Installing Ubuntu
I tried to install the newest version of Ubuntu on an old Dell Inspiron 2200. (more than 10 years old) I kept getting this error:
This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:
pae
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.
Goggle took me here:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/117744/how-can-i-install-on-a-non-pae-cpu-error-kernel-requires-features-not-present
But I still kept screwing up. I needed to install Ubuntu 11.10 or Lubuntu 12.40. However, it was difficult to find the old-releases page for each. Here are the direct links (hopefully they will not move.):
http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/precise/release/
http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/oneiric/
I download ubuntu 11.10 and burn the iso to a standard 700 mb CD. This installed on the machine without issues. I check the box to download and install updates during the install.
Upon restarting and loading ubuntu 11.10, the system displayed a window indicating it needed updated and the wizard automatically walked me through the updating process. Some thing odd... the touchpad stopped working at some point. I was able to navigate the wizard with the arrow keys. The update took a long time ~ 4 hours. After restarting, ubuntu 12.04 was setup on the system. Opening apps on the side bar was quite slow. The computer only has 400 mb of ram. I might consider using lubuntu if I cannot speed this up.
I got ubuntu to run much much faster using the fallback package to restore the original desktop. I run it with no animation. Runs very nice! See here:
http://www.liberiangeek.net/2011/08/return-to-ubuntu-classic-desktop-in-ubuntu-11-10/
sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback
Wireless Issue (Resolved!!)
Summary:
I have tried fixes from ubuntu forums to get my wireless to work with my Broadcom wireless card.
For a while, nothing seem to be working. Ubuntu recognized the card and could "see" all of the available wireless routers. However, it still never connected to the wireless.
Finally, to removed the WEP security on the router and Ubuntu could connect. Hooray! The problem now is how to have security and connect with ubuntu. :(
The issue was in my security settings. I made some changes and it works fine now.
If you are having a wireless issue with ubuntu, turn off your security until it is resolved. This will remove this as a possible complication. Or you can just be smarter than me and realize that if the wireless card can see all of the available routers, it is not a problem with the card. :)
Compressed solution (now that I have been educated)
I did this before tring the solution based on this (
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1997880):
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
The solution here was the most concise:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BroadcomSTA%28Wireless%29
(also located here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1748245&page=5&p=10796508#post10796508)
This will show you how to determine which card you have and the solution for that card.
My card was broadcom 14e4:4319 / 14e4:4320, so I used the b43 driver.
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
My full path to a solution:
Issue: The wireless does not work. The computer has an external wireless card. It says Dell wireless card 1350 on it but I have read that these are manufactured by broadcom.
After a google search, I found this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1997880
Where the following solution via terminal was suggested:
sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
I typed these commands into the terminal.
Immediately after the terminal finished, the lights on the wireless card came on.
(Later I discovered that my card was working at this point. My remaining issue was wifi security settings.)
However, I could not connect to the router. I noticed I thinks my wireless card is Broadcom bcm4306 802.11b/g or bcm4318. But the card said Dell Wireless 1350.
I found this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1695103
Then I typed:
lspci
The output indicated the card was bcm4306 / bcm4318
Then I found this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1869293
Which indicated that I need the b43 driver so I typed:
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer b43-fwcutter
I restarted the computer and it still would not connect.
I tried removing some of the first things I did but it did not work. Also the two links indicate I need bcm4306 so that should be correct.
I went to system settings and ran check for additional drivers. It found one:
Broadcom STA wireless driver
I told it to activate and it downloaded and installed the driver. It was about 3/4 done and the screen when to a full screen terminal like interface.
It seemed to be frozen so I cut power to the computer and reloaded. I clicked on the networking icon at the top of the desktop and there was no mention of wireless at all. :(
In system settings, I search for additional drivers. It idicated the Broadcom STA wireless driver was installed and gave me the option to remove.
I repeated the following:
sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
The lights on the wireless card remained off.
I opened system settings and clicked on additional drivers. It showed the STA driver as inactive and gave the option to activate.
I did nothting and restarted.
After the restart, the lights of the wireless card were back on.
I tried another card I have: Dynex ...
