Wireless Card Not detected

[#pipe]

Hey people, My wireless card is not being detected by Vector.  I know it works because I was using it when i had xp on, as soon as i switched to Vector, Vector cant even find it!  I have tried lspci and its not there, my Ethernet Card is but not the wireless, tried lsusb just in case but no luck there either.  I would have thought that it would at least detect something is there even if it cant identify it.  I have no idea what kind of card it is however i do know that it uses netathw and netathwx drivers so i installed them using ndiswrapper, and i installed net5211 just for good measure, and its still not there.  ndiswrapper acknowledges that they are installed but the hardware isn't present.  The only instance i know of with this is it has happened with debian when a driver wasn't being handled properly and the only solution was to switch to ubuntu til the issue was resolved.  I am hoping someone here has a better solution because I am using a netbook with the worst support in history, even the manufacturer doesn't know what goes in it other than its got an Intel Atom chipset!  plus the fact it has no dvd drive so i have to mess around with usb installations (nasty) if i want to switch OS.  I am starting to get used to Vector and love it so would really rather not change but i cant live without wireless, Please help?

Cheers

Martin

[hata_ph]

Pls provide your version of VL, output of lspci, lsusb and lsmod..thanks

[budulay]

First of all you need to identify the card.
To do that you could try to look what drivers are loaded in win XP.
Another thing is if you still have ubuntu installed you might want to run lsmod there and compare it to the one in VL. That's what helped me to get my card to work.
If both options fail, you might have to open up the netbook and look for the card, but hopefully lspci will help you to avoid that(however, it should be pretty easy to find the card, so you might want to consider this to save the time, unless of course you still have the warranty).

[#pipe]

hey, sorry for late reply, getting internet access is kind of hard without my wireless.

Here are the details you asked or:
- VL 6.0 Standard Edition Gold
- The windows drivers are netathw and netathwx

lspci Output:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev ff)

lsmod Output:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by

i915                   30208  1

drm                    70824  2 i915

snd_seq_dummy           3716  0

snd_seq_oss            31872  0

snd_seq_midi_event      6912  1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq                48368  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device          7436  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss            37408  0

snd_mixer_oss          15104  1 snd_pcm_oss

speedstep_lib           4740  0

acpi_cpufreq            7948  1

freq_table              4352  1 acpi_cpufreq

snd_hda_codec_realtek   190340  1

uvcvideo               54408  0

rtc_cmos               10144  0

compat_ioctl32          2048  1 uvcvideo

rtc_core               15132  1 rtc_cmos

videodev               33792  1 uvcvideo

rtc_lib                 3328  1 rtc_core

v4l1_compat            14852  2 uvcvideo,videodev

i2c_i801                9616  0

i2c_core               21268  1 i2c_i801

serio_raw               6020  0

video                  17040  0

snd_hda_intel          25544  2

iTCO_wdt               10916  0

output                  3456  1 video

snd_hda_codec          60928  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel

snd_hwdep               7812  1 snd_hda_codec

snd_pcm                67972  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec

snd_timer              19976  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    51492  16 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer

r8169                  27780  0

mii                     5376  1 r8169

soundcore               7008  1 snd

snd_page_alloc          8840  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

evdev   

lsusb output:

Code:

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0ac8:3420 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp.

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Sorry, I never installed Ubuntu, it was what some other guy did, I will try and get my hands on a live usb though or make one.

Cheers for the help

Martin

[hata_ph]

BTW, what is the brand and model of your wireless card? build in or USB?

[#pipe]

i don't know thats part of the problem, the company that makes it(zoostorm) don't even know and i cant get the casing off to find out because the screws are a weird size.

[hata_ph]

What is the model of your laptop?

[#pipe]

its a zoostorm freedom.  I have tried searching a lot, there is very little information out there about it, i had to do a lot of searching to get the mouse working properly and that turned up next to nothing.  The only details of hardware was that its Intel Atom chipset and the working specs, no manufacturer and model of anything.  Sorry

[hata_ph]

Yup. It was hard to find any info about the detail spec of the laptop. From your lspci, there is no mention of any wireless device. I think it is not supported by the current version of VL, maybe due to not the latest version of kernel. Maybe you can try using other latest distro such as ubuntu.

BTW, there is another way. Reinstall windows and check the wireless driver from there. The search again for the wireless support issue. But that mean a whole lot of process.....

[newt]

Don't know if this is much help since the device does not show in lspci or lsusb, but FWIW:

Looks to be a Atheros AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter
Here's a link that may be helpful: http://chains-log.co.uk/?p=958

[#pipe]

hey, i have been on that site before, infact the second off bottom comment is mine.  the laptop is the same that virgin give away with a certain package so i got a copy of the drivers from a friend who works there, but still no details. Looks like trying another distro

[newt]

Looks like trying another distro

Sad, but true. The only other thing I can think of would be to try the (Beta3) VectorLinux 6 SOHO that's near completion. It uses a much newer kernel with may support your hardware better.  If you want to try this then you only need to download the first CD to get a working system - the second CD is mostly just nice extras. Once you have a bootable system check and see if your hardware shows up using (lspci and lsusb).

[#pipe]

sounds like a plan, can i get it to work from USB because netbooks stupidly dont do things like  cd readers!!

[newt]

I can't definitively answer that question because I've never tried, but I would assume that you can get it to work just as you have with VL6 Standard. Also, in case you didn't already see the release announcement, you'll find the download link here: http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=11215.0

[#pipe]

    Good news and Bad news, but improvements none-the-less.  Good news is, wireless now works and I found the problem, bad news I am using Ubuntu.  It turns out the wireless card is USB and must be turned on before lsusb will recognise it, it is a software button on my keyboard (Fn+F1).  In Vector my keyboard doesn't map properly and a few buttons are in the wrong place, I put up with it due to the fact it's a 80 key board (netbook), however the windows key didn't work and neither does the hot keys like the one required to turn on my wireless card.
    Once the wireless card is turned on in Ubuntu, lsusb now adds the following line:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp.

and it now shows up under iwconfig where it didn't before and functions as it should.
    Is there anyway to get this key working in Vector?  I really don't like Ubuntu, not least because of the layout in the netbook remix but they don't let me log in as root and sudo does my head in lol.

Cheers

Martin