Install Ubuntu. No Wireless

[Blitzen]

As the title really.
I installed Ubuntu on my laptop this afternoon and i cannot seem to get my router talking to it wirelessly.

My desktop (vista) runs fine wirelessly though so i know there isnt an issue with the router.

I have been through:
Tutorials
Googled everything

I am at a loss

It simply doesnt pick up any wireless networks at all.

Any help is appreciated as i want to get to the bottom of this rather than give up and put Vista back on it.

Cheers all

[watercooled]

It's fairly common AFAIK for wireless cards to not be compatible with Ubuntu - some work seamlessly, some take a bit of effort, some are a real pain in the rear and a few won't work at all. I have a Netgear WG511 card which I could get to work under Intrepid using ndiswrapper (was a real pain) but so far I've given up trying to get it to work under Jaunty. Have you checked the Ubuntu docs/forums for your particular model of card?

[aidanjt]

Any of the Intel wireless cards work 100% perfect with all current Linux distros.

So citing the make and model of the wireless card is a good starting point.

[watercooled]

Yeah I forgot to mention that. My WG511v2 is known for not working well and there are no Linux drivers AFAIK so you are forced to used Windows drivers.

[peterb]

TI (Texas Instruments) chip sets are also very badly supported because TI won't release the API for the chipset!

This link may be of use http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/

[Blitzen]

The laptop is a Dell D610 Latitude.
I have tried everything to no avail

[directhex]

is this b, g, or n?

[aidanjt]

We need to know which wireless card you have, give us the output of `sudo lspci` from a terminal.

[cheesemp]

Which channel wireless are you using? If its 13 - Ubuntu defaults to the US channels only (1-12) with wireless if the card doesn't have the country code set. I got a new router and several cards before I worked this one out! There is a work around to force Europe channels but I didn't have any luck and switched to channel 7

I think this is the page I found out about it.

If your not using channel 13 then it probably is a driver issue as others have mentioned.

[SeanPint]

Use a windows wrapper for the driver to be installed under Ubuntu. It is a bit of a learing curve but once you get used to Ubuntu you will wonder why you never changed sooner.

[aidanjt]

Use a windows wrapper for the driver to be installed under Ubuntu.

ndiswrapper is a last act of desperation. If his wlan card can get native support then that's more ideal.

[SeanPint]

Or just get a new wifi card? They really are simple in most laptops to change.

[aidanjt]

Or just get a new wifi card? They really are simple in most laptops to change.

Yeah, I'd do that myself. In fact, that's exactly what I did, got a nice cheap Intel Pro/Wireless 3945, pulled out the crappy ZyDas card, popped it in, booted up, worked perfect.