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Even though your wireless adapter is connected, it may not have been
recognized properly by the computer.
Wireless connection troubleshooter
Check that the wireless adapter was recognized
Even though the wireless adapter is connected to the computer, it may not
have been recognized as a network device by the computer. In this step, you
will check whether the device was recognized properly.
-
Open a Terminal window, type lshw -C network and press
Enter. If this gives an error message, you may need to install
the lshw program on your computer.
-
Look through the information that appeared and find the Wireless
interface section. If your wireless adapter was detected properly,
you should see something similar (but not identical) to this:
-
If a wireless device is listed, continue on to the
Device Drivers
step.
If a wireless device is not listed, the next steps you take
will depend on the type of device that you use. Refer to the section
below that is relevant to the type of wireless adapter that your computer
has (internal PCI, USB,
or PCMCIA).
PCI (internal) wireless adapter
Internal PCI adapters are the most common, and are found in most laptops
made within the past few years. To check if your PCI wireless adapter was
recognized:
-
Open a Terminal, type lspci and press Enter.
-
Look through the list of devices that is shown and find any that are
marked Network controller or Ethernet
controller. Several devices may be marked in this way; the one
corresponding to your wireless adapter might include words like
wireless, WLAN, wifi or
802.11. Here is an example of what the entry might look
like:
Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
-
If you found your wireless adapter in the list, proceed to the
Device Drivers
step. If you didn’t find anything related to your wireless
adapter, see
the instructions below.
USB wireless adapter
Wireless adapters that plug into a USB port on your computer are less
common. They can plug directly into a USB port, or may be connected by a USB
cable. 3G/mobile broadband adapters look quite similar to wireless (Wi-Fi)
adapters, so if you think you have a USB wireless adapter, double-check that
it is not actually a 3G adapter. To check if your USB wireless adapter was
recognized:
-
Open a Terminal, type lsusb and press Enter.
-
Look through the list of devices that is shown and find any that seem
to refer to a wireless or network device. The one corresponding to your
wireless adapter might include words like wireless,
WLAN, wifi or 802.11. Here is an
example of what the entry might look like:
-
If you found your wireless adapter in the list, proceed to the
Device Drivers
step. If you didn’t find anything related to your wireless
adapter, see
the instructions below.
Checking for a PCMCIA device
PCMCIA wireless adapters are typically rectangular cards which slot into
the side of your laptop. They are more commonly found in older computers. To
check if your PCMCIA adapter was recognized:
-
Start your computer without the wireless adapter plugged
in.
-
Open a Terminal and type the following, then press
Enter:
tail -f /var/log/messages
This will display a list of messages related to your computer’s
hardware, and will automatically update if anything to do with your
hardware changes.
-
Insert your wireless adapter into the PCMCIA slot and see what
changes in the Terminal window. The changes should include some
information about your wireless adapter. Look through them and see if you
can identify it.
-
To stop the command from running in the Terminal, press
CtrlC. After you have done that,
you can close the Terminal if you like.
-
If you found any information about your wireless adapter, proceed to
the Device
Drivers step. If you didn’t find anything related to your wireless
adapter, see the instructions
below.
Wireless adapter was not recognized
If your wireless adapter was not recognized, it might not be working
properly or the correct drivers may not be installed for it. How you check to
see if there are any drivers you can install will depend on which Linux
distribution you are using (like Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora or openSUSE).
To get specific help, look at the support options on your distribution’s
website. These might include mailing lists and web chats where you can ask
about your wireless adapter, for example.