Need Laptop Wireless Help

[SkyRider]

One of my neighbors moved and gave me his 6 year old HP Pavillion dv2000 laptop that had been sitting in his basement for years. I installed LinuxMint 14 (because Woodpkr and some others like Linux and it is free) on it.

Question: How do I make the wireless operational (yes it have wireless capabilities)? I found a "wireless connection" page in "network" with headings like SSID, Mode, Band, Channel, BSSID, Device MAC Address, Cloned MAC Address and MTU.

 

[b4u]

One of my neighbors moved and gave me his 6 year old HP Pavillion dv2000 laptop that had been sitting in his basement for years. I installed LinuxMint 14 (because Woodpkr and some others like Linux and it is free) on it.

Question: How do I make the wireless operational (yes it have wireless capabilities)? I found a "wireless connection" page in "network" with headings like SSID, Mode, Band, Channel, BSSID, Device MAC Address, Cloned MAC Address and MTU.

Have you tried turning wifi on? most linux distros find and connect to wifi no problem, the most common reason they don't is because it's been turned off. check the front of the laptop for a switch to turn on wifi

 

[SkyRider]

Have you tried turning wifi on? most linux distros find and connect to wifi no problem, the most common reason they don't is because it's been turned off. check the front of the laptop for a switch to turn on wifi

Yes, there is a slide switch at the front of the laptop. There is an orange light next to the switch. When I move the switch there is no change in the color of the light. Should the light turn green? Is something broken?

 

[WoodPeckr]

That's a decent laptop as far as specs go. The only negative is it's HP....
Mint is pretty similar to Ubuntu and wireless should auto configure.
I'd ask this question on the Ubuntu Forums where someone with a similar laptop may have the solution.
Most likely it's an easy fix....
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336

 

[SkyRider]

I'd ask this question on the Ubuntu Forums where someone with a similar laptop may have the solution.

Thanks. My close circle of friends are not familiar with Linux nor wireless. I took the laptop to a shop and the guy there was also not familiar with Linux. His suggestion was to get a "USB Wireless Adapter" which he did not have in stock.

 

[WoodPeckr]

That's why I suggest asking in the Ubuntu Forums where you will find the most knowledgeable help. It's probably a simple configuration setting.

 

[danibbler]

Yep, wireless on a laptop is one of the biggest bugaboos with Linux. That being said, even a six year old laptop should have been recognized by the distro.

Go on the Ubuntu forum and see if there is any help there.