My wireless card and USB won't work on Ubuntu 9.04 on a Compaq Presario M2000?

Question

I like Ubuntu 9.04 and decided to replace Windows with it on my Compaq Presario M2000 laptop computer. so far it has been great, but now I've run into the problem of the integrated wireless card won't work. It just says "Device Not Ready". How do I make it work? also, how can I make the USB's work, too? I plugged in a flash drive to see if it would work, and nothing even happened. If you have an answer to either of these questions, or have another post that might help, please post it. thanks you for your help! =)

Answer 1

uninstalling then reinstalling ubuntu is not going to fix your problem. You can see exactly which network adaptor you have with the following terminal command:



lshw -C network



Once you find the wifi adaptor you can then see what other steps you need to make it work. You may need to use ndiswrapper with the windows drivers if its supported on your older version of ubuntu. Most likely it will work out of the box with the new Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

Answer 2

Hi There,



I have Ubuntu 9.04 installed (inside Windows) on an older laptop with a Blitz PCMCIA card.

Ubuntu automatically detected the card and installed the proper driver. USB was automatically enabled also.



I have Linux Mint 7 Main edition installed ( inside windows) on an older desktop and it automatically connected to a Broadcom DSL wireless modem.

Have tried Mint on the laptop and it also could enable the wireless card and connect.



I have tried live CDs of several Linux distributions and although some of them did not have the right wireless drivers all of them detected and could use the USB ports.



My belief is that your installation of Ubuntu may be incomplete. It should recognize your USB ports with no problem even if it does not have the wireless driver.



My suggestion would be to uninstall and reinstall Ubuntu again to try to fix the problem.

-OR-

Better yet download Linux Mint 7 Main Edition, burn an image file from the iso and try the live CD you created and make sure it works with your hardware.The download is about 690 megs and fits on one cd.



You also can order a CD for about $10- instead of burning your own if you have dial up.



Linux Mint 7 is based upon Ubuntu 9.04 and uses the same packages and programs.

Mint is is a very smooth system (very like Windows but no crashes).

If it does work that's the distribution I would use.



Linux Mint 7 is the best distribution of the 7 or 8 I have tried and I plan to install it on the laptop (instead of Ubuntu).



When you insert the CD into your optical drive you will have three options:

1. Install to hard drive

2. Install inside Windows

3. run as a live cd (entirely in ram with no changes to your hard drive.



Try the live CD option first to make sure it works with your hardware and if it does you can either install to hard drive or run in a folder inside Windows.



When you choose "Run inside Windows" it makes a folder in windows and installs itself entirely inside this folder. You can choose the size of the folder (about 10-15 gigabytes is fine).

Later if you wish to uninstall you can do that in "Add/remove Programs" like any other program. I have done that two times and it works.



Upon boot up you will have a choice to run Windows or Linux Mint. The default is Windows (if you do nothing).



I believe you can fix the problem with a reinstall of Ubuntu but you really should have a look at Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" before deciding upon Ubuntu 9.04



Hope this helps,

Al

Answer 3

Here is the Official Ubuntu Wireless Documentation



Cards Supported

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported



Troubleshooting/Howto/General

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WiFiHowTo



In the event of your Wifi card being unsupported you can use Ndiswrapper Here is the Official Ubuntu Ndiswrapper Documentation

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper





LUg.