acer 5315 no wireless connection

[smokeyone]

I am almost a newbie to linux/ubuntu 9.04 but decided to do a clean install on my laptop. The only trouble is I have no wireless connection (wireless was okay in vista). I have researched various forums and many people seem to have the same troubles although a few have been lucky with ubuntu working straight away. Where do I begin to try and solve the problem please. If a forum reader asks for a log report - do I Type Alt f2 where a box opens to run an application -
I said I was a newbie....

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

[reed9]

Hi. Can you also open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), type

lsmod

and post the output.

[smokeyone]

Module Size Used by
isofs 39844 0
udf 87716 1
crc_itu_t 10112 1 udf
i915 67844 2
drm 96424 3 i915
binfmt_misc 16776 1
ppdev 15620 0
bridge 56212 0
stp 10500 1 bridge
bnep 20224 2
input_polldev 11912 0
joydev 18368 0
lp 17156 0
parport 42220 2 ppdev,lp
snd_hda_intel 435252 3
snd_pcm_oss 46336 0
snd_mixer_oss 22656 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 83076 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 10756 0
snd_seq_oss 37760 0
snd_seq_midi 14336 0
snd_rawmidi 29696 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 15104 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 56880 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 29704 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14988 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
arc4 9856 2
ecb 10752 2
ath5k 107520 0
snd 62756 15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,sn d_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_de vice
mac80211 217592 1 ath5k
soundcore 15200 1 snd
acer_wmi 24260 0
psmouse 61972 0
intel_agp 34108 1
snd_page_alloc 16904 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
led_class 12036 2 ath5k,acer_wmi
video 25872 0
cfg80211 38288 2 ath5k,mac80211
serio_raw 13444 0
pcspkr 10496 0
agpgart 42696 3 drm,intel_agp
iTCO_wdt 19108 0
iTCO_vendor_support 11652 1 iTCO_wdt
output 11008 1 video
tg3 131204 0
fbcon 46112 0
tileblit 10752 1 fbcon
font 16384 1 fbcon
bitblit 13824 1 fbcon
softcursor 9984 1 bitblit

[reed9]

First thing to try is updating the drivers.

Make sure you have backports enabled in your software sources. System->Administration->Software Sources, select the Updates tab, check Unsupported Updates (jaunty-backports)

I believe it should automatically ask to refresh your sources after that, which you should do. If not, open a terminal and do

sudo apt-get update

then do

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

Restart and see if it works now.

Also, I believe this card works better under Ubuntu 9.10 now, which is out in a week or so.

[smokeyone]

Brilliant, Fantastic, Thanks Very Much Indeed -

Followed your instructions - software sources/updates tab
checked unsupported updates
box appeared asking about uploading updates - said yes
I unplugged cable internet
and then a few seconds later the magic word netgear appeared in the top
right hand corner of the screen by the internet connection box.
Tried to connect via Firefox and success.
The word netgear now has a 28% figure by the side of it but the connection is still working. What does the 28% mean - signal strength for instance.

Thank you very much for the help again

[reed9]

Yes, that is signal strength.

[reed9]

Wait, did you do this part

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

That's what actually installs the newer drivers. Otherwise it's working as it was.

[smokeyone]

Whoops.......

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunt

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package linux-backports-modules-jaunt

[reed9]

Whoops.......

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunt

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package linux-backports-modules-jaunt

You left out the y in jaunty.

[smokeyone]

Sorry about that - should have done a cut & paste...........................

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-2.6.28-11 linux-headers-2.6.28-11-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
linux-backports-modules-2.6.28-15-generic
linux-backports-modules-jaunty-generic
The following NEW packages will be installed
linux-backports-modules-2.6.28-15-generic linux-backports-modules-jaunty
linux-backports-modules-jaunty-generic
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 1288kB of archives.
After this operation, 4198kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

etc etc

Please could you tell me how these drivers are better than the ones we found earlier......