Dell Ubuntu Wireless Network Setup

Question

Trying to connect to a Linksys router with WEP enable and essid broadcast disabled.

I have a Dell 1420 with Ubuntu 7.04 and some proprietary drivers installed by Dell. I open System\Administrator\Network and I get a list of three items:

Wireless connection with a minus sign next to it

Wired connection with a check next to it

Modem connection with a minus sign next to it.

I click on wireless connection and then on Properties.

Enable roaming mode is checked and the rest of the items are grayed out.

Now in the rest of the universe there is a way of getting a list of wireless routers in the area -- with and without WEP. There is nothing appearent here.

So I uncheck Enable roaming mode and fill in the ESSID for my router and the first WEP hex key. I set Configuration to Automatic configuration (DHCP) and press OK. Nothing happens. If I go back into properties the system does not have an IP address. My router does not show the NIC for the machine.

The Dell wiki site is worthless. It does not even have the correct instructions to get to anything related to networking. It says System\Adminstration\Networking which does not exist so it appearent that Dell never actually tried its wireless instructions.

How do I check to see that the wireless hardware that I paid for is actually installed on the machine? Assuming it is how do I connect it to my wireless router?

(I also tried the Ubuntu community site but, although there is a tab for 7.04, they really only have documentation for 6.)

Message Edited by LinuxOn1420 on 09-24-2007 01:07 AM

DMN682 · Answer

If you left-click on the Wireless Networking Icon in the top panel (next to the volume control icon), the list of detected networks appears. Select the one you want. If a password is needed, you will be prompted it. Then she will connect. Don't use the System > Admin > Network dialog. Leave it in roaming mode.

LinuxOn1420 · Answer

>If you left-click on the Wireless Networking Icon in the top panel (next to the volume control icon), >the list of detected networks appears   That is what I am looking for.  Unfortunately, I could not get to it:   I went into System\Administration\Network, selected the wireless item, clicked on properties and checked enable roaming mode.  I then pressed Ok and Close.   In the right hand side of the top panel there are four items (from right to left) and when I mouse over them I see:      Log off, switch user, lock screen or poser down the computer      Click to view your appointments and tasks      Font: 80%   (This is the volume control.  I don't know why the mouse over is Font)      Manual network configuration (This is what appears to be two monitors slightly offset)   If I position over the last item and left click the only thing that shows up is Manual configuration.  If I click on that I get to Network Settings (which is where System\Administration\Network gets you.   I went into BIOS setup and check the Wireless settings:      Internal Bluetooth     Enabled      Internal Wi-Fi           Enabled      Internal Cellular        Enabled      Wireless Switch      All      Wi-Fi Catcher          Enabled The above are also the factory default settings. The BIOS says something about using the QuickSet application to configure and view the Wi-Fi Catcher advanced options but I think that is a Windows application.   Any suggestions?

LinuxCruiser · Answer

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Hash: SHA1

Sorry to hear you're having some frustrations. Here's where some of your
issues are stemming from.

"System -> Administration -> Network"
This applet is Gnome's network administration utility. When you use this
tool, your are really just editing a file called /etc/network/interfaces.
It's NOT the best way for you to manage your networking with Ubuntu
releases version 7.04 and beyond.

The new way of managing all of your networking components is through
"NetworkManager", which uses "dbus". This is actually the default network
status applet in your upper right hand corner easily identified by right
clicking on the icon, and selecting "About".

The problem you may have inadvertently introduced by using the other is
that since the /etc/network/interfaces file has some definitions of network
interfaces in there, "NetworkManager" will not attempt, nor let you,
configure networking through it.

The best way to clear up the issue is to simply remove everything from the
/etc/network/interfaces file, replacing it with:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

After editing this file, you will then want to restart dbus. But not
knowing what other factors may get in the way, simply reboot your machine.

After logging into your desktop... make sure that your wireless card (if
using proprietary drivers) is selected for use under "System ->
Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager". If all is good there...
move on to "left clicking" on the NetworkManager applet in the upper right
hand corner of your screen.

If there are wireless networks in the area, you'll see the SSID's listed.
If you don't see yours (which is probably the case since you said it was
hidden), simply select "Connect to other wireless network". This allows
you to enter all the necessary settings for your wireless network.
Once complete, you should be able to see your NetworkManager applet begin
an animation sequence letting you know it's trying to connect.

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DeathsOverture · Answer

If the above doesn't work:

Did you buy Ubuntu pre-installed by Dell? How did it go?

What wireless card are you using? If you don't know, go to System -> Preferences -> Hardware information. Press ctrl + f and search for "WLAN Interface." One step up should tell you what wireless card you have. For me it says "Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card."

Be sure that wireless is enabled in your router ;)

Maybe if you enabled essid broadcast in your router you could find out if your wireless card is communicating with linux. An alternative is to use someone else's signal.

With the wireless card enabled (Fn+f3 usually... looks like a cell tower and the wifi light should be illuminated upon activation) and roaming mode enabled, enter the terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type sudo iwlist scanning and hit enter. If there is a sight in range, the command should return it for the wireless interface ( eth1 for me). If it doesn't return a site list for any interfaces (AND you know you have a wireless router in your range) then the issue is most likely being caused by your driver, or an absence of a driver. Hopefully it's not the absence of hardware.

I had to use ndiswrapper to get my wireless going, not restricted drivers manager. But then again I manually installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my Inspiron E1505 before I heard about Dell's offer.

Message Edited by DeathsOverture on 09-25-2007 11:27 AM

LinuxOn1420 · Answer

>The best way to clear up the issue is to simply remove everything from the
>/etc/network/interfaces file, replacing it with:

>auto lo
>iface lo inet loopback

>After editing this file, you will then want to restart dbus. But not
>knowing what other factors may get in the way, simply reboot your machine.

The only extra lines were:

lface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0

I removed them, saved the file and restarted the system. Right clicked on the NetworkManager and setup my wireless connection.

Thanks.

LinuxCruiser · Answer

Yup... that would do it. Great news, and glad we could help.

LinuxOn1420 · Answer

One additional item -- folks should know that when you set up the wireless connection the wired one gets grayed out.  It is only selectable when you have a network cable plugged into the laptop.  The Network Manager will only allow one or the other (wired or wireless) to be active at a time.  This could be a problem for folks that need to connect to two networks at one time - wireless and wired.  (I once had a machine with three network cards that was connected to three wired seperate networks at the same time.)

Claude B · Answer

@LinuxOn1420 wrote:

One additional item -- folks should know that when you set up the wireless connection the wired one gets grayed out. It is only selectable when you have a network cable plugged into the laptop. The Network Manager will only allow one or the other (wired or wireless) to be active at a time. This could be a problem for folks that need to connect to two networks at one time - wireless and wired. (I once had a machine with three network cards that was connected to three wired seperate networks at the same time.)

You need to understand that NetworkManager is described by its development team as an attempt to make networking invisible to the end user. So it keeps it simple: Ethernet, otherwise to with the wireless. If you fail to connect to your usual network, it will try to connect to another known network, then to an unsecured net in range.

If you need a more complex setup, with lots of LAN cards, static IP, routing, tunneling and stuff like that, you'll have to go through a more traditional approach (on a terminal, writing to conf files and editing init scripts). It's more involved, takes some googling and reading, but the capabilities are there.

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Dell Ubuntu Wireless Network Setup

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