How to find out if my Laptop has an onboard wireless card

[senzmail]

I am using a Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop. Wireless network is not working.

I tried
#/sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan.

Output:

#wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.


I doubt whether my laptop has any onboard wireless card. How to find out?

[tho.mei]

Hallo senzmail

Which version of Fedora are you using?

[glennzo]

/sbin/lspci should show you the wireless info. Here's mine. Toshiba laptop.

[glenn@toshiba ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Unknown device 4353 (rev 14)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
07:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
07:06.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
07:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
07:06.3 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller

Alternatively

[glenn@toshiba ~]$ lspci | grep Network
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

[senzmail]

Thanks for the prompt response.

I am using Fedora 5.

I ran the commands suggested.

lspci | grep Network
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 4311 (rev 01)

[glennzo]

Well, it's obviously Broadcomm. But it doesn't tell you what model. No extra info. How about checking the website for the laptop manufacturer to see f you can get specs on the laptop?

[senzmail]

Well. I checked with Lenovo site. It only says wireless is available on "select" models. No further information is available.

[tho.mei]

Hallo

I would update to Fedora 8. The support for wireless-networking has grown much since Fedora Core 5. May it works out of the box in Fedora 8

[senzmail]

Hi glenzzo,

Thanks for pointing to the right wireless card. Subsequently I downloaded Broadcom drivers from Lenovo site and tried the following:

[root@localhost New]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
installing bcmwl5 ...
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
[root@localhost New]# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4311) present
[root@localhost New]# modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

Regards.
Sen

[glennzo]

I agree with tho.mei. Upgrade to 8 and forget 5. 5 is dead and there's no support. Even if you knew what wireless card you had you probably couldn't get drivers, at least without the need to compile them yourself.

I got a little further than you did on the Levono site. That laptop comes with Broadcomm or IPW3945 (on select models).

[senzmail]

Yes. That is a good suggestion.

However, being new to Linux, I am sort of scared of upgradation. I have no clue what to do with the *.iso file that the upgrade site is offering.

[glennzo]

If you have a DVD burner that would be a good start. Download the DVD iso. If CD burner only download the Gnome Live (KDE if you prefer). Use something like GnomeBaker and burn a DVD/CD Image. Boot with the newly created disk to install. Don't forget to backup anything important first.

[senzmail]

Thanks a lot Glenn. Will definitely give it a try.

[tho.mei]

Hallo senzmail

I have no clue what to do with the *.iso file that the upgrade site is offering.

Go to: http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/pub...Fedora/8/i386/
Choose a mirror in your country or next to you. Search your way to ..../releases/8/Live/i686/
There you find live-images. If you like Gnome download Fedora-8-Live-i686.iso If you prefer KDE you can downloaded: Fedora-8-Live-KDE-i686.iso

Boot from the CD. It will load a full usable desktop without touching your harddisk. (this may takes a while. It will load much faster from the harddisk) Now you can test if your wireless card already is running. To install the system you will find a symbol on the desktop.

Marry x-mas.