witblits1970 wrote:understood however
my wifi indicator on my laptop does not come on and regardless of what i do it won't my lappy is a dell studio.
with 2.3 it used to show and i couls choose what ntework i wanted to connect to but not now
With your 2.3 installation, did you first have to click on Hardware Drivers from the System/Administration menu and then pick a wireless driver and click Activate? I understand (
I think) that the Broadcom wireless driver is not open-source and strictly speaking, should
not be automatically installed by the distro's installer (even though it would be convienent to the end-user
).
That seems to be the whole purpose of the Hardware Drivers app - to search for and present for installation those drivers that may be needed by our hardware that for one reason or another - such as not meeting the GPL, perhaps - cannot be automatically included.
It worked very well for me. I just had to connect my ethernet port that first time so that Hardware Drivers could do its thing.
I wonder if in the future such proprietary wireless drivers could be included on the DVD, not to be automatically installed, but so a user who does not have the option of physically connecting - if they must use a public WiFi hotspot for their internet access, for example - can add the DVD as a repository and do the installation that way. I am not sure if the Broadcom / NDISWrapper(?) thing can be so included (legally).witblits1970 wrote:i think im going to go back to 2.3. at least things worked there, maybe 2.4 at a later date.
That is
exactly how I felt only a couple of days ago
. The issue I was trying to figure out was a non-issue on my 2.3 installation. And - of course
- if you do stick with 2.3, you've still got a GREAT distro. But I was stubborn and with the help of a couple wonderful staff members my issue was resolved and I learned something in the process. And so I find myself about to install 2.4 on my main computer with confidence that, although I may have the odd personal (err...) issue, the distro itself is solid and anything specific to my circumstances will be quickly dealt with.
Admin-Amir wrote:I have add some more info to the Guide section,see if that can help.
If you go left click on the icon monitor up top right,then you can configure your wireless network.
and some info in the Guide section for you.
viewtopic.php?f=65&t=4061
Thank you from all of us non-experts! There is a great deal of knowledge presented (I'm still chipping away at it - I looked for something in it and immediately found a couple other things right off the bat that were useul as well) within your work and it was kind of you to gather it into one spot. It must have taken more than a little effort on your part, and you have expended said effort... For the rest of us.
.
I admit that when I first picked Ultimate Edition, I did so based solely on the size of the .ISO (it's bigger than most, it must be better, right? ). I simply did not yet know enough to pick one any other way. Turns out I was very lucky in my choice, and in addition to finding a distro that works well for me, I've found a group of people - both staffers and "regular" members - who care enough to help one as ignorant as myself. It is for that as much as the distro itself that I know I'll be a long-term user.