No Wi-Fi after installing Ubuntu 10.04

Question

I have an HP Pavilion dv6500 with a Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter. I installed Ubuntu 10.04 and the Wi-Fi doesn't work. I am new to Linux. How do I go about troubleshooting/fixing this?

Is there a diagnostic script I can run and post results from?

Solution 1

That card does need proprietary drivers if I remember correctly. Did you enable them? You will, however, need an optional Internet connection to download them, maybe using an ethernet connection. Then start Hardware Drivers from the System / Administration menu, and it will hopefully find a driver for your wifi.

Solution 2

I have recently moved to using Ubuntu on my laptop. After windows vista descided it was going to crash my whoel system, I wanted to go back to factory settings, but unfortunitly customer support from both Acer and Microsoft were not the best at helping do a simple task like resetting the laptop back to factory settings.

So I downloaded and installed Ubuntu (formatting the HD as the same time) and I did find I needed to re-install some drivers. Most of which Ubuntu had done. The WiFi onw was the only one that I think I needed to do myself, but after playing around in settings I found what I needed. I simply went to SYSTEM > ADMINISTRATION > ADDITIONAL DRIVERS. The OS then located 2 drivers to work with my Wifi adaptor. Was just a simple matter of putting my my WAP key for my router atfer that.

I like Ubuntu, one you get used to it, MS Windows seems a think of the past.

Solution 3

This may seem overly simplistic, but on a recent 10.04 install on my old Dell Inspiron, I had to use the hardware/BIOS 'toggle' [I think it was FN-F7] to get Ubuntu to see the network card. Installed many OSes before, and have never needed to toggle it on, but with 10.04 I did. Took me two days to realize the problem, but I was thankful it wasn't the proprietary driver issue.

Comments

[wazoox]

@Wayne, this is because vendors don't respect users' choice, not the other way around.

[Wayne Molina]

Of course, this doesn't work if your desktop only has a wireless card to connect because it's in another room away from the router...