Replacing XP with Lubuntu: How do I get my wireless to work?

Question

Experience level with LUI: total noob Netbook: Acer One, intel Atom with Win XP, 32-bit

Hi all, I've searched and searched but finally I'm stuck at this point. Maybe the answer is in another forum but it seems there are always very specific things that are sliiiightly different that mine. There are a couple weird things during installation that aren't usually mentioned in most of the tutorials.. I'll mention it in case it's relevant. It's quite possible this is just the noob in me speaking.. anyways:

After installing Lubuntu desktop and rebooting the first time, I was prompted to select either win xp or lubuntu during startup, so of course I selected lubuntu. But it went back to windows desktop. I tried rebooting a couple times, then on one I hit F12 to give me the option again and after selecting lubuntu a second time, it loaded/installed.

But, during that initial install, the message "Serious errors were found while checking the disk drive for /." displayed. So, finally I tracked down this discussion Ubuntu 14.04 not booting after error message. /tmp could not be mounted after which I changed "ro" to "rw" (despite the top saying something slightly different that GUN Grub2.. I can't remember exactly but I suspect it's related to mine being Lubuntu, and that topic being Ubuntu). Anyway, it worked and loaded to the Ubuntu desktop (!!!).

I've never had it hardwired into a network, only ever using it with wifi from what I can remember - I want to maintain the netbook's ability to auto detect any wifi networks, as I plan to use this when I'm in hostels, traveling, etc. Just something simple. So far, when I go to menu>preferences>network connections, the only option is Ethernet...

The closest fix I've found is here https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool/+question/218406 So, I entered

Which gives me:

*-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10EC:8136]
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. [10EC]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:23:8b:99:5c:b3
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:44 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:71010000-71010fff memory:71000000-7100ffff memory:71020000-7103ffff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168C:1C]
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros [168C]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:24:2c:09:e8:f3
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k driverversion=3.13.0-24-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:18 memory:75200000-7520ffff
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release:    14.04
Codename:   trusty
3.13.0-24-generic
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:015b]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:001c] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e008]
    Kernel driver in use: ath5k
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia Sonix USB 2.0 Camera
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0781:5530 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer
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 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 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
[    0.105388] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.118924] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[    0.201248] ACPI: Marking method _OSC as Serialized because of AE_ALREADY_EXISTS error
[    0.296167] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.296858] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    1.321609] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    1.322222] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[   18.667596] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   22.330173] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[   29.905484] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   29.907200] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   29.928574] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   29.930249] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

...Annnnnd now I'm stuck here.

Maybe I should've chosen a desktop that wasn't "so" light because now I have to figure out everything (clock, wifi, icons, etc etc).

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, if there is anything in the above copied/pasted text that I should avoid showing in public, can someone please advise out of the kindness of their heart?

Thanks!

Did you choose to install Lubuntu along side of Widows XP? Did you try Lubuntu before installing? Did you check the MD5Sum of the download? — Rex, May 21 '14 at 21:01
Please do what is in the accepted answer in the link below so we may see the information needed to help diagnose the issue. http://askubuntu.com/questions/425155/my-wireless-wifi-connection-does-not-work-what-can-i-do — Wild Man, May 21 '14 at 23:03
@Rex I 'tried' to try it, but the first ISO torrent I downloaded didn't seem to work - I think I was trying to install lxle before having the actual Lubuntu desktop installed.. then I removed the beginnings of that one and started fresh.. I decided to just go ahead and install it as this netbook has nothing of great importance. Everything appeared the same as in Method 2 here http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Ubuntu-Linux except for the reboot, and that's when the scenario described above happened. I never saw the option to replace windows, and it still offers me that option on start up.. — user283977, May 22 '14 at 00:57
@Rex "Did you check the MD5Sum of the download?" computer programming is quite outside of my realm of expertise.. I don't know how to do that — user283977, May 22 '14 at 01:07

Wild Man · Answer 1 · 2014-05-22T01:59:12.847

0

Do:

echo "options ath5k nohwcrypt=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf
sudo modprobe -rfv ath5k
sudo modprobe -v ath5k

Do:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf

and then answer 'Yes' to the "Prepare /etc/resolv.conf for dynamic updates" question and No to the one about temporarily appending your existing config to the dynamic one, then reboot, does it connect? if not post a new file from the script.

edited May 22 '14 at 01:59

answered May 22 '14 at 01:33

Wild Man

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I left an answer. – Wild Man May 22 '14 at 01:34
Everything goes as you described, but after answering to the "Prepare /etc/resolv.conf for dynamic updates," the next screen that opens is about 'Package configuration' 'configuring resolvconf' saying something about 'the only way to be sure about if the bug is fixed... to reboot' and the only option is . That brings me back to: @ubuntu:~$ echo "options ath5k nohwcrypt=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf [sudo] password for : Sorry, try again. [sudo] password for : options ath5k nohwcrypt=1 @ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf *@ubuntu:~$ – user283977 May 22 '14 at 16:13
on a side note - I try pasting in between [code][/code] but it just pastes those as text as well... :/ – user283977 May 22 '14 at 16:15
I then rebooted after arriving at the text in my previous post, after which I have to go through this weird process again, I sign in, then menu>preferences>Network Connections, and still only Ethernet is listed – user283977 May 22 '14 at 16:18
This is a wubi install? wubi is no longer supported it has been discontinued. – Wild Man May 22 '14 at 21:00
Well.. this is embarassing.... I don't know WHAT to do now – user283977 May 23 '14 at 05:18
I recommend you do a normal dual boot install but be careful not to overwrite windows. – Wild Man May 23 '14 at 14:40
How do I know which alternative to wubi is good to use? – user283977 May 28 '14 at 18:38
I'm gonna follow http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-desktop but, since it's a netbook, I need the disc image file rather than burning a disc. I don't want a USB because I want it direcly on my netbook.. is this a logical way to go about it? – user283977 May 28 '14 at 18:43
The wubi.exe file is the one that downloads in the winzip file from the 32-bit option here http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop – user283977 May 28 '14 at 23:02
I just tried from scratch and wubi is the one that downloads.. – user283977 May 28 '14 at 23:03
That is normal ubuntu also, if you install it correctly it can be done without wubi. You do not do a normal install from inside windows, you burn the image onto a disk or usb drive then reboot your computer and change your first boot priority so you can boot ubuntu off of the disk or usb drive. – Wild Man May 29 '14 at 00:49
But the .exe file that is included in the 32 bit option from that link above is wubi, and it's the only .exe there.. regardless whether it's on usb or the actual netbook, that's my only .exe option since it's the only one in the zip folder. What other option is there for a 32-bit netbook?? chromium? I just want a very simple replacement for xp to do minimal activities – user283977 May 30 '14 at 01:01

Replacing XP with Lubuntu: How do I get my wireless to work?

1 Answers1