I did:
lspci -v
This indicted a slightly different card. So the OS is recognizing the card switch. But it still acts like the other card. Tries to connect but cannot connect.
found this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/how-to-install-broadcom-wireless-drivers-bcm43xx
but it did not work.
did this:
sudo apt-get remove linux-firmware-nonfree
restarted in text only mode!!! restarted twice, back in gui. Did this:
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
No Help
________________
Tried This:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BroadcomSTA%28Wireless%29
Terminal Output:
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4
02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver [14e4:4319] (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
[sudo] password for mike:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package broadcom-sta-common is not installed, so not removed
Package broadcom-sta-source is not installed, so not removed
Package bcmwl-kernel-source is not installed, so not removed
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
language-pack-kde-en language-pack-kde-en-base kde-l10n-engb dkms
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
b43-fwcutter is already the newest version.
firmware-b43-installer is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
language-pack-kde-en language-pack-kde-en-base kde-l10n-engb dkms
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
3: phy3: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ rfkill unblock all
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3:
phy3: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ lsmod | grep b43
b43 342801 0
mac80211 436493 1 b43
cfg80211 178877 2 b43,mac80211
bcma 25651 1 b43
ssb 50691 1 b43
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ dmesg | grep b43
[ 2.654782] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[ 19.712097] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found (core revision 9)
[ 19.840462] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[ 19.840565] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[ 19.840666] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[ 36.904453] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 36.904466] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 36.904480] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 36.913476] b43-phy1: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
[ 36.963213] Registered led device: b43-phy1::tx
[ 36.963245] Registered led device: b43-phy1::rx
[ 36.963279] Registered led device: b43-phy1::radio
[ 1334.783146] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 1353.696423] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 1353.696437] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 1353.696451] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 1353.704129] b43-phy2: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
[ 1353.753909] Registered led device: b43-phy2::tx
[ 1353.753942] Registered led device: b43-phy2::rx
[ 1353.753974] Registered led device: b43-phy2::radio
[ 1884.432089] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 508.1084 (2009-01-14 01:32:01)
[ 1884.932090] b43-phy2: Loading firmware version 508.1084 (2009-01-14 01:32:01)
[ 2003.352113] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 508.1084 (2009-01-14 01:32:01)
[ 2003.572040] b43-phy2: Loading firmware version 508.1084 (2009-01-14 01:32:01)
[ 2475.717013] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 2475.759016] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 2476.177343] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x100, writing 0x101)
[ 2476.177364] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: restoring config space at offset 0x4 (was 0x0, writing 0xdfdfe000)
[ 2476.177371] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: restoring config space at offset 0x3 (was 0x0, writing 0x4000)
[ 2476.177379] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x0, writing 0x106)
[ 2476.888273] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x100, writing 0x110)
[ 2476.888302] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x4 (was 0x0, writing 0x28000000)
[ 2476.888310] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x3 (was 0x0, writing 0x4000)
[ 2476.888320] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x0, writing 0x6)
[ 2476.949145] b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:03.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[ 2476.960101] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 2478.367220] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 2478.367527] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 2478.371308] b43-phy3: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
[ 2478.417345] Registered led device: b43-phy3::tx
[ 2478.417381] Registered led device: b43-phy3::rx
[ 2478.417412] Registered led device: b43-phy3::radio
__________________________
This did not help.
__________________________
I finally discovered that the wireless card was working and my issue was with the wireless security.
__________________________
It was working great... then I tried to setup VNC on the computer. I was following this:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-setup-vnc-for-ubuntu-12
I ran this:
apt-get -y install ubuntu-desktop tightvncserver xfce4 xfce4-goodies
And the wireless card stopped working. I repeated the fix above... did not help.
Did this (
http://askubuntu.com/questions/152157/enable-wireless-option-is-disabled-in-network-settings):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network:0 UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: BCM4318 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:02:03.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: latency=64
resources: memory:dfdfe000-dfdfffff
*-network:1
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller Mobile
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:02:08.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:12:3f:0e:30:74
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100
driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.108
latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII
speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:20 memory:dfdfd000-dfdfdfff ioport:df40(size=64)
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:28000000-28001fff
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It says the wireless is UNCLAIMED.
