suse 10.1 problems

[n00bielin]

hi
i have the following computer http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1157067806537

i'm having couple problems
1) the sound isn't working (there's always an x on the speaker icon)
2) the wireless card seems to be disabled

can someone help me fix these

thanks

[yourname3232]

Nice computer. Can you open a terminal and type "lspci" and tell us what the output is? You don't need the quotes.

[n00bielin]

here is what i'm seeing

Host bridge: ati technologies inc rs480 host bridge (rev 10)
pci bridge: ati technologies inc rs480 pci bridge
pci bridge: ati technologies inc unknown device 5a36
pci bridge: ati technologies inc unknown device 5a37
usb controller: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 usb host controller (rev 80)
usb controller: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 usb host controller (rev 80)
usb controller: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 usb2 host controller (rev 80)
smbus: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 smbus controller (rev 83)
ide interface: ati technologies inc standard dual channel pci ide controller ati (rev 80)
audio device: ati technologies inc unknown device 437b (rev 01)
isa bridge: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 pci-isa bridge (rev 80)
pci bridge: ati technologies inc ixp sb400 pci-isa bridge (rev 80)
host bridge: advanced micro device [amd] k8 [athlon64/optron] hypertransport technology configuration
host bridge: advanced micro device [amd] k8 [athlon64/optron] address map
host bridge: advanced micro device [amd] k8 [athlon64/optron] dram controller
host bridge: advanced micro device [amd] k8 [athlon64/optron] miscellaneous control
vga compatible controller: ati technologies inc rs482 [radeon xpress 200m]
ethernet controller: marvell technology group ltd. 88e8038 pci-e fast ethernet controller (rev 14)
network controller: broadcom corporation unknown device 4311 (rev 01)
cardbus bridge: texas instruments unknown device 8039
firewall (ieee 1394): texas instruments unknown device 803a
mass storage controller: teas instruments unknown device 803b

[yourname3232]

Well your wireless card is a broadcom based one. Those have lousy linux support. You will need ndiswrapper to get the card working. There are many howto's on this forum and on google to help you with that. I don't know about your soundcard though. It is a "ati technologies inc unknown device 437b (rev 01)" and that could mean a number of things. I don't know how to get your sound working, maybe someone else around here does.\

Edit: Here is a good howto from the ndiswrapper site. Also you can install ndiswrapper from YaST as it is included on the disk (I think)

Edit: One thing I do remember about suse was that you have to modprobe ndiswrapper every startup. You may want to but "modprobe ndiswrapper" in the /etc/init.d/boot.local (or something close to that) to have the computer do it for you.

[n00bielin]

when i go to http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...x.php/List#0-9 there are no ati drivers.
when i go to windows\inf\ there are many inf files that start with ati (ati1xwdm.inf, atixpaa.inf,atixpag.inf,atim128.inf,atimpab.inf, atirage3.inf,atividin.inf, atixpwdm.info) which one should i use?


should i switch to ubuntu? would that solve these problems?

[yourname3232]

Switching to Ubuntu won't solve these problems. Right now you are trying to get a broadcom 4311 card working. It is the wireless. I don't know what to do to get the sound working though. The driver for your card isn't specifically on that list however I suspect that number 55 will work. This will only get your wireless working should this work.

[felipe1982]

hi
i have the following computer http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1157067806537

I sincerely hope that you got a refund for the preinstalled windows ! ! !

[n00bielin]

i actually do use my windows partition for games and such. Now i'm thinking of formatting and going back to all windows since linux isn't working for my laptop

[yourname3232]

Yes, ATI and broadcom parts mostly. Not the most linux friendly at all. I bet if you kept with it you could eventually get it working though.

[felipe1982]

Yes, ATI and broadcom parts mostly. Not the most linux friendly at all. I bet if you kept with it you could eventually get it working though.

Perhaps this is true. But this begs the question, "Is it worth it?"

I'm new to the open-source community so i ask this: would changing distros improve the Original-Poster's experience with his laptop?