thehappypenguin wrote:

Hello, all. I recently started using linux and have discovered problems with the above devices. Are their any driver issues or what? I have linux Mandriva PowerPack Spring 2009.

Can you go into more detail about the problems you are experiencing? For example, what is the relevant output from:

dmesg

/var/log/messages

lspci

uname

thehappypenguin wrote:

It is not detecting any wireless networks and if i plug in the Ethernet cable there is no recognition.

Let's start with wired ethernet. Open a terminal window. I'm not familiar with Mandriva, but there should be a shortcut in your menu bar somewhere. In the terminal window, run the following command to display your network devices:

ifconfig

Eg, I get the following output:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:11:11:11:11  

          inet addr:192.168.1.4  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:862076 errors:0 dropped:39 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:2422236 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:89780594 (85.6 MiB)  TX bytes:3588500651 (3.3 GiB)

          Interrupt:10 Base address:0x8000 



lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:7228 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:7228 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:1395404 (1.3 MiB)  TX bytes:1395404 (1.3 MiB)

Here we see "eth0" which is my first ethernet (wired) network device, and "lo", the loopback device. If I had a wireless device, it might be listed as "wlan0", or "eth1", depending on the driver.

Also, check the contents of /proc/net/dev:

 cat /proc/net/dev 

The first column on the left (Interfaces) lists your network devices detected.

If you do indeed see "eth0" from these commands, then try this command to detect your ethernet cable connection:

 ethtool eth0

At the bottom of this output, you should see "Link detected: yes" if your ethernet cable is securely plugged in to your RJ-45 port and to a router/switch/cable model/whatever on the other side.

I know your pain. I run one of the first sony vaios to be released and I have to use a network card to access the internet. Well here's how I did it in Debian::

First and foremost, I had to locate the Windows Drivers. This was easy enough, now all I have to do is extract them using wine and rip out the .inf file that accompanies my wireless driver.

Got it.

You should see a file called bcm43xx.inf or bcmsomethingorother.inf... anything like that, it should be.... somewhat obvious.

Ok, now I need a program called "ndiswrapper", normally it can be built from module-assistant or acquired from whatever repository or method Mandriva uses.

Got it set up? good.

Now, cd to the location of the .inf file you extracted by running the .exe file for the driver.

Good, now run::

ndiswrapper -i *drivername*.inf

good, now do::

ndiswrapper -mi
or
ndiswrapper -m

This will write the module you just installed to your module section...
Well then, just one more thing; lets see if it worked.

run::

ndiswrapper -l

this will show you what drivers are installed and whether the hardware is recognized. If all is good, reboot. If all isn't consult someone else that knows more than I do.

After reboot, wifi-radar or whatever program you're using should be able to utilize the card so you can get online.

---

Hope that helped
-Goss