Dell/Linux laptop wireless problems

S0litaire

posted wrote: »

OK, thought you were on the verge of installing linux, which would wipe the data anyway. It's highly unlikely to be a hardware fault, so a factory restore should cure it, it takes about 20 mins from a restore partition.

Quick question:

Why are you against the OP installing Linux?

posted_2

My understanding was they were going down the linux route because xp was crashing, so they can either spend 20 minutes doing a factory restore and have a fully working system, or spend weeks trying to get linux to work and potentially overwriting the restore partition in the process.

Oh I almost forgot the other reason, Linux is crap

S0litaire

Funny it only took me 20 mins to install Linux from scratch on my laptop. Everything was working right form the install. (even though like the OP the wireless didn't work with the Live CD).

Oh and another reason. Linux Viruses...
Oh! That's right! There are none! :P

Woo!!

alexalexalex

posted wrote: »

My understanding was they were going down the linux route because xp was crashing

That was the main reason initially.
Like i said it was a work laptop so when it started playing up the IT department had looked at it and messed around with it trying to make it work ok again but obviously they failed which is why i was able to get my hands on it. (though to be honest im not sure that particular IT dept has much more expertise than me)

Plus i'd used flavours of linux before on fairly low spec/old and buggy machines and it worked fine and had them feeling like a completely new machine

So given the above and the fact that i would only be using it for surfing, listening to music and the odd bit of word proccessing (so nothing windows specific) Linux seemed the way to go.

BTW Posted, why do you think Linux is crap? Bad experiences, doesn't fit your needs, too much hassle? what?

gaming_guy

is there a wireless switch somewhere on the laptop? is it set to the on position?

if there isn't a switch, it may be that you have to press a key combination such as FN + F4 (for example)

Pssst

There are known issues with Linux and certain wireless chipsets in lappys. Here i have a toshiba Satellite A210-12U lappy,only a year or two old running Vsita from new. About a year ago i installed Ubuntu linux as a duel boot. The wireless didnt work. I signed up to the Ubuntu forums via the ubuntu website. I found a soultion, it now works perfectly. I'm no expert but you may need to install something known to the GURUs as the NDIS wrapper. I would strongly recommend that you sign up to the forum,do a search and no doubt you will find a solution.

I have just upgraded my ubuntu linux kernel to the latest release and it still works perfectly.

Goo luck

backflip

I have an Inspiron 6400 and always update it to the latest ubuntu distro. I dual boot with Vista, but actually never use Vista. Ubunto worked straight out of the box for me, not a problem. I think at first I got online using a WiFi max dongle (for PSPs Wii etc.). It has never failed me when using linux, it always gets me online wirelessly. Once online I went to system/administration/hardware drivers and activated the wifi driver there. After that I didn't need the dongle. You should be able to hard wire your connection (directly to the router/modem) and then activate as above. You should then be wireless.

Tallymanjohn

As Pssst says, look to the Linux community forums for help - there's nothing that's liked more than a challenge like this. I had a terrible job getting Ubuntu (the best for ease of use!) to recognise the wireless card on my old Compaq laptop, but I've just installed it on an MSI browser and it installed perfectly & found everything - well impressed. It's just pot luck it seems.

johncolescarr

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 and I run Ubuntu (currently 9.04).

To get wireless working you need to install a propitiatory driver. Under most (not all) Linux distributions, propriatory drivers are not installed as default as there are some evangelist Linux users out there who will only use open source software.

To do this is Ubuntu, go to System>Administration>Software Sources and tick the box propitiatory drivers for devices (restricted).

The update your machine (System>Administration>Update Manager). You might be prompted to restart.

Then go to System>Administration>Hardware Drivers and activate the relevant driver. You should now have wireless!

Most Distros will be very similar. Try the help forums of your specific distro, they are usually very good.

If you don't want this kind of hassle in the future, try Linux Mint. Its basically Ubuntu with all of the drivers/codecs etc pre-installed so its far more "plug n play", great if you want to build your confidence with Linux.

Finally, don't be put off by the negative comments about Linux. I use both Windows and Linux on my laptop (dual boot) I'm no evangelist, but I do tend to find Linux, in particular Ubuntu, easier and quicker to use. No more defragging, no spyware, malware, viruses, no registry cleaning etc etc. But the biggest reason I use it is because of security.

In terms of speed, my memory load in Vista was 50% with all unnecessary programs turned off, under Ubuntu its 14%! Admittedly I now use XP and its not as bad.

johncolescarr

posted wrote: »

My understanding was they were going down the linux route because xp was crashing, so they can either spend 20 minutes doing a factory restore and have a fully working system, or spend weeks trying to get linux to work and potentially overwriting the restore partition in the process.

Oh I almost forgot the other reason, Linux is crap

I'm no Linux evangelist and I usually dont get involved with any Linux/Windows discussion but I don't really think you can say Linux is crap. I fully admit some people may find windows is a better choice for them, running specialist programs only written for windows, compatibility with some hardware or simply familiarity. But lets face it, the majority of the Internet is run off of Linux servers, NASA use it and most super computers run it, can it really be considered crap?

Desktop Linux has been a bit poor in the past, but in the last 2-3 years its come on leaps and bounds. Why not try a live CD out, I'm sure you'll be surprised