Setting Up A Wireless Card in Linux

Setting Up A Wireless Card in Linux

Although it may at first seem like a daunting task, setting up a wireless device can sometimes be fairly easy. But first, there is some information that is needed. If you are a Windows user, and new to Linux, don't worry. Windows doesn't automatically support all wireless cards, so don't expect Linux to do it. It may take a little work to get it working.

You may have read other How-To's that tell you to install NDISwrapper. For now, don't worry about trying to install NDISwrapper. You first need to identify the chipset that your wireless has, plus some other information. When you have all of the info, post it in a new thread.

Now, there actually are some cards that almost work without any configuration, but most require some configuring.

Now you will need to collect the information to diagnose how to make your wireless work. First what type is it? USB or PCI card or built-in? The brand-name of the wireless is less important, but give us that too.

Enter these commands in a terminal and post the output in your thread. If you need to use Windows to connect to the internet, then save the output in a text editor application. Common Linux text editors are Gedit and Kwrite. When you save the file, add a .txt extension to the name, so that Windows will recognize it as a text file and open it.

Remember that Ubuntu requires the "sudo" command to precede some commands. Distro's like Fedora need the path included with the command.

If it is a built-in or PCI wireless, use this command to determine the card info:

Code:

lspci -nn

For Fedora:

Code:

/sbin/lspci -nn

If it is a USB wireless, use this command. It will not give as much info as for a PCI card, but it is useful anyway:

Code:

lsusb

For Fedora:

Code:

/sbin/lsusb

To see a list of all driver modules that your system is loading, use this command. I usually can spot a wireless driver in the list:

Code:

lsmod

To see any error codes that your system may have generated concerning the wireless, enter this command.

Code:

dmesg

Post any relevant wireless messages or wlan errors in your thread. Many cards require firmware to be loaded before they will work, so look for firmware errors in the dmesg output. A command that will only give firmware messages can be used:

Code:

dmesg | grep firmware

The Linux distribution and version can be useful, as well as the kernel version. To obtain the kernel version, use this command.

Code:

uname -r

Please start a new thread to post the output of the above commands. Do not use an existing thread.

By providing the needed information up front, it can make this process much easier and quicker.

And finally, if you do get your wireless to work, please post about it in your thread. What it finally took to get it working could be beneficial to others using the same wireless chip. Just posting "I got it to work, thanks" tells us very little. Please help to give a little back to the Linux community that helped you.

__________________
Paul


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