Mint and Wifi

[XenaWP]

I'm trying to find a distro of Linux to run on my new Toshiba laptop.

Ubuntu 8.10 boots up from a Live CD but the Wifi doesn't work. I understand there is an issue with the CPU fan too. I'm putting Ubuntu aside for the moment.

I tried Mint live CD, and that too boots, and it seems to have the correct Atheros wifi driver loaded. But no joy in connecting to the router. I put the key in, I select WEP 128, but it keeps changing to 128/40 and when I click "show key" the characters are different from what I put in.

I'm a total newb with Linux.

Can anyone suggest what I can try to get connected? I have to troubleshoot from the desktop since I can't connect with the lappy. If I can get Mint to work, I may then proceed to set up either a dual boot with Grub (that's right, right?) ... or just wipe the HDD and install Mint.

[shadowpr]

What model laptop?

I usually do a search on the ubuntu forums, and they should have fixes for most problems. (Mint is a polished version of ubuntu, so the same fixes usually apply.)

If this is a brand new laptop, meaning released in the past few months, then you may have to wait a bit till solutions and work arounds are developed.

[XenaWP]

It's the cheapo from BestBuy, a L305-S5919. I was going to get a Netbook but really didn't need portability, just something wireless to surf and play whilst on the sofa. This had a decent 15" screen for the same price/less ... and I'd rather surf on 15" than 10" ... so voila.

I don't think it's spankin new. As I say, it shows the Atheros wifi card in the driver window, it's just the connection setup that's confounding me.

[Tin]

Toshibas use Atheros wifi cards. You need to install the madwifi or ath5k driver (both should work). First download the madwifi driver (or ath5k). Next, youll disable the driver installed with your distro (normally the Atheros HAL). Decompress the new driver, then "sudo make" in the driver directory. After that, "sudo makeinstall" will install the driver. After its installed, reboot, then re-enable the Atheros HAL driver under your restricted drivers menu. After that, your wifi should be working. Only one word of warning, when you do a kernel update, youll have to reinstall the driver.

[XenaWP]

Ok, got it working. I'm not sure how, but it's working.

[shadowpr]

Lol.

I slowly came to the conclusion that with linux, sometimes I don't care how, I'm just grateful that it is working.

I usually try to write out the steps in case i need to reinstall. And then with the new version, those steps usually become unnecessary.

[XenaWP]

Mint is pretty slick. But I thought I was getting the KDE version that was just released. Somehow it's the Gnome version.

I feel like a drooling idiot in Linux, bumping into walls looking for the bathroom.

I'm sure it will get better.

Thanks Shadow and Tin for the help