz 09-14-2011 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belindayr (Post 4471897)
interface doesn't support scanning. Network is down.

thats probably the output to the iwconfig command...
can you also show us the output of the lspci, lsusb, ifconfig, and ifconfig -a so we can try to help you ?

Belindayr 09-14-2011 08:34 PM

sorry for the delay - dinner time for the kids:-)

robertsons@manifest:~$ lspci #
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 11)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
05:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
robertsons@manifest:~$ lsusb #
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 03f0:3b11 Hewlett-Packard PSC 1300 series
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
robertsons@manifest:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:c0:9f:b9:64:0f
inet addr:192.168.2.104 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:feb9:640f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:86896 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:75156 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:35912333 (35.9 MB) TX bytes:10503715 (10.5 MB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0xa000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB) TX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB)

robertsons@manifest:~$ ifconfig -a #
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:c0:9f:b9:64:0f
inet addr:192.168.2.104 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:9fff:feb9:640f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:86902 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:75164 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:35912823 (35.9 MB) TX bytes:10504231 (10.5 MB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0xa000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB) TX bytes:1920 (1.9 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4b:f3:a6:90
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

robertsons@manifest:~$ iwconfig #
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

jdkaye 09-14-2011 10:51 PM

Hi Belindayr,
You're making progress. :) Please post the output of your commands between "code" tags. That will make them much easier to ready for everyone. Code tags consist of "code" at the beginning and "/code" at the end but with square brackets instead of inverted commas. You'll be pleased to know that you are the proud owner of a Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03). Please make a note of that in case you're asked about it for some future problem.
Can you try the command
Code:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
and then Schneidz' command
Code:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
and let us know the results.
Ciao,
jdk

Belindayr 09-15-2011 12:42 AM

~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down


Thank you for your support... I really do appreciate it:-)


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