The built in wireless on teh Dell Inspiron 9300 suddenly stopped working.
Having poked around a bit with wicd and network-manager (not simultaneously),
I am checkinh whether the problem is sudden hardware failure. I plugged in a
USB network card.
Here is what I get:
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0b05:17ab ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N13 802.11n
Network Adapter (rev. B1) [Realtek RTL8192CU]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 1c4f:0003 SiGma Micro HID controller
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1631:5002 Good Way Technology
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1631:5400 Good Way Technology
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$ grep wifi /proc/modules
rtlwifi 45511 2 rtl8192cu,rtl_usb, Live 0xf829b000
mac80211 425575 3 rtl8192cu,rtl_usb,rtlwifi, Live 0xf8a02000
cfg80211 350041 4 rtlwifi,mac80211,ipw2200,libipw, Live 0xf8313000
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$
But:
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$ /sbin/ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:e7:6f:21
inet addr:192.168.0.9 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:22ff:fee7:6f21/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:679 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:522 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:100380 (98.0 KiB) TX bytes:72694 (70.9 KiB)
Interrupt:18
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:16:6f:00:3a:b3
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7 errors:17 dropped:17 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:79 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:945 (945.0 B) TX bytes:14187 (13.8 KiB)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:84 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:84 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:22493 (21.9 KiB) TX bytes:22493 (21.9 KiB)
sarah@debian-wheezy:~$
Where eth1 is the on-board card.
Where next?
With the on-board wifi card, I have tried DHCP and static IP. It reports
failure at the authentication stage. I have checked and rechecked both the
MAC address on the router and the passphrase entered in the laptop. Both are
fine. As I say, it failed suddenly, at the client's house, and she does not
use MAC address identification. The wireless worked immediately after the
upgrade. I have tried Fn-F2.
As I say, where next.
I have no objection to e/n/i, in fcat I prefer it, but this is a laptop. It
must be able to roam. So I have no idea where to start!
Lisi
