My first Linux experience, facing some problems.

|tera|

|tera|

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So I downloaded Linux tonight, Ubuntu, latest release.

I mounted the image and used the "install inside Windows" option.

Installation and configuring once booted into Linux took about 20 minutes to complete on my small Celeron M laptop.

Problems I'm facing at the moment:

I don't have an internet connection, because my Wireless network device isn't "picked up". Linux spat out something that it's using a "proprietary driver" for the device and that's about it.

So I hit F1 and started reading through the help files. It seems somehow that Linux is "disabling" my wireless device as I had to "switch on wireless" in Vista again after booting back to post here.

I can't use a cable, the router is just next to me in another room and I'm not about to buy a cable just to use Linux.

Is there any tips or steps you could give? I can't remember now exactly, but I don't see a "device manager" as I do in Windows with all the hardware. Is this because I didn't do a full installation?

When I use network tools or network manager in Linux I just see Wired Connection and Point to Point, both which are useless to me.

If I right click on the network icon top right and choose "edit wireless networks" the options don't enable to type or enter any info.

Lastly, I don't have any sound in Linux? My display is working properly as well as my resolution, but no sound or wireless.

Thanks for any help.

Another few things I forgot:

When booting into Linux from the options it says something along the lines of:

"look for Linux in hdd0,0: no wubildr" I can't remember exactly, but that's close, then it sits like that for about 2 minutes when finally it moves to a new screen then says "no valid filesystem found for hdd 80, use a Windows fdisk utility to repartition the drive, press Esc to skip this message" then after all the waiting Ubuntu loads.

LOL! I'll give it a shot again tomorrow. It looks a bit "plain", I miss the colourfulness of Windows when I'm in Linux, I love a theme, so you'll never see my pc's using Windows basic display ;) :D :p

It's fast though, except when the hour glass thingy loads and loads in help files.
 
I'd guess that linux can't get low-level access to the hardware with this "inside windows" thing.

Same thing with VMWare based emulation - some things just don't work without a proper install.

Maybe one of the resident linux expert has a solution for you though.
 
You see, it installed from Windows, but I actually have to boot into it, it's not running "from" Windows, so I don't see why it shouldn't work?

Weird if you ask me, makes my mind dizzy :p
 
I think just try a proper install. It tends to just auto-detect everything (except video cards) on it's own. Run the install then allocate say 10 gigs to a linux partition (automated) then check from there...
 
tera, does your laptop have a physical switch for the wireless card? like a button below the screen?

or perhaps an Fn+ key combination to toggle it?
 
werner said:
tera, does your laptop have a physical switch for the wireless card? like a button below the screen?

or perhaps an Fn+ key combination to toggle it?
Click to expand...

Yes Werner ;) The switch is below the touchpad, just to the right. It is "on" though and I did try switching on and off, but alas! :p

Velenoso said:
I think just try a proper install. It tends to just auto-detect everything (except video cards) on it's own. Run the install then allocate say 10 gigs to a linux partition (automated) then check from there...
Click to expand...

I'll have to buy an external hard drive, my laptop only has a 80gb and it's full already :p
 
from a terminal prompt do

lspci -v

and see what it says about your wlan card, then we can help some more once we know the exact make and model.
while you are there, run
iwconfig
and report back here what it says

one other thing that you can also try, also from terminal is to type

tail -f /var/log/messages
and leave the terminal window open, then turn the wlan switch on and off and see if it tells you anything..
 
I copied your post to a text file and saved it on the harddrive, but for some reason Linux didn't show those files on the other partition.

I'm a bit tired now, I'll see if I can do it tomorrow ;)

Thanks for the help.

tera
 
teraside said:
I copied your post to a text file and saved it on the harddrive, but for some reason Linux didn't show those files on the other partition.
Click to expand...
pen+paper, oldskool, but reliable
/me off to bed, got work today
 
Hi teraside,

There are some known issues with lack of support for particular wireless card drivers - especially Broadcom. What is your brand?

The Device Manager in Ubuntu is located as the last icon at the top of the screen (a red life saver) - just browse to the hardware section.
 
teraside, install ndiswrapper and install the windows driver for the wireless device.
 
Wireless and Linux don't always play well together, lack of drivers is a problem and it's often easier just to buy a new wireless device that you know is supported rather than fiddle with drivers, trust me I've tried.
 
Deenem said:
Wireless and Linux don't always play well together, lack of drivers is a problem and it's often easier just to buy a new wireless device that you know is supported rather than fiddle with drivers, trust me I've tried.
Click to expand...

:eek: On a notebook?
 
arf9999 said:
:eek: On a notebook?
Click to expand...

About 3/4 notebooks I have installed ubuntu on had wireless issues that had to be solved by installing ndiswrapper. Stupid hardware vendors not supporting or writing drivers for linux :mad:
 
@ tera - goed om te sien jy's gewillig om iets nuuts te probeer.

Dis interessant, geniet dit! :)

Hoop jy kom reg met die hulp van almal :)
 
werner said:
from a terminal prompt do

lspci -v

and see what it says about your wlan card, then we can help some more once we know the exact make and model.
while you are there, run
iwconfig
and report back here what it says

one other thing that you can also try, also from terminal is to type

tail -f /var/log/messages
and leave the terminal window open, then turn the wlan switch on and off and see if it tells you anything..
Click to expand...
Here's the results:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at ff680000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
I/O ports at ec00
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at ff640000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at ff580000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at ff63c000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: ff200000-ff2fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at e880

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at e800

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at e480

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
I/O ports at e400

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at ff63bc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=09, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: ff300000-ff3fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at 01f0
I/O ports at 03f4
I/O ports at 0170
I/O ports at 0374
I/O ports at ffa0
Capabilities: <access denied>

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp. Unknown device 7128
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 17
Memory at ff2f0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

05:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 17
Memory at ff300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=05, secondary=06, subordinate=09, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 40000000-43fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 44000000-47fff000
I/O window 0: 0000d000-0000d0ff
I/O window 1: 0000d400-0000d4ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

05:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff40
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
I/O ports at d800
Memory at ff3ffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: <access denied>
Click to expand...

-
iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions
Click to expand...

tail -f /var/log/message
tail: cannot open `/var/log/message' for reading: No such file or directory
tail: no files remaining
Click to expand...
The Device Manager in Ubuntu is located as the last icon at the top of the screen (a red life saver) - just browse to the hardware section.
Click to expand...
I don't see it there, I just see the last icon as a green icon with a guy running, the life saver icon opens a help file, but it's to the top left, but not the last.
w1z4rd said:
teraside, install ndiswrapper and install the windows driver for the wireless device.
Click to expand...

I installed ndiswrapper, moved the laptop to the router. But the problem is I don't have the drivers in raw format, it asks for an "inf" file, but it's nowhere in the driver folder. I'm thinking I can get it somehow from Windows, I'll look now.
Edit: don't see the inf file drivers :(
 
Last edited:
Using 32bit, my head is spinning from those links :p
 
If you are using 32bit it looks like it can be fixed. At work at the moment so can't read it and go into detail. If you're still having trouble this evening I will look into it.
 
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