WLAN with DELL XPS M1530

**therealsega** · 03-15-2008, 09:33 AM

Hello World.

For some study-issues I have to run Linux on my Laptop.
It's a rather new one: Dell XPS M1530.

After booting I can't access the internet by using the integrated wlan-card.
kwlan is not showing any entries.
wlcardconfig is reporting there is no wirless-card.

How can I make Knoppix work with my hardware?

Here comes an extract from the lspci listing:

Code:

09:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Marvell Technology. Unknown device 4354 (rev.12)
0b:00.0 Network Controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

Thanks in advance.

**therealsega** · 03-15-2008, 12:55 PM

In the meanwile I got the info that I have to install the drivers.
Wow, thats really heavy stuff with linux.

Where do I have to run a command like "make menuconfig".
I have no idee where to run this code ...

**rusty** · 03-15-2008, 03:09 PM

If you can run a flavor of linux other than knoppix then look at something like Ubuntu or PCLinux that will be more likely to recognize your hardware out of the box.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

A good place to see all the various linux distributions: http://distrowatch.com/

Good luck

**Harry Kuhman** · 03-15-2008, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by therealsega

In the meanwile I got the info that I have to install the drivers....

Unfortunately, while Knoppix is a good Live CD, wireless support is awful. Even for the little wireless hardware it does support, version 5.x has a lot of problems for me with wireless access even for hardware that worked fine in 4.02.

I agree with rusty, if you want a Live CD, consider other CDs. I find that Puppy Linux and Mandriva 1 have much better wireless support. BackTrack 2 has great wireless support, but it's somewhat specialized and may or may not have the Linux applications that you need. It's good for seeing if you wireless NIC is supported though. And there is just some wifi that isn't supported by Linux, a problem that is caused by manufacturers who seem to go out of their way to make a product "Windows only".

You might also want to consider installing Linux to hard disk (not Knoppix, but a suitable for install distro like Debian). that would make installing any drivers much cleaner.

**chip.ling** · 03-15-2008, 09:20 PM

Since Knoppix cannot recognize and configure your wlan hardware at startup, you may try the ndiswrapper method.

Take a look at

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Network_FAQ

Start from FAQ 2 and read forward. I tried it on some older generation of Dell laptops but not the new one. Let us know if it is working or not.

Rgds,
Chip