Hello,
I am in way over my head trying to troubleshoot my linux wireless connection. I recently installed Ubuntu on my Averatec 3200 laptop and have been trying to follow the step-by-step driver installation solutions on the ubuntu website.

I installed Wicd, and have been trying to update my wireless driver.

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] (rev 01)

So I downloaded the VT6102 VIA ethernet controller. But I have no idea how to actually install it and what comes after.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Are you trying to get the wireless working, or the wired adaptor working? According to this -->http://hardware4linux.info/module/ndiswrapper/ the adaptor will work with Ndiswrapper, and the windoze driver.

Most wired adaptors will work if they are configured. Don't know for sure on the VIA adaptor.

Could you open a konsole and run the commands '/sbin/ifconfig' and '/sbin/iwconfig' ( without the quotes ) and post the results.

You shouldn't need to get drivers for either the wired or wireless devices, if you have a recent kernel. For wireless, you need the rt2500 driver (I'm not sure when it was added to the kernel) and via-rhine for the Ethernet (which has been in the kernel for a long time).

FYI to the OP, this is your wireless:
00:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)

I just read that this driver should already be included in recent Ubuntu installs, so, besides the commands that camorri asked you to post, could you also run 'lsmod | grep rt2500' (without quotes) and see if the module is already installed?

Edit: Damn Nylex, you beat me to it. LOL

Thanks for your responses!

/sbin/ifconfig:

laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ /sbin/ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:19:2f:e9
inet addr:172.16.0.123 Bcast:172.16.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::240:45ff:fe19:2fe9/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:857 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:31 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:60783 (60.7 KB) TX bytes:4961 (4.9 KB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xae00

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:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

/sbin/iwconfig:

laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementn
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


and, lsmod | grep rt2500:

laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep rt2500
rt2500pci 15356 0
rt2x00pci 7900 1 rt2500pci
rt2x00lib 29756 2 rt2500pci,rt2x00pci
eeprom_93cx6 1916 1 rt2500pci

I'd love to know what all of this means.

Laura

I installed the ndiswrapper, but am unsure of what to do next.

Please link to the instructions that you have been following, and tell us how far you got.

Evo2.

Sorry, I'm trying to keep up.
1) OP has wired connection
2) OP's card is being recognized by hardware, but driver does not seem to be working.
3) OP's card contains rt2500
3) OP's rt2500 module seems to be there (lsmod) but doesn't seem to be working.

@laubaar You don't need ndiswrapper, the module for your wifi is already contained in the linux kernel.

There have been problems with the rt2500 driver contained within the kernel. Many threads have folks complaining, some have reverted to using older seamonkey driver that was there before rt2500 was incorporated into kernel. The directions for installing the old seamonkey driver are in the link below.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...r/RalinkRT2500
I don't know if installing the older seamonkey driver is necessary. rt2500 seems to be there, but not active. I was hoping someone would chime in that has experience with this card. OP might just have to modprobe and/or blacklist some other driver to make this work.

@laubaar one question. Does your laptop have a switch to enable or disable wifi? And is this switch in the "on" position. You know, sometimes it's the simplest things that need fixing.

I have been following different directions, which was probably a mistake. Here's the latest

I got to step 3.2

laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install ndisgtk
[sudo] password for laflaca:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-2.6.31-14 linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
ndisgtk
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.7kB of archives.
After this operation, 451kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main ndisgtk 0.8.4-1 [21.7kB]
Fetched 21.7kB in 1s (13.2kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package ndisgtk.
(Reading database ... 135290 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ndisgtk (from .../ndisgtk_0.8.4-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up ndisgtk (0.8.4-1) ...

laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ echo -e "blacklist bcm43xx\nblacklist b43\nblacklist b43legacy\nblacklist ssb" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 20)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] (rev 01)
laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ lspci -n
00:00.0 0600: 1106:3205
00:01.0 0604: 1106:b198
00:09.0 0280: 1814:0201 (rev 01)
00:0a.0 0607: 1217:6972 (rev 20)
00:10.0 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.1 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.2 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.3 0c03: 1106:3104 (rev 82)
00:11.0 0601: 1106:3177
00:11.1 0101: 1106:0571 (rev 06)
00:11.5 0401: 1106:3059 (rev 50)
00:11.6 0780: 1106:3068 (rev 80)
00:12.0 0200: 1106:3065 (rev 74)
01:00.0 0300: 1106:7205 (rev 01)
laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
laflaca@laflaca-laptop:~$

Oh yes, GoingEasy9, my wireless switch is enabled.

I also did this and got to step 2. I downloaded a driver (6102v25VIA.zip), but couldn't figure out how to install it.

Ok, the via driver you downloaded, 6102v25VIA.zip, is not needed. Your wired connection is already working. Your wireless connection contains a ralink rt2500 chip. That driver is already present on your computer. The fact that it is not working could be due to conflicting drivers.
I was hoping that someone else here had experience with this wifi card, but no one else posted.
The link I posted earlier from the Ubuntu forums was related to that ralink rt2500 wifi chip, and the problems Ubuntu users had with it, and the way they solved those problems using an older driver called seamonkey.
Unfortunately, this is beyond my ability to help you. I tried searching the LQ forums for rt2500, and, although many threads came up, none seemed to have any info that would help.
My advice would be, if no one else here can help with your problem, you might try the Ubuntu Forums. Tell them that you have a rt2500 based wifi card, can't get it to see wireless networks, and see if someone there has got it working successfully using the rt2500 driver.
You don't really need to download or install anything, every thing you need is already on your laptop. You just need to find someone who is using this wifi card and ask how they got it working.

As GoinEasy9 says, post #5 shows that you have correct driver installed and the device is recognized. You may just need to bring the connection up. What are the specifics of you wireless network? Ie. are you using, wep or wpa or no encryption ? Are you using static or dhcp for allocating IP addresses. Has the wireless network really been tested: eg does it work with another machine? Also what is the output of:

Cheers,

Evo2.

Thanks again.

I'm not sure re: specifics of wireless network, but I have tried various networks that do work on other machines.

I ran the code listed above, but my computer shut off due to low battery. When I powered back up, Wicd no longer shows up and I can't connect using LAN or wireless now. Argggg.