So, I just purchased a shiny new Inspiron 1525 laptop. As soon as I got it I installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) on the box. I would have purchased it from dell with Ubuntu, but I didnt find out till AFTER I bought it, that dell makes Ubuntu computers :). Anyway.
I installed my Vista/Ubuntu standard dualboot, yet I couldn't get my networking (wifi) working under Ubuntu. So, I installed ndiswrapper, and to my happiness it worked!
Then, a few days later I was playing with wpa_supplicant, to try and get on the encrypted network at university (which doesn't officially support linux, they use SecureW2 for win****). And, I somehow messed up my wifi.. so again, nothing worked.
I updated all the updates I could find, and I reinstalled ndiswrapper with the driver I was using before. And nothing works.. I can see the networks in Ubuntu, and I can "connect" to them.. but then nothing happens. I can't ping anything, and I can't access anything on the network.
Maybe you wanna check with Ubuntu forums? I am not sure what's happening, mine (a different wireless adpator on Inspiron 1420) works flawlessly without using any ndiswrapper.
After talking with the Ubuntu community forum, they mentioned to come here and look for drivers. If I purchased the dell ubuntu laptop (1525), what drivers would it use? And can I download them anywhere.. I dont know why dell doesn't just put their linux drivers on their site with the xp/vista ones.
Everytime I try calling dell, I also always get outsourced to india.. which, is exactly what made me boycott microsoft.
So your Inspiron 1525 is preloaded with Ubuntu? I guess call Dell support is your only choice then... If all else fails, you might want to find out what is the chipset of your wireless card and search the web for Linux solution.
I also installed Ubuntu on my new Dell Vista laptop, but cannot get the same wireless N card to work at all.
When I received my mini 9 with Ubuntu already installed, the wireless network was fine right out of the box. Is it possible that I can "grab" the driver from my mini 9 to use on my 15" laptop?
No.. I bought the Inspiron 1525 preloaded with Vista.. because Ubuntu (a free operating system) somehow drives up the cost of your dell ~$200. So, I know Dell makes an ubuntu wifi driver, because the wifi works on ubuntu preloaded boxes.
There just has to be somewhere to download this driver.
Also, the dell ubuntu 8.04 ISO is out of the option for me, since I need dualboot on my computer.
Message Edited by Hexbomber on 10-17-2008 10:35 AM
I have no idea of how to make the wifi work if even ndiswrapper fail. The other option you have is to download Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. I have read that it supports more wifi adapters than 8.04, maybe you want to try the liveCD and see how it goes? If the wifi adapter is the same as the Inspiron Mini 9, you are in luck as I have read many users have the wifi working oput of the box with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta.
So, after much work. Here is what I have come across.. if I let my laptop idle for about 30 minutes, it somehow finds a way to connect to my school network. Which is really bizarre. Also, as for an actual linux driver for this card, apparently it exists. I talked to dell support (which takes forever, trying to get someone who actually speaks english). I was eventually told that their is a dell ubuntu iso, which has the driver. This begs the question... why is the driver just not available for download off the site.
The dell ubuntu iso doesn't have support for dualbooting, and it's a destructive install, so it formats everything on your harddrive... Why does dell insisit on using this rather then a regular ubuntu install just with the drivers!
I downloaded and installed the Ubuntu 8.10 beta, and it DOES have the driver for my Dell wireless N card built in. I had to do nothing - it recognized my wi-fi card.
I then rebooted and verified that Vista still operates in its own partititon - no problem!
dwma
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Posted October 13th, 2008 02:00