Any Linux Wireless gurus around?

[CheeseRedux]

I've got a bit of an odd problem.

I installed Mint on my old laptop a while back. At the time, I thought I had to do some tinkering in order to get my wireless to work. Why did I think that? Because whatever I tried, I was unable to get my wireless light to turn on. Only after a lot of mucking around with ndiswrapper and Windows drivers and every conceivable tutorial did I accidentally discover than under Mint my wireless light doesn't turn on as such, it blinks...
Anyway, at that point I had the wireless working, or at least I thought so. (Since I was using a network cable and didn't move the laptop from my flat, I didn't check too thoroughly.) The first time I tried it in earnest was about three weeks ago at the local library, where it connected with no issues.

Then I moved. And where I've moved the Net is wireless only. And it won't let me connect.
If I run Mint from the live dvd I used to install it, it works like a charm. If I boot up ye olde XP partition (as I have now), ditto. But booting Mint from the hard drive? No dice. The light is on (well, blinking), and it can find any wireless network in the area, but connecting is a no-go.

I've tried the Mint forums with no success.
At this point, I figure the easiest solution may be to just reinstall the os and see if that fixes things. (Since it works from the live dvd, it should work with a fresh unmolested install, right?)
I'm a bit apprehensive though. My only real experience is using Unix two decades ago, so I'm not exactly an expert... Will I need to backup my personal data first? Or perhaps a better alternative, create a separate partition for my own stuff?

Or is there someone here who knows how to fix my mess?

[Diziet Sma]

Wouldn't say I'm a guru, but I'll do what I can.. I have Mint running happily via wireless on my laptop. First Linux OS I've had zero wireless hassles with, in fact.

I'm using Mint15 with the Cinnamon desktop, and I must admit it has the easiest wireless networking interface I've ever used in Linux. I'm even considering upgrading my desktop (currently has Mint13 LTS) to it.

First question is, what version of Mint, and what desktop are you running? Also, please provide the make and model of your laptop, and could you please open a terminal, enter lspci and post the results here?

[CheeseRedux]

Heh. It never rains but it pours... The Mint forum that ignored my question for two weeks suddenly decided to help after all.

modprobe -r ndiswrapper and modprobe iwl3945 was all it took...

(Now all I have to figure out is how to make that thing permanent. I guess ripping out ndiswrapper is a good first step.)

Not that is matter much at this point, but since you asked:

inxi -Fxz:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: Alice Kernel: 3.8.0-19-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.7.3) 
           Desktop: Gnome  (Gtk 2.24.17) Distro: Linux Mint 15 Olivia
Machine:   System: Dell product: MM061
           Mobo: Dell model: 0XD720 Bios: Dell version: A15 date: 04/20/2007
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 CPU T5600 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7314.6 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515/M54 [Mobility Radeon X1400] bus-ID: 01:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.13.3 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected] 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV515 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.8.0-19-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 ver: 2.0 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection driver: iwl3945 ver: in-tree:s bus-ID: 0b:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 161.1GB (24.5% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: SAMSUNG_HM160JI size: 160.0GB 
           2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: USB_FLASH_DRIVE size: 1.0GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 43G used: 37G (91%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 2.14GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.5C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 177 Uptime: 48 min Memory: 698.5/2015.5MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.7.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 

lspci:

Code: Select all

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV515/M54 [Mobility Radeon X1400]
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
03:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

[Diziet Sma]

Heh. It never rains but it pours... The Mint forum that ignored my question for two weeks suddenly decided to help after all.

modprobe -r ndiswrapper and modprobe iwl3945 was all it took...

(Now all I have to figure out is how to make that thing permanent. I guess ripping out ndiswrapper is a good first step.)

I'm glad you were able to get the help you needed..

lspci:

Code: Select all

0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

And yep.. I have the exact same wireless chip in my laptop, and can confirm that you definitely don't need ndiswrapper.. I'm guessing that was the source of your problems.

Edit: I see someone has now posted in the Mint Forums thread, after your reply, detailing how to get rid of ndiswrapper, in case you have trouble killing it off.

[Diziet Sma]

perhaps a better alternative, create a separate partition for my own stuff?

Since you asked, I thought I'd offer you some advice on this question anyway..

Having a separate /home partition is an exceptionally good idea. I do it with all my Linux installs. I'd suggest allocating about 20GB for the / partition (should be way more than you'll ever need - mine currently occupies about 13GB), 2GB for swap, and the rest for /home. This will make it much easier when you upgrade to Mint 16 or 17 down the track.

There are guides available that will walk you through the process of doing this to a live system.. but as your Linux partition is 91% full already, they won't really work for you. You might want to think about shrinking the XP partition some, to give your Linux side some more elbow room. (Doing that from within XP probably makes the most sense, although it can be done using GParted)

Then, back up your data, split the current Linux partition up as suggested above, and reinstall. Also, I strongly recommend you NOT use the option to encrypt your /home partition. Due to some poorly handled complexities relating to user passwords and encryption on the part of Ubuntu & Mint, if you ever have the misfortune to need to recover the data from another computer or a recovery disk, even following the steps that should let you access the encrypted data won't work. (Don't ask me how I discovered this.. all I'll say is, thank goodness for backups!) I'm hoping they'll get it sorted before too long, as I really would like to have it encrypted.

[CheeseRedux]

Yah, there's plenty of available real estate on the XP partition; 51.5 gigs, to be exact. When I did the first install I had a lot more on the XP side, but I've been migrating data since then, hence the full-ish Mint partition. At the time of first installation it was a (long overdue) test project, so I had to keep some growing space for the XP as well, in case it fell through.
Basically what I did was to delete everything unneeded from the hard drive and then allocate half of the free space to Mint. The plan was to then make more space as needed.

I'd really prefer to avoid any reinstalling if possible; I've spent some time making the setup nice and cozy and don't fancy doing it again until it's time for an actual upgrade. Comes with being a lazy bugger, I guess. (For the same reason I've been thinking about switching to the LMDE at some point.)

[Diziet Sma]

Well, keep it in mind for next time..

Or nuke the XP partition and turn it into a /home partition. This will help.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Parti ... ome/Moving

Or.. do what I recently did. I'd been keeping a Vista partition on my laptop for a long time, as I need to keep a copy of Windows around for being able to provide tech-support to family and friends, but I finally bit the bullet and wiped the laptop clean, then installed Mint 15. Now I use Linux exclusively on both my computers, but I keep Windows around in a VirtualBox virtual machine installed on the laptop just in case it's needed. So far, I've had no need for it at all.

[CheeseRedux]

So far, I've had no need for it at all.

Same here, really. Except for dealing with the wireless mess I made, I've had no reason to boot XP at all, and don't foresee ever needing it again. Plan is to eventually shrink that partition down to a minimum, just in case. Once I get around to upgrading the hardware, I'll be leaving it behind for good. (Or until it becomes good, which amounts to the same thing.)