[SOLVED] Wireless Working, Now Gone.....

[altman]

No problem mate .

I have some surprises on my side also . But sometimes I guess it s the provider s side that doesn t work properly . ( Internet on & off )

[kjacobs]

Yep....I am completely baffled by why it worked and then stopped working. I was loading the 32 bit version, as the machine only has 2G of ram. For fun, I plugged in a USB Airlink 101 adapter I had laying around and the wifi screamed back to life. Works in both LL 2.0 and in LL 2.2, so I just reloaded a fresh install of LL 2.2 again onto the laptop and will use the Airlink for now.

Guess this will be one of those strange mysteries.....thanks for the help.

[altman]

Gee , I don t understand anything now . Why is that has to make it on these laptops !

Is that a 32 or a 64 bit computer .

Looks like the hardware isn t supported .

[kjacobs]

OK....just tried a live boot to USB again on LL 2.2. The linux-firmware & linux-firmware -nonfree are already installed with a fresh boot of LL 2.2 off a thumb drive, so that eliminates that possibility.....

Update: Oh goody....after booting to the live USB for LL 2.2, I rebooted to the installed LL 2.0 and now my wireless is not working in LL 2.0 either.....arrrrgggggg! This should not be this finicky......wow!

Ken

[kjacobs]

The computer is a Dell Inspiron B130. I will have to go back and check to see linux-firmware & linux-firmware -nonfree are installed or not. I will do a live boot of LL 2.2 again and check when I get home.

[altman]

Do you also have linux-firmware & linux-firmware -nonfree installed too !

[altman]

Wonder if it has to do with the kernel here . Both these ll don t have the same kernel .

I ll tell you which one I have here , it s the B43-fwcutter , no issues .

What s your computer mate . Might help somehow .

[kjacobs]

I tried installing the Broadcom drivers a couple times and kept getting a segmentation fault error, which would then not allow synaptic to run anymore.

I then decided to live boot LL 2.0 and try the wifi and it seemed to work fine. Went back to live boot LL 2.2 and nothing....

I do not quite understand how LL 2.2 was working all along and then refuses to recognize the wifi after a usb dongle test.....even on subsequent fresh installs of LL 2.2. Yet LL 2.0 worked without a hitch.........

Oh well...........guess I will run 2.0 on that machine.

[altman]

How bout your Broadcom sta driver mate .

[kjacobs]

Here is the info from both commands plus lshw -C network......without the Ralink usb installed, since that is not the wifi interface we are trying to find.....

kenneth@kenneth-ME051:~$ lsusb | grep Ralink
kenneth@kenneth-ME051:~$
kenneth@kenneth-ME051:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

kenneth@kenneth-ME051:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-network:0             
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:14:22:ad:5c:b9
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.100.115 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:18 memory:dfbfc000-dfbfdfff
  *-network:1
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 3
       bus info: pci@0000:02:03.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master
       configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64
       resources: irq:17 memory:dfbfe000-dfbfffff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

[altman]

Type this in Terminal please ;

Code: [Select]

lsusb | grep Ralink

Code: [Select]

iwconfig

[kjacobs]

Hi group,

I am completely baffled by this turn of events. I had LL 2.2 installed on an older Dell Inspiron B130 and everything was working fine for months. This morning I wanted to test a mini usb wifi dongle to check if the 5370 Ralink was now supported. It worked immediately without any issues and I was excited to find that out.

However, upon removing the dongle...my onboard wifi was no longer available AT ALL. I tried a number of terminal commands to locate the device, drivers, etc....nothing worked. So finally, I decided it would be faster to simply re-install LL 2.2 on the machine. Booting from the USB stick....I still did not have the onboard wifi anymore???

I then deleted the hard drive partition and tried again with the USB stick boot.....still no wifi. Next, I loaded Puppy Linux....just to see if ANYTHING would see it......Puppy picked up the wifi just fine and I browsed the internet with no issues. So....the wifi card IS working on the computer......

Back to LL 2.2....I rebooted again and LL 2.2 still does not see the onboard Broadcom 43XX wifi card that was working prior to the 5370 trial. Even with a brand new fresh load of LL.......

Any ideas?

Ken