Found a discussion on a similar issue:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/80745/wireless-disappeared-after-upgrading-on-top-of-a-tweaked-kernel
I thought this might be related to the xfce session that was still on the computer so I tried this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/59640/how-can-i-completely-remove-xfce4-when-apt-get-remove-purge-doesnt-work
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ sudo apt-get purge libxfce4util-common
[sudo] password for mike:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
exo-utils* libexo-1-0* libgarcon-1-0* libthunar-vfs-1-2* libthunarx-2-0*
libxfce4ui-1-0* libxfce4util-bin* libxfce4util-common* libxfce4util4*
libxfconf-0-2* squeeze* thunar* thunar-archive-plugin*
thunar-media-tags-plugin* thunar-volman* xfce4-notifyd* xfce4-panel*
xfce4-power-manager* xfce4-session* xfce4-settings* xfce4-terminal*
xfce4-utils* xfce4-volumed* xfconf* xfdesktop4* xfwm4*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 26 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 30.8 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 222489 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing xfdesktop4 ...
Purging configuration files for xfdesktop4 ...
Removing xfce4-utils ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-utils ...
Removing xfce4-terminal ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-terminal ...
Removing xfce4-panel ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-panel ...
Removing thunar-volman ...
Purging configuration files for thunar-volman ...
Removing thunar-media-tags-plugin ...
Removing thunar-archive-plugin ...
Removing thunar ...
Purging configuration files for thunar ...
Removing squeeze ...
Purging configuration files for squeeze ...
Removing exo-utils ...
Removing xfce4-session ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-session ...
Removing xfce4-settings ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-settings ...
Removing libthunarx-2-0 ...
Purging configuration files for libthunarx-2-0 ...
Removing libthunar-vfs-1-2 ...
Purging configuration files for libthunar-vfs-1-2 ...
Removing libexo-1-0 ...
Purging configuration files for libexo-1-0 ...
Removing libgarcon-1-0 ...
Purging configuration files for libgarcon-1-0 ...
Removing xfwm4 ...
Purging configuration files for xfwm4 ...
Removing xfce4-power-manager ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-power-manager ...
Removing xfce4-notifyd ...
Removing libxfce4ui-1-0 ...
Purging configuration files for libxfce4ui-1-0 ...
Removing libxfce4util-bin ...
Removing xfce4-volumed ...
Purging configuration files for xfce4-volumed ...
Removing libxfconf-0-2 ...
Purging configuration files for libxfconf-0-2 ...
Removing xfconf ...
Removing libxfce4util4 ...
Purging configuration files for libxfce4util4 ...
Removing libxfce4util-common ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libexo-common libexo-helpers libhal-storage1 libhal1 libkeybinder0 libtagc0
libthunar-vfs-1-common libtumbler-1-0 thunar-data tumbler tumbler-common
xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfce4-power-manager-data xfdesktop4-data
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 14 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 18.5 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 219472 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libexo-common ...
Removing libexo-helpers ...
Removing libhal-storage1 ...
Removing libhal1 ...
Removing libkeybinder0 ...
Removing libtagc0 ...
Removing libthunar-vfs-1-common ...
Removing tumbler ...
Removing libtumbler-1-0 ...
Removing thunar-data ...
Removing tumbler-common ...
Removing xfce-keyboard-shortcuts ...
Removing xfce4-power-manager-data ...
Removing xfdesktop4-data ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Processing triggers for man-db ...
mike@mike-Inspiron-2200:~$
__________________________
I give up... I am reinstalling ubuntu. :(
After reinstalling I did this:
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
Then I rebooted the system. After rebooting the wireless card was off. In the connections menu at the top of the screen it said the wireless was disconnected via a hardware switch. I did:
rfkill list
Which indicated a hard block on the wireless. I pressed Fn+F2 which turns on the wireless card.
Hooray! The wireless is working!!! Now if I can just avoid breaking the system. :)
__________________________
Other Links
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://lubuntu.net/