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[Ubuntu] Finding a networking card. (uncertain if there actually is one)

Question posted by: YarrOfDoom (The Pretender) on June 27th, 2008 10:50 PM
Today I installed Ubuntu on a laptop, of which I don't know if it actually has a networking card, it has a button and a led for it, but I don't know if it actually has the card. If it's there, then it certainly doesn't work, so I was wondering if there was a way to find out if there is any (except for opening the case and physically checking it)
Nepomuk's Avatar
Nepomuk
Moderator
1,436 Posts
June 28th, 2008
02:37 AM
#2

Re: [Ubuntu] Finding a networking card. (uncertain if there actually is one)
Quote:
Today I installed Ubuntu on a laptop, of which I don't know if it actually has a networking card, it has a button and a led for it, but I don't know if it actually has the card. If it's there, then it certainly doesn't work, so I was wondering if there was a way to find out if there is any (except for opening the case and physically checking it)
Hi YarrOfDoom!
As you can't see the network card, I'm guessing there's no ethernet connection, so we'll be looking for WLAN, correct?
If Ubuntu recognises the card, you should get an output from
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  1. ifconfig
and possibly
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  1. iwconfig
that indicates that. Could you post the output of those two commands?

Of course, you could try looking up the laptops specifications on the net, but I'm guessing there are various versions of that model, otherwise you would have already done that.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

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YarrOfDoom's Avatar
YarrOfDoom
The Pretender
853 Posts
June 28th, 2008
06:42 PM
#3

Re: [Ubuntu] Finding a networking card. (uncertain if there actually is one)
results from ipconfig:
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  1. eth0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:02:E9:7E:D9
  2.     UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
  3.     RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  4.     TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  5.     collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
  6.     RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
  7.     Interrupt:11
  8.  
  9. lo    Link encap:Local Loopback
  10.     inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
  11.     inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
  12.     UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436  Metric:1
  13.     RX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  14.     TX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0    
  15.     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
  16.     RX bytes:272 (272.0 b)  TX bytes:272 (272.0 b)


results from iwconfig:
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  1. lo    no wireless extensions.
  2.  
  3. eth0    no wireless extensions.
  4.  
  5. sit0    no wireless extensions.


And if it matters: the laptop has made contact to the internet by cable earlier.

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Nepomuk's Avatar
Nepomuk
Moderator
1,436 Posts
June 30th, 2008
08:12 PM
#4

Re: [Ubuntu] Finding a networking card. (uncertain if there actually is one)
OK, no WiFi card was found. That probably means, that there isn't any WiFi card in the laptop, but it's no 100% proof.

You can check the following: Start gnome-device-manager (if you use Hardy, it might not be installed, so do that) and then check if there is any hardware, that is said to be Unknown. If so, there might be a WiFi card, which is not recognised. If nothing unknown is shown, I'd guess it's pretty safe to say, that there's no WiFi card in that machine.

If there IS a unknown piece of hardware, try to find out, what WiFi card it could be. (e.g. by checking manuals and online describtions of the Laptop.) When you've found that, we can try to get it up and running.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

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