Wireless Setup In Linux

[waterhead]

I wanted to make a more up to date thread for wireless card setup. I seem to keep repeating the same thing over and over, so I thought a dedicated thread would be better.

Setting Up A Wireless Card in Linux


Don't worry about trying to install NDISwrapper until you have identified the chipset that your wireless has. When you have all of the info, post it in a new thread.

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.

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

You will need to get some 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. 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:

lspci -nn

For Fedora:

/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:

lsusb

For Fedora:

/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:

lsmod

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

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:

dmesg | grep firmware

Please don't post the output of the above commands in this thread, start a new one for your wireless.

I will add things to this as I remember them. Any suggestions appreciated too.