Difference between revisions of "User talk:Manseau"

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== '''Wireless not working? Try these tips!''' ==
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== Desktop ==
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{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" font-size="90%" border=".05" cellpadding=".4" width=100%  valign="top"
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=== What keystroke is needed to enter BIOS ? ===
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''Look For A Physical Button'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|All too frequently, one will spend a whole bunch of time trying to configure a seemingly non-functional wireless only to realize later that there was a much simpler solution.  First, look for a button or switch or combination of keys to activate/deactivate the wireless.  For example, is there a button above the keyboard?  a switch on the side?  maybe Fn + F5 turns the wireless on and off?
 
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|- 
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''BIOS Trickery'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|Check out the BIOS settings. Sometimes there is an option in BIOS to disable/enable a mini-PCI or Wireless device.  If so, make sure that you enable it.
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''lspci Is Your Friend'''|
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%" |The '''lspci''' command  is a utility for displaying information about all PCI buses in the system and all devices connected to them.  It will tell you about your wireless card, if there is one installed.  In particular, it will tell you whether your wireless card has a Broadcom chipset (which, if it does, you'll need to install some stuff - see below).  The following example is the output from running '''lspci''' and it demonstrates that the Wireless card has a Broadcom chipset (see the words "Broadcom" and "Wireless" in the same line?).
 
  
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09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
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This depends on the system. Generally, the keys used are the function keys (F1 - F12) or ESC or DELETE. Often POST will display the proper keystroke on the screen, but you might have to have a quick eye to catch it.
  
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Here are likely some keystrokes to try (according to various sources on the Web). ''(These have not been verified.)''
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"| '''ifconfig: Am I Connected?'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|The '''ifconfig''' command configures a wired network interface. It is a useful command for determining whether or not you're connected to a network AND which network interface is being used to connect (i.e. whether you're connected to a wireless or wired network).
 
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<pre>
 
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eth0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:46:0E:8C:D8
 
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          inet addr:192.168.2.252  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
 
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          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:46ff:fe0e:8cd8/64 Scope:Link
 
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          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
 
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          RX packets:3588 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
 
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          TX packets:624 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
 
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          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
 
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          RX bytes:1050713 (1.0 MiB)  TX bytes:111359 (108.7 KiB)
 
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</pre>
 
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This example shows that interface ''eth0'' is connected (because it shows an inet address).  To determine whether ''eth0'' is the wired or wireless interface, use '''iwconfig'''
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''iwconfig: No Wires!'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|The '''iwconfig''' command configures a wireless network interface.  It is a useful command for determining which interface is being used for wireless networking.
 
  
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<pre>
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* ALR PCs (PCI systems) -- F2
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eth0      no wireless extensions.
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* ALR PCs (non PCI systems) -- CTRL-ALT-ESC
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* AMI BIOS -- DELETE during bootup
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* AST -- CTRL-ALT-ESC
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* AWARD BIOS -- DELETE or CTRL-ALT-ESC Anytime
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* Compaq -- F1 or F10
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* Dell -- DELETE or CTRL-ALT-ENTER, newer dells use F2 for BIOS and F12 for pick your boot media
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* DTK BIOS -- ESC during bootup
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* eMachines -- Tab
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* Gateway -- F1 or F2
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* IBM PS/1 -- F1
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* IBM PS/2 BIOS -- INSERT, CTRL-ALT-?, or CTRL-ALT-INSERT after CTRL-ALT-DELETE
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* IBM -- F1, CTRL-ALT-INSERT, or reference disk
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* NEC -- F1, F2, or F10
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* Olivetti -- CTRL-ALT-Shift with DELETE (on number pad)
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* Phoenix BIOS -- F1, F2, CTRL-S, CTRL-ALT-S, or CTRL-ALT-ESC
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* Sony PC -- F3 at Logo then F1
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* Tandon -- CTRL-Shift-ESC, or CTRL-ALT-ESC
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* Toshiba -- ESC, or F1
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* Zenith PCs, Phoenix BIOS -- CTRL-ALT-INS
  
