[Resolved itself] Wireless issues

[busprof]

Hi, ohjrson

You mentioned that you had run Zorin OS and wireless was working.  I wonder if you still have the Zorin live image available?  Or if you are willing to downolad the ISO and boot from it?  If you do, you could boot from it and then do:

[pre]

Code:

lspci -knn | grep -EiA2 net

[/pre]

That would at least show us what modules Zorin is loading, which would probably tell us what we need for Linux Lite.  Zorin is based on Ubuntu (and maybe Debian) IIRC, so there should be a good deal of cross-compatibility.

Thanks

[ohjrson]

Ok Managed to get the cd to load up. and I have managed to get to a prompt. I did the recommendation above and it gave me this.

Code:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: 3Com Corporation 3c905c-TX/TX-M [Tornado]  [10b7:9200] (rev 78)
            Subsystem: Dell 3C920 Intergrated Fast Ethernet Controller [Latitude C640]  [1028:012a]
            kernel driver in use: 3c59x
02:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1420 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac51]

Please keep in mind this was not copied and pasted I had to type all this in.
Does this show anything useful?

Thanks

[busprof]

Well, it tells me that Zorin is not finding the wireless card (at least not this time, based on your posted output).  The TI PCI1420 is a mini-PCI cardbus adapter.  This is *probably* where a mini-PCI wireless card is installed, such as the Truemobile 1150 I found in Dell's specs for your system.  lspci should show all of the information on the wireless card, however, and this is not present.

The main problem, IMHO, is that the card was never very well supported under Linux.  Now that it has some serious age on it there's not much impetus to provide better support.  I guess I'm asking whether you want to continue trying to get this particular card to work, or if you might be open to trying a PCMCIA or USB wireless adapter.  If you pick the right device it's going to be a lot less trouble than banging on with the Truemobile card.

Last thing - since the kernels in both Linux Lite and Zorin are not identifying the card it could also be that the card has stopped working.  Since it was working under Zorin previously I can't explain why it's no longer showing up in the lspci output under Zorin any other way.

Thanks

[ohjrson]

Hey Thanks for the help. and IMHO I tend to agree with you. Plus I think that I remember that when I tried to load Win 7 into this thing and it did not find the wireless I think I very well could have done something to whatever card might have been there. So I do have a cheap usb adapter that I have plugged in and BOOM it worked right away. Did not have to look for anything or whatever. so it is inconvenient that it sticks out the back of the pc as that is the only location for the usb I will just have to use that. But I really appreciate the help. 

Love this version of linux though...

Take care. 
Les

[busprof]

I don't know how much help I was, but I am glad you found a solution.  Having a USB dongle sticking out of the back of the system is admittedly not very suave - but on the other hand, it works!  Longer term you could take N4RPS's advice and look around for a mini-PCI card with a different wireless chipset that would work with your system.  Google is probably your friend, if you want to go that route.

Glad you got this sorted.

Cheers!

[N4RPS]

Hello!

Glad you were able to get SOME kind of wireless card going in that pup. If you're still willing to continue troubleshooting your internal card, I'll do all I can to help you.

Funny how Zorin is no longer detecting your internal card, either. Either the card up and died on you, it needs to be reseated (after its edge contacts are cleaned), or it's somehow disabled, either by Fn-F2, the BIOS, or both...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[ohjrson]

Yeah I tried and did get Window 7 loaded on this pc and it worked to an extent. But when I was trying to get the wireless to work I think I might have burned it out trying to load different drivers. At any rate then after that windows stopped working properly and would randomly shut down or freeze. So I just erased it and put on Linux.... That seemed to work, except for the wireless. So I think I might have burned up that card to a point that it might have stopped working. So yeah I think I did a number on the wireless card when I tried to get the Windows 7 to find the card and make it work. After that it kept shutting down when I tried to use it. So I may have fried it somehow. At any rate I do have the Zorn OS 7 lite ISO and will burn it again to see if it will work. Then I will know. If it does I will be probably asking for help to get that onto Linux Lite. But thanks for all the help.

Les

[ohjrson]

SO I wish to thank all those involved with this and as soon as I burn the ISO and check it out I will inform you all what the result was and go from there... Again thanks for the help.

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I've never heard of a wireless card being 'bricked' before, but since Broadcom cards load card-specific firmware at startup, I won't say it isn't possible. Then again, it could have just picked this particular moment to die.

I dug out a similar laptop from the attic today and removed the wireless card. It's an Intel, which SHOULD be detected automatically by the Linux kernel.

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[ohjrson]

Well Amazingly somehow, this "Bricked" Wireless started to work again. in Linux Lite 1.08, It was after an update of some kind but none the less magically it works now.

Go figure. Maybe the way I have been carrying it or its use or something I dunno.

Any idea how all of a sudden it now works?

UPDATE:
AS of this date, the wireless is working with a live DVD in the laptop. It has connected to the wireless as well. Seems to be stable at this time.

Update: As of edited date this internal wireless card suddenly started to work with LL 1.08. When I installed Beryl it continues to work. The connection state varies and it seems to lose connection and then get it back more often then being connected. I did nothing to get it to work for me. It just suddenly began to connect one day. I think it may be related to the driver that the wireless card uses.

Go figure.