- This topic has 18 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Jun 23-12:03 pm by Xecure.
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QiWen
Hello,
I am using a Dell Latitude D600 and was pleasantly surprised how smooth antix linux’s performance is compared to Windows XP. However, I am having one fatal flaw: driver installation. Where can I check if proper drivers are installed for my laptop and install required drivers? I tried to install a broadcom driver, but had no idea (have no idea how to use prompt or obtain files offline). I’m frustrated there isn’t an option to simply download the required files, then apply them. Without internet, it appears I can’t even install a wireless driver.Any help is appreciated!
Xecure
In the future, please tell us the version of antiX. Is it 17, is it 19? Is it base, is it full?
For your specific problem.
Control Centre > Maintenance > Network Assistant
Navigate to “Linux driver” tab. See if your broadcom driver (could be brcm80211) is blacklisted. First try loading it to see if it is the correct one (will give you a warning in case it is not).
Then, in the same Control Centre, open Connman
Control Centre > Network > Wifi (Connman).Enable Wifi.
If on antiX Base, the new icon on the taskbar, right-click, switch wifi ON. Connect to wifi by left-clickng (hold) and select the access point. Then enter password.
If on antiX full, in the new window, switch wifi ON. Go to Wireless tab and select access point, connect, enter password, Apply.In the future, you may want to explore the Control Center or search the forum for similar cases as yours.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Thank you so much! I am using antiX 19 (I think full???). This has been super helpful!
seaken64
Do you have access to your physical router? The D600 has an Ethernet port. Use a standard Ethernet cable to connect the D600 to one of the ports on the router and reboot both devices. That should get you on the internet. Unless the router has been “locked” by an administrator.
You can also try different wifi dongles, if you have access to more than one. Maybe a friend has a USB wifi dongle you can borrow?
Seaken64
Do I need to hook the laptop up to ethernet while loading drivers? I tried to load drivers, but the screen just kept reverting the drivers I loaded. Loading WPA GUI and the rest did not cooperate with me either.
I REALLY don’t want to abandon using Linux here. I dual-booted antiX with my Windows XP installation!
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by QiWen.
Xecure
If using Connman, don’t use WPA gui.
As you haven’t reported what steps you followed, if you followed my steps above, what error messeges came up, let us instead start with you, opening a terminal, and executing:
inxi -FxzPublish the result here on the forum and we may be able to find the driver and the correct steps to follow. I suspect that loading the correct blacklisted driver will work, but first we need to be sure that the driver is blacklisted, available, if connman is even on, etc.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Xecure.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.The purpose of using the wired “Ethernet” is to get the machine on the internet without having to worry about the wireless drivers. I have that same computer and I have had problems with the wifi radio. It does tend to work in Window XP but it is unreliable in Linux. When I use the wifi network on that machine I plug in a USB dongle and disable the onboard wifi radio.
Seaken64
Brian Masinick
I’ve had, owned, or used various Dell laptops. I currently am using a Dell Inspiron 5558 that works fine.
About a decade ago I definitely used the [D600,D610,D620,D630] and at that time they all worked great.Support for Broadcom wireless drivers has been very spotty over the years, but some particular models, for instance the B4311 has drivers available; not all of them have source code, some only have binary images available.
Knowing the specific hardware will be instrumental in figuring out which binary driver to obtain. There *could* potentially be issues where a certain driver may work perfectly well with a specific kernel or hardware configuration and not with others. What I can tell you for sure is that past support for this laptop series has been great, which is good news. That means that in the archives of software it ought to be possible to find something that works.
If you haven’t already done so by the time I finish writing this, please provide the output of the command:
inxi -Fxz--
Brian MasinickOkay.
My wireless device is known as a Broadcom Limited BCM4309 802.11abg Wireless Network [Card]. I tried loading BM43, but the driver does not work?
Using Ceni (Network Interfaces) results in a “softlock” when I try to seek wifi. WPA Supplicant does not recognize an adapter.
I am confused how to enable the wifi hardware switch. The taskbar doesn’t appear to have an option?
EDIT: Okay. I fixed it. Thank you guys so much! I never would’ve done it without you all 🙂
EDIT2: Oh…things are still not working…it appeared to connect at first, then completely forgot there was even a driver and connection next restart. HELP!- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by QiWen.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by QiWen.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by QiWen.
There is command for lspci that will output the device code for the device. I can’t locate the exact command. Does anyone else remember the command?
Once you get the device code (you could get it from Windows also) you can look up the maker for the chips. You may have to use a different driver than the one chosen due to a slightly different chip set on the device.
You can try unblacklisting one driver at a time to see which one might work. It’s tedious but I have done it.
There is a “switch” on the function keys. Make sure the wireless is enabled before unblacklisting the drivers. On mine it’s Fn-F2.
I just pulled out my D600 but I can’t get it to come on. I think the battery is completely dead.
Seaken64
Xecure
EDIT: Okay. I fixed it. Thank you guys so much! I never would’ve done it without you all
Well done. At first getting wifi to work with broadcom devices may take some time, and Wifi is “locked” by connman at first, so it takes a bit of knowing where to look.
Good job. Welcome to the antiX community forum!
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Yikes. I spoke too soon! I restarted my laptop and the thing completely forgot the fact there was a loaded driver! HELP!
Xecure
Loading is just for testing the driver. Unblacklist is the option to make it permanent.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Xecure.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.The wifi loads, but it oddly does not work. The transfer rate is in bytes and the internet will refuse to load. Can’t install packages either. What could be the issue here? Laptop certainly isn’t broken.
Xecure
I was hoping that the people that have the same driver/computer could test out and explain step by step how to set up the driver and if you need to install an external driver.
Meanwhile, I will try to help you as best I can.
First, please publish on your next post the output of
inxi -Fxz
You don’t have to worry, because the “z” option of the previous command hides all MAC and vulnerable information, so there is no reason not to share this output. It would help a lot in figuring out what to do.It may take some time, but we will probably be able to help you.
Next, if nobody else finds something useful, I will give a step by step procedure to test different things, and I will need you to explain to me at what point you got stuck, and what were you using, etc. We are unfortunately not beside you, so we have no clue if you have used ceni, connman, wpa gui, etc to connect. Connman and ceni conflict if used together (that is why I am so insistent in asking what you did with connman, etc.).Regards.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.
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