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eth1      radio off  ESSID:"" 
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Other keystrokes to try for various types of computers):
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          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated 
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* CTRL-ALT-+
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          Bit Rate:0 kb/s  Tx-Power=off  Sensitivity=8/0 
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* CTRL-ESC
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          Retry limit:7  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
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          Power Management:off
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=== When you can't figure out the keystroke ===
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          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
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You can also google a term like "Gateway bios key" to find pages that might tell you. (It might help to include the computer's model number.) Pages from the manufacturer's web site are the most likely to be accurate.
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          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
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          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0
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Some computers will prompt you with the option of entering the BIOS on the first boot after a hardware change.  Changing the amount of memory may do this, for example. Disconnecting the hard drive cable from the motherboard is another very useful tactic.
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</pre>
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The above example shows 3 important things: (1) that your wireless interface is ''eth1'', (2) that ''eth0'' is your wired network (because it reads "no wireless extension"), and (3) that your wireless is turned off ("radio off").  When you see "radio off" this generally means there's a physical button somewhere on the laptop that is currently in the off position. If you switched on the wireless and then ran '''iwconfig''' you might see something like this:
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===BIOS password===
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<pre>
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Occasionally you will find a password protected BIOS.  Sometimes this can be reset by taking out the battery, but more often there is a jumper on the mobo that needs to be changed.  In the rare cases where there is a default password, these are often available via a google search.
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eth1      IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"freegeek" 
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          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 00:14:BF:2B:41:1D 
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=== Rare problems ===
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          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s  Tx-Power=20 dBm  Sensitivity=8/0 
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*In some systems, if the keyboard and mouse are switched, they will still work in the GUI, but the keyboard will not work to enter BIOS.
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          Retry limit:7  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
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*USB keyboards may not work to enter BIOS.
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          Power Management:off
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          Link Quality=93/100  Signal level=-34 dBm  Noise level=-89 dBm
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== Laptop ==
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          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
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[[Thinkpad_Passwords]]
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          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:4
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</pre>
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== Enterprise ==
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Note that the ESSID is "freegeek."  This means that you're connected to the Free Geek wireless network.
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== Other Links ==
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*[http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/security/backdoor.html Backdoor and default passwords]
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''dhclient'''
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|The '''dhclient''' command will look for a server that will give your laptop a network address.  Run this command as a super-user (sudo).
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[[Category:Build]]
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* If you just type '''dhclient''' it will try all interfaces (wireless and wired)
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[[Category:Prebuild]]
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* You can specify which interface you would like by typing '''dhclient [interface]'''
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[[Category:Tech support]]
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: EXAMPLE: if you run '''iwconfig''' and discover that your wireless interface is ''eth1'', then running '''dhclient eth1''' will only try to connect your laptop to any wireless network.  If you specifically want to connect to the "freegeek" wireless network, you can type '''dhclient eth1 essid freegeek'''
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''Broadcom Chipset'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|So you've discovered that your wireless card has a Broadcom chipset, eh?  Try these steps:
 
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# System > Administration > Hardware Drivers
 
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#: If present, select "Broadcom B43 wireless driver"
 
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# Manual installation (use if step 1 reveals nothing).  Open a terminal and type the following command to install b43-fwcutter and fetch the firmware for you:
 
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sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''Try a Newer liveCD'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|Normally we use Ubuntu 8.04 on all our systems, but some newer wireless cards are not supported in this version. Use a live CD of the latest Ubuntu version (currently 9.04), and see if the card works.  
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''Try Using ndiswrapper'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"If the card does not work natively under Linux you can always try using the windows driver with [[ndiswrapper]]
 
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|-
 
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|style="text-align:center" width="20%"|'''Try Editing Network Interfaces'''
 
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|style="text-align:left" width="80%"|sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces
 
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Then remove all lines but lo
 
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|-
 
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|}
 
  
 
[[Category: Laptops]]
 
[[Category: Laptops]]
 
[[Category:Tech support]]
 
[[Category:Tech support]]

Revision as of 14:31, 8 February 2010

Desktop

What keystroke is needed to enter BIOS ?

This depends on the system. Generally, the keys used are the function keys (F1 - F12) or ESC or DELETE. Often POST will display the proper keystroke on the screen, but you might have to have a quick eye to catch it.

Here are likely some keystrokes to try (according to various sources on the Web). (These have not been verified.)

  • ALR PCs (PCI systems) -- F2
  • ALR PCs (non PCI systems) -- CTRL-ALT-ESC
  • AMI BIOS -- DELETE during bootup
  • AST -- CTRL-ALT-ESC
  • AWARD BIOS -- DELETE or CTRL-ALT-ESC Anytime
  • Compaq -- F1 or F10
  • Dell -- DELETE or CTRL-ALT-ENTER, newer dells use F2 for BIOS and F12 for pick your boot media
  • DTK BIOS -- ESC during bootup
  • eMachines -- Tab
  • Gateway -- F1 or F2
  • IBM PS/1 -- F1
  • IBM PS/2 BIOS -- INSERT, CTRL-ALT-?, or CTRL-ALT-INSERT after CTRL-ALT-DELETE
  • IBM -- F1, CTRL-ALT-INSERT, or reference disk
  • NEC -- F1, F2, or F10
  • Olivetti -- CTRL-ALT-Shift with DELETE (on number pad)
  • Phoenix BIOS -- F1, F2, CTRL-S, CTRL-ALT-S, or CTRL-ALT-ESC
  • Sony PC -- F3 at Logo then F1
  • Tandon -- CTRL-Shift-ESC, or CTRL-ALT-ESC
  • Toshiba -- ESC, or F1
  • Zenith PCs, Phoenix BIOS -- CTRL-ALT-INS

Other keystrokes to try for various types of computers):

  • CTRL-ALT-+
  • CTRL-ESC

When you can't figure out the keystroke

You can also google a term like "Gateway bios key" to find pages that might tell you. (It might help to include the computer's model number.) Pages from the manufacturer's web site are the most likely to be accurate.

Some computers will prompt you with the option of entering the BIOS on the first boot after a hardware change. Changing the amount of memory may do this, for example. Disconnecting the hard drive cable from the motherboard is another very useful tactic.

BIOS password

Occasionally you will find a password protected BIOS. Sometimes this can be reset by taking out the battery, but more often there is a jumper on the mobo that needs to be changed. In the rare cases where there is a default password, these are often available via a google search.

Rare problems

  • In some systems, if the keyboard and mouse are switched, they will still work in the GUI, but the keyboard will not work to enter BIOS.
  • USB keyboards may not work to enter BIOS.

Laptop

Thinkpad_Passwords

Enterprise

Other Links

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