Linux on Dell Inspiron?

alexalexalex

I'm trying to switch my Dell Inspiron 6400 over to Linux from Windows 7 but I just seem to be having no end of problems getting the wireless adapter to work. I know it's not exactly unusual for Dell wireless cards and Linux to not see eye to eye but can anyone help?

I've tried following numerous guides on the net but they all seem to be from several years ago and none have solved the problem yet

edit: I forgot to add that when freshly installed I could see the wireless connection but couldn't use it as there was a message saying firmware not installed or something but when I went to 'additional drivers' and activated the 'Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver' and restarted I cant even see that I have a wireless card anymore
Does anyone know of any up to date (and easy to follow) guides for getting this working or, even better, can anyone suggest a distro that will work 'out of the box'? So far I've been trying with Ubuntu 12.04 and Mint 13 but I really dont have a preference as to which flavour I end up using

Thanks

debitcardmayhem

Question 1 which wireless card does it have?
You will probably have to use ndiswrapper (especially if it's a rtk819X )http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php

debitcardmayhem

If you go to a terminal and enter lspci you will see something like this
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

alexalexalex

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

If you go to a terminal and enter lspci you will see something like this
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

WilliamO

This dongle works straight away on Linux, and with drivers on Mac, with no problems.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-SVW322U-Wireless-USB-Adapter/dp/B0044EEYZK

WilliamO

debitcardmayhem

alexalexalex wrote: »

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

Try this , it may work http://debianandi.blogspot.com/2012/05/linux-mint-12-broadcom-bcm4311-problem.html

prowla

I just typed BCM4311into google and the first hit was how to get it to work in Ubuntu.

esuhl

And there's info on getting the wireless adapter working under Arch here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_Inspiron_6400#Dell_Wireless_1390

alexalexalex

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Try this , it may work http://debianandi.blogspot.com/2012/05/linux-mint-12-broadcom-bcm4311-problem.html

I tried following this one but when I get to the 'sudo vim /etc/modules" terminal tells me "sudo: vim: command not found"

prowla

Try "vi" instead of "vim".
But if you don't know vi then be prepared for some wailing and gnashing of teeth!

Toxteth_OGrady

vim is just an editor. Try sudo gedit