Greetings,

I ran Linux Mint from a DVD to see what it was all about. I really like it and would love to learn more about Linux as I'm thinking of having a dual boot system.

However, I can't seem to connect online. The only option it's giving me is VPN connection. With Windows, I'm connecting "wireless" using a USB device from D-Link with no problems...I don't think I have a wireless card in my machine.

J

If everything else fails, you can still connect to your D-Link modem or router with a standard ethernet (UTP) cable. I have no doubt that Linux will find the ethernet interface immediately.

Otherwise you should Google a bit or have a look at: http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pliszka/hints/wireless.html
A similar unresolved question is at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...dapter-370331/
maybe it gives you some hints

what do you get from typing in all these should output more information about your wireless and if that is seen. Also can you tell us more about your network. Like does it have WPA setup or WEP, and is your ssid hidden?

Ok back on Windows now...

Well to be honest I don't know much about the network. We have a D-lynk hub in the living room, and I installed a USB D-link wireless device that connects to the hub that's in the living room. In windows it just finds all wireless connections available as soon as the D-link device is installed. This being said, the D-link wireless device came with a CD that had to load software...is this possible with Linux or must all software that is loaded be managed as a package?

As you can see, I'm clearly a Linux newbie. I tried both Ubuntu and Mint today...both seem fairly similar. Going to give Fedora a try and then decide which one to install.

My USB wireless device is Dlink DWA-140. If I can't get it to work with Linux then there's no real point in me running Linux!

Thanks,

J

Ubuntu and mint are pretty much the same. I believe mint is derived from ubuntu. As for the wireless you can use the ndiswrapper to install the wireless drivers from the window's disk. However you can get a native linux driver from ralink. You can get this from www.ralink.com. I believe you will need the RT2870. Also do a quick google search on that model + linux driver ubuntu and you should find some references there that will help.

Ok I have the driver from ralink. However, being VERY new to Linux, I'm not sure how to install a driver in linux...I thought everything was done through package management???

I've read some of the "answers", and they're quite complicated. It is no wonder Linux is not catching on in the mainstream!

Is there a simple way to get this working?

J

to install the module you need to unzip and untar the driver from something like xterm or whatever terminal program is on your system. once you untar it cd into the newly created folder and run
that should install the driver. You may need to install the linux-headers file which if you are using Ubuntu that can be done by typing in The linux-headers will need to be install before running the ./configure. You may also need to install gcc and g++. That is not an accurate assumption. Some things are still done from the command line. While linux has gotten better are loading drivers for most hardware it still lacks support from mainstream providers.