Something is missing

[er_cake]

Rebooting was the first thing I tried after nothing came up. I didn't follow a guide, I folled the instructions in the ndiswrapper readme. When the wlan0 still didn't work, I then started looking up various solutions. One of them suggested blacklisting ssb. But I've undone everything from ndiswrapper, including deleting ssb from the blacklist. lsmod still doesn't show b43 as running.

[root@localhost Cake]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
fuse                   49436  2 
bridge                 43796  0 
stp                     6148  1 bridge
bnep                   14848  2 
rfcomm                 33936  4 
l2cap                  21504  16 bnep,rfcomm
bluetooth              48608  5 bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
sunrpc                156052  3 
ipt_REJECT              6656  2 
nf_conntrack_ipv4      11528  7 
iptable_filter          6528  1 
ip_tables              13840  1 iptable_filter
ip6t_REJECT             7296  2 
xt_tcpudp               6656  12 
nf_conntrack_ipv6      15864  7 
xt_state                5888  14 
nf_conntrack           51424  3 nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_state
ip6table_filter         6400  1 
ip6_tables             14736  1 ip6table_filter
x_tables               15236  6 ipt_REJECT,ip_tables,ip6t_REJECT,xt_tcpudp,xt_state,ip6_tables
cpufreq_ondemand        9868  1 
powernow_k8            18692  0 
loop                   17164  0 
dm_multipath           17292  0 
scsi_dh                 9476  1 dm_multipath
radeon                119172  2 
drm                   146276  3 radeon
ipv6                  230644  24 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6
snd_atiixp             18828  3 
snd_seq_dummy           6660  0 
8139cp                 21504  0 
snd_atiixp_modem       15496  0 
snd_ac97_codec         95140  2 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem
ac97_bus                5504  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_oss            30492  0 
pcspkr                  6272  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      9600  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48576  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
joydev                 12736  0 
snd_seq_device          9996  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            42496  0 
snd_mixer_oss          16896  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                65924  4 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
8139too                24708  0 
yenta_socket           24972  1 
rsrc_nonstatic         13696  1 yenta_socket
snd_timer              22024  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
k8temp                  7936  0 
hwmon                   6300  1 k8temp
mii                     8192  2 8139cp,8139too
snd                    50744  17 snd_atiixp,snd_seq_dummy,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               9416  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         11016  3 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_pcm
sr_mod                 17064  0 
cdrom                  32792  1 sr_mod
video                  20496  0 
output                  6528  1 video
wmi                     9640  0 
mos7720                20484  0 
i2c_piix4              12688  0 
usbserial              30252  1 mos7720
sg                     31156  0 
i2c_core               21396  2 drm,i2c_piix4
dm_snapshot            19364  0 
dm_zero                 5632  0 
dm_mirror              19968  0 
dm_log                 12164  1 dm_mirror
dm_mod                 48692  10 dm_multipath,dm_snapshot,dm_zero,dm_mirror,dm_log
pata_acpi               7680  0 
ata_generic             8452  0 
pata_atiixp             8320  2 
libata                135148  3 pata_acpi,ata_generic,pata_atiixp
sd_mod                 32668  3 
scsi_mod              123772  5 scsi_dh,sr_mod,sg,libata,sd_mod
crc_t10dif              5632  1 sd_mod
ext3                  109192  2 
jbd                    43284  1 ext3
mbcache                10244  1 ext3
uhci_hcd               23312  0 
ohci_hcd               24336  0 
ehci_hcd               33164  0

[waterhead]

Manually load the b43 driver, and see if the wireless works.

modprobe b43

You may first need to set it up. Open the Network program with this command.

system-config-network

Click on the wireless, then the "Edit" icon. Make sure you check the boxes for
"Controlled by NetworkManager"
"Allow all users to enable and disable the device"
"Automatically obtain IP address with: dhcp

[er_cake]

Opened up system config network, b43 showed up in hardware. Those options were checked when I edited it. I restarted the network devices, wlan0 still shows up as inactive, with no way to make it active.

[waterhead]

Since this card didn't work with either NDISwrapper or b43, something out-of-the-ordinary is wrong here. The fact that it didn't automatically load the b43 driver is unusual.

If this is a built-in wireless on a laptop, there may be an on/off switch or keyboard shortcut keys (Fn + Fx). This did not work too good in older versions of Linux, and could be fixed by using a version with a newer kernel.

If this is a PCI card in a desktop, try removing it from the slot and then reinserting it. It may not be fully inserted into the PCI slot, or the slot could be dirty.

Also post the entire output of this command.

dmesg

The output is very large. If you need to transfer this file to a Windows PC to post it, you can directly output it as a text file.

dmesg > dmesg.txt

The text file can then be found in your home folder.

[er_cake]

Interesting. Not once did I think about that, because the light never came on, orange or blue. I will be sure to try that when I get home. If that's the case, I'm going to kick myself soooo hard.

[waterhead]

One other that is worth a try. If you can't upgrade to the newest kernel, you can always just install the latest wireless drivers. You can download the source package from here.

Download - Linux Wireless

This requires a kernel >= 2.6.22. You will be compiling the driver modules. so you should have these programs installed first:

kernel-devel
kernel-headers
gcc
make

[er_cake]

Problem solved. I can't express in enough expletives how fscking stupid I feel right now. The problem, was exactly as posted above. The wireless card wasn't turned on. In XP, when the card was turned off the light would be orange. The light never even turned on in fedora, so I never even thought about it. But as soon as I pushed the button, the light turned blue. !@#$! Thanks guys for all your wonderful help, and idears. So, for future googlers who are having wireless trouble, DID YOU MAKE SURE YOU TURNED ON THE CARD??? Fuuuuuuuudge.


This is like that one time my buddy called me for help with his computer. He said it wouldn't turn on. First thing I asked him "Scotty, is it plugged in?" He told me "Of course it's plugged in, you think I'm an idiot?" A thirty minute drive later, I replied, "Yes, I do think you're an idiot."

Again, thank you everyone for your time, effort, patience, and help.

[waterhead]

Good News!

Bananas for all!

[jayd512]

Good job on sticking with it!
Here's a couple more for ya!