need help with wireless

[greyowl]

I am trying Porteous XFCE from a live CD. I am new to Linux and have always used XP. I am using an older laptop Dell Latitude D600, 1.6Ghz Pentium M processor, 1 GB RAM, Dell True Mobile 1300 WLAN mini-PCI card

OOTB, Porteus connected to my wired internet but it did not connect to my wireless. I checked the network connections settings and there is nothing that shows the wireless in my vicinity. Is there a wireless connection wizard that shows all the wireless in my area including my own so that I can login.

I recently tried Tahrpup Puppy and it has three different wireless connection services that show the wireless in the area and it allowed me then to login to mine very easily.

Please explain the difference between Porteus and Puppy. Why is it not showing my wireless or other wifi in the area. I am wanting to understand how these OSs work.

Please help me to get my wireless going.

Thanks for the help.

[fanthom]

hello greyowl,

wifi firmware is probably missing. please boot porteus -> open terminal -> run 'psinfo' command -> upload generated system report to pastebin.com and link here.

thank you

[greyowl]

Thank you for the help.

Here is the system report link:

http://pastebin.com/znai9Gt5

[fanthom]

this is older broadcom chipset so you must blacklist 'wl' driver. please follow this HOWTO:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1099

[greyowl]

The link gives the following instructions:

Please create a file (plain text) at /mnt/sdXY/porteus/rootcopy/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom_blacklist.conf with following content:
Code: Select all
blacklist wl

In the text file, do I just but "blacklist wl" (without the quotes)?
I cannot find the location to put the text file. I can only find :/mnt/sdXY/porteus/rootcopy/" , there is no "etc/modprobe.d". I did find "modprobe.d" in "lib". I placed the test file in "lib".
Nothing has happened.
Note: I am using the live CD of Porteus.
Do I have to have Porteus permanently installed on the computer hard drive to get the wireless to work?

[greyowl]

I am stuck.
I need some help. See my last post.

[Bogomips]

Do I have to have Porteus permanently installed on the computer hard drive to get the wireless to work?

Looks like you will have to have at least the Porteus directory on the hard drive. Someone with savvy on how to do this as a newbie will be along.

[francois]

@greyowl:

As you do not seem very accustomed with linux. The best thing would be for you to work porteus with a usb key so to have persistence. However, it is possible to work with a CD. But this is more complicated. Just certify us that you will be patient and you yourself persistent.

Meanwhile for persistence on the hard disk, please give us the output of the command of fdisk -l (in the following there is an example for my linux box):

Code: Select all

root@porteus:~# fdisk -l 

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdfbadfba

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048   169437183    84717568   83  Linux
/dev/sda2       625137664   625141759        2048   83  Linux
/dev/sda3 ...

This way we will have a cue about the partioning of your hdd. And we will be able to make suggestion for installing a a persistent file on the appropriate partition as bogomips is proposing.

[greyowl]

I just have some questions before proceeding:
Would the persistent file be very large and would it be easily removed?
Would it be much easier if I just installed Porteus on the HD before setting up the wireless?
Is it going to be possible to set up the wireless?
After the wireless is set up and I go travelling, will I have a utility or service that will show all the WiFi in my vicinity that I could potentially connect to eg at a library or a cafe?

[donald]

Hello greyowl
To see if everything is working properly, it would be best
if you would install Porteus on a USB-flash.(as recommended by francois)
An old one (~2GB) would be good enough.
Format this usb-flash with ext2, install porteus and you will have persistence
out of the box.
when done, follow fanthoms advice to get your wifi working.
(blacklist 'wl' driver.)

--> Is it going to be possible to set up the wireless? <--
we will see

--> After the wireless is set up and I go travelling, will I have a utility
or service that will show all the WiFi in my vicinity that I could potentially
connect to eg at a library or a cafe? <-- yes..

If it, contrary to expectations, does not work, simply erase/reformat
the usb-flash.No harm has been done to your PC.

[greyowl]

Thanks for the information.

Just a few more question:
If I create a small ISO Porteus build of about 175mb, would a USB drive of 500mb be large enough?
How do I create the format the USB drive to ext2 and install the ISO to the USB drive?
This won't harm my USB flash drive will it?

[donald]

hmmm..500mb..I'm not sure..seems to be too small, my (very basic) Installation
(but with persistence) takes 950mb...

--> How do I create the format the USB drive to ext2 and install the ISO to the USB drive? <--
Boot the live-CD and use the porteus Installer.
Boot the live-CD and use GParted to format the usb-drive

WARNING
PLEASE be very careful and double check that you have choosen the correct drive..

Please read /boot/docs/install.txt

[greyowl]

Thank you for the instructions.

I will give it a try.

[francois]

If I create a small ISO Porteus build of about 175mb, would a USB drive of 500mb be large enough?
500 mb is quite small as porteus os stock is 300mb. You will fill it quite fast when saving changes on the desktop environment. However, that might be enough for you to do the changes proposed by fanthom. Is your usb key only 500 mb?

How do I create the format the USB drive to ext2 and install the ISO to the USB drive?
You can do this with your already porteus burned iso. See porteus panel menu >system > poteus installer.

This won't harm my USB flash drive will it?
It will not harm it. However, all the information on it will be replaced by the new porteus installation. If you want to format a usb key bigger than 500mb and allow only part of it to porteus os, we will have to go for a little more complicated procedure.

[greyowl]

Thanks for the clarification.

I do have a larger usb flash drive but I don't want to damage it. So, afterwards, I would just put it in a Windows machine and format it back to Fat32 with no harm done. Right.