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    Lenovo 3000 C Series, wireless networking card

    I've set up a Lenovo laptop with Kubuntu 13.10 for my roommate. Fortunately, it runs fast enough even on this old hardware. The model:

    Lenovo 3000 C Series C200(89222FU)

    Unfortunately, the wireless networking isn't working. I ran it plugged in via an ethernet cable -- the wired networking runs fine. But when I pull out the cable, I just get a red X. If I click on the icon in the panel there, it lists the wired networking info, but none of the wireless networks here.

    On my Kubuntu laptop, you can see our two networks (one for the computers and another for the TV) and a few networks that belong to the neighbors. Doesn't happen when I click on the network icon for this Lenovo that we just got. There's a switch on the front to turn on the wireless card. I made sure it was in the on position. I tried it in each position. There's also a function key (F5) that appears to have a networking icon. I tried Fn+F5 to no avail.

    I've been googling and googling trying to find a Linux wireless driver for this thing and am at the point of pulling my hair out. Here are just a few of the driver pages I've found for this laptop:

    http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/rese...ID=MIGR-66351o

    http://support.lenovo.com/en_SE/down...cID=MIGR-63623

    http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/rese...DocID=HT072952

    They all only list Windows drives. Is there simply no Linux driver for this thing's wireless card? Or is there someplace I haven't looked yet that has it?

    If it doesn't exist, I could move on to Plan B, which is simply to get a wireless card that you plug in. Of course there are USB-based ones. This laptop also has that older port that was often used. I forget the name of it, but it was wide and a rectangular shaped card would plug in. There's a yellow kind of push pin that you press to get a rectangular piece of plastic to pop out, which protects the port. I forget the name of the port.

    In any event, is it time to go with Plan B and shop for a wireless networking card or is there actually some way to get this thing's existing driver to work?

    I did look at that site someone suggested in the other thread where you could check hardware's Linux compatibility. There appeared to be some wireless cards there, so perhaps that's where I should get one. Hopefully wireless cards aren't too expensive these days (if I need one).

    Btw, I did install Kubuntu with the 3rd-party software option checked, the one that installs proprietary stuff.

    Maybe there's such a thing as a program like Driver Genius for Windows? On any Windows PC that I work on, I run Driver Genius and it goes out and finds all my drivers for me. It's really slick.
    Kubuntu 22.04 (desktop & laptop), Windows 7 &2K (via VirtualBox on desktop PC)
    ================================

    #2
    Based on those URLs, there appears to be no consistency in hardware. The 3000 C200 notebook may have Broadcom or Intel; the 3000 C200 all-in-one may have Atheros or Gemtek. (By the way: Lenovo, what's up with calling two different piece of hardware -- a notebook and an all-in-one -- by the same "3000 C200" moniker? Argh!)

    What's the output of:
    Code:
    sudo lshw -C network

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by SteveRiley View Post
      Based on those URLs, there appears to be no consistency in hardware. The 3000 C200 notebook may have Broadcom or Intel; the 3000 C200 all-in-one may have Atheros or Gemtek. (By the way: Lenovo, what's up with calling two different piece of hardware -- a notebook and an all-in-one -- by the same "3000 C200" moniker? Argh!)

      What's the output of:
      Code:
      sudo lshw -C network
      Uhg, more Lenovo BS, more squirly designs. I own a different Lenovo laptop. It has a weird architecture that made it a BEAST to install an OS other than the Windows 7 Home that it came with, and it fought me every step of the way when installing Grub for the dual boot. I got lucky and found the blog of someone with the exact same model who set up Ubuntu with a dual boot on it. I followed his long and detailed instructions and got it done. My next laptop won't be a Lenovo. It will be from a company that respects my right to install whatever OS I want.

      Okay, enough of the rant about Lenovo. Here's a cut'n'paste of that terminal command you asked for from my roommate's laptop:

      roger@rogers-laptop:~$ sudo lshw -C network
      [sudo] password for roger:
      *-network
      description: Network controller
      product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
      vendor: Broadcom Corporation
      physical id: 0
      bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
      version: 01
      width: 32 bits
      clock: 33MHz
      capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
      configuration: driver=wl latency=0
      resources: irq:17 memory:d0000000-d0003fff
      *-network
      description: Ethernet interface
      product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
      vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
      physical id: 1
      bus info: pci@0000:05:01.0
      logical name: eth0
      version: 10
      serial: 00:0f:b0:ce:3b:cb
      size: 100Mbit/s
      capacity: 100Mbit/s
      width: 32 bits
      clock: 33MHz
      capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
      configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.0.35 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
      resources: irq:21 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:d0100000-d01000ff
      roger@rogers-laptop:~$
      Trying it again with the wireless card slider put into the other position:

      roger@rogers-laptop:~$ sudo lshw -C network
      *-network
      description: Network controller
      product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
      vendor: Broadcom Corporation
      physical id: 0
      bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
      version: 01
      width: 32 bits
      clock: 33MHz
      capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
      configuration: driver=wl latency=0
      resources: irq:17 memory:d0000000-d0003fff
      *-network
      description: Ethernet interface
      product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
      vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
      physical id: 1
      bus info: pci@0000:05:01.0
      logical name: eth0
      version: 10
      serial: 00:0f:b0:ce:3b:cb
      size: 100Mbit/s
      capacity: 100Mbit/s
      width: 32 bits
      clock: 33MHz
      capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
      configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.0.35 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
      resources: irq:21 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:d0100000-d01000ff
      roger@rogers-laptop:~$
      Based on that info, perhaps this is the driver:
      http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

      ? ? ?
      Last edited by Tom_ZeCat; Nov 04, 2013, 08:54 AM. Reason: add link
      Kubuntu 22.04 (desktop & laptop), Windows 7 &2K (via VirtualBox on desktop PC)
      ================================

      Comment

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