Hi James, On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 04:56:59PM -0700, James Koford wrote: >Package: cdrom >Severity: important > >I have installed both Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) and 5.0(Lenny). In both >cases, the install "seemed" to go okay, and I was able to boot the >resulting system from a partition on my hard drive. I am able to >connect to the internet on the current system, but only through a LAN >cable; the wireless will not configure. I know all my hardware is >working connectly, because if the same machine has booted Windows 7, >wireless interconnectivity is no problem at the same location. > >When I installed the current 5.x system, the cable-interconnect was up, >so needed packages could be downloaded. > >Not wishing to file a bug report until I was certain, I first perused >the AMD64 install manual, and founnd the Dell L501 listed as needing >package firmware-iwlwifi to be instlled.So I then went to the "Loading >Missing Firmware" section, which I gound to be useless. > >Finally, I was able to load a file entitled Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 and >WiFi Link 4965 devices, which appeared to have instructions for loading >firmware update code. > >I followed the instruction EXACTLY: > >to /etc/apt/sources.list, I added: > >deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main cont > >Then I executed the command: > >aptitude update && aptitude install firmware-iwlwifi > >Then I executed the command iwconfig > >Are received a "not supported" response. > >>From the messages that scrolled by, it looks like the "aptitude >update.." step went okay. I DID notice that your examples were >truncated in your documentation ("main cont" was printed as "main con" >and "firmware-iwlwifi" printed as "firmware-iwlwi". This was the main >"bug" because it cost me a lot of useless wasted time
Truncated example text will be problematic, yes. I've just done a quick search for the truncated examples and I can't find them to know where to fix; can you give me pointers please? >but even after everything seemed to work, I did not achieve a working >wireless laptop (at least in Debian). > >Could you have someone who knows something advise me ? It's inexcusable >that such a common need as getting wireless to work an a Dell/Intel >laptop is such a painful journey. It *should* be as simple as install the appropriate firmware package so that the kernel can find it when the driver is loaded. firmware-iwlwifi works fine for me here on a Thinkpad with no hassle. The firmware packages are in the non-free section of the Debian archive, so you'll need to set up your sources.list with: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free As Lenny is no longer security-supported, I'd recommend switching to Squeeze instead. If you've only just installed your laptop, then re-installing from scratch with Squeeze will probable be much quicker than upgrading from Lenny. -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. [email protected] "I suspect most samba developers are already technically insane... Of course, since many of them are Australians, you can't tell." -- Linus Torvalds -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
