# Solved: Problem with Dell 1390 Wireless adapter



## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

I have a new Inspiron 9400 (Windows XP Home) with a Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN and am having trouble getting it to connect to my wireless network broadcast from a Netgear WGR614 wireless router. The "funny" thing is that I can get the card to connect to a much weaker Linksys network which I assume that my neighbor's wireless router is broadcasting.

The Dell card sees the Netgear network but won't connect. Network strength is good. Another laptop that I have with a Netgear 511 wireless card connects to the Netgear network with no problem. I don't have wireless security enabled, and it does not appear that my firewall is blocking the connection. I have tried to connect using both the utility that comes with the wireless care and WinXP's standard wireless network connection wizard. Neither works. I'm at a loss. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Check the configuration of the wireless section in the router. Disable ALL non-standard "extensions" to the 802.11g protocol and see if that helps. Many times those "turbo" or "speed-up" options will affect a different brand's ability to connect.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

JohnWill,

I'm afraid I'm not sure how to do what you're talking about. I'm logged onto my router configuration, but I don't see any options that allow me to enable or disable anything that specifically has anything to do with the 802.11g protocol (or any other protocol for that matter). But I may just be too dumb to know where to look...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I checked your router's manual, and I don't see any "turbo" options either. One thing to try is to set it to 802.11g only and see if that does anything for the connection.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

JohnWill,

This evening when I get home I'll try setting the protocol to 802.11g only (it is currently set to both b & g) and post my results. I greatly appreciate your efforts to help me out.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Also disable MAC Address filtering.


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## donsony (Jun 6, 2007)

I have had this problem before. Try uninstalling/disabling the monitor that came with your adapter and re enable Widows Wireless Zero Configuration from Services and make it automatic also. U should be able to run it without any problems


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## donsony (Jun 6, 2007)

Anothe rthing that you can do if it still does not work is try enabling WEP security.... not WPA... some older cards does not support WPA as well as newer firmwares does not encourage open connections.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

OK, have tried all of the above with no success. Also have tried uninstalling and re-installing the 1390 WLAN adapter driver, also no help. Any other suggestions anyone?

Thanks.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

Just in case it is of any assistance, here are the results of an ipconfig /all:



Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Inspiron9400

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : 

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : 

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-8B-CB-D7-13

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 12.127.17.71

12.127.16.67

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, June 06, 2007 7:55:53 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, June 09, 2007 7:55:53 PM



Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:



Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1B-FC-41-6C-04


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## donsony (Jun 6, 2007)

Hi, I just found this article on th net

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=297092
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HOWTO: Dell Inspiron Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
This HOWTO describes how to get Wifi working on your Dell Inspiron E1505/6400 laptop using Ndiswrapper. This applies if you have the Broadcom "Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN MiniCard", which as far as I know, is the cheaper, low-end version that Dell currently offers in this laptop. This HOWTO has been tested and works with both 32 bit and 64 bit ubuntu, and uses the exact same method for both.

This HOWTO supports:

* Feisty Fawn 7.04
* Edgy Eft 6.10
* Dapper Drake 6.06

STEP 1: CLEAN YOUR SYSTEM

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT CLEANING YOUR SYSTEM:

One of the most common reasons that many people can't get their wireless working is because their system is in a state of chaos. If you have made ANY previous attempts to get your wireless working -- either using fwcutter, ndiswrapper, or the bcm43xx drivers -- this how-to will most likely not work UNTIL you reverse your previous changes. In many cases, it is much easier to simply reinstall ubuntu and come straight to this how-to. Alternatively, you can manually clean your system of the previous attempts, as outlined in various posts throughout this thread. But BE WARNED: If you have done ANY previous work on your wireless, there is almost no chance that this how-to will work unless you clean your system.

If you have a fresh install of Ubuntu, you need to remove any and all versions of Ndiswrapper that come installed by default on your system:

Code:

sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils

Don't worry if you get errors about not being able to find or remove these -- we're just making sure they're not present before we get started.

STEP 2: GET NEEDED PACKAGES

We'll need to install compiling tools (don't panic when you read that, just bear with me), the latest kernel headers, and then the source code for the latest ndiswrapper (seriously, don't panic. This will be very simple), and the wireless drivers from Dell.com.

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R151517.EXE

NOTE: The characters around `uname -r` are BACK TICS, NOT apostrophes. A back tic is usually located at the top left of your keyboard, to the left of the 1 key. The command WILL NOT WORK if you use apostrophes. Just copy/paste the commands from this how-to in to your terminal to avoid making typos.

At this point, you need to go to the ndiswrapper sourceforge site and get the latest version of the Ndiswrapper program. As of 1 April 2007, the latest version is 1.41:

Code:

wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.41.tar.gz

If that wget doesn't work, just go here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=93482

Uncompress the ndiswrapper source (in my example, the file name is ndiswrapper-1.41.tar.gz):

Code:

tar -xzvf ndiswrapper-1.41.tar.gz

Finally, we need to blacklist the broken and useless bcm43xx firmware drivers that try to load in a default ubuntu install:

Code:

sudo echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

NOTE: If the above command gives you a permission denied error, try this code instead:

Code:

sudo -s
echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
exit

YOU MUST REBOOT NOW!

STEP 3: COMPILE PROGRAM

Now we'll complile the Ndiswrapper program. In a terminal, go to the directory where you extracted ndiswrapper and execute the following:

Code:

sudo make uninstall

IMPORTANT: Do the above command multiple times. You can stop when you get the message that says something about no files or directories found.

Code:

sudo make
sudo make install

STEP 4: INSTALL DRIVERS

If that worked, then you now have Ndiswrapper installed. Now we need to install the drivers. In a terminal, go to the directory where you have the R151517.EXE file:

Code:

unzip -a R151517.EXE

Now change directories (cd) to the DRIVER directory that was just extracted.

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -l

you should see a message that says driver present, hardware detected

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -m
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

Some users have reported the need to reboot here.

STEP 5: TEST WIRELESS

Your wifi light on your laptop should be illuminated, and you're all set! Try running this to see if your wireless card is functioning properly:

Code:

sudo iwlist scanning

Even if it doesn't detect any wireless networks in range, it will still tell you if linux is recognizing your wireless card properly. If you'd like a better way to scan for wireless networks, I'd suggest installing/using network-manager or wifi-radar.

TO ALL WHO REQUEST HELP:

1) Please indicate:

1. your laptop model
2. ubuntu version
3. your lspci output
4. the relevant rows from /var/log/syslog
5. the relevant rows from dmesg
6. any unexpected output when following the steps in the how-to

2) If your wireless card is being recognized by the system, but you simply cannot connect to your desired wireless network, please understand that your issue is beyond the scope of this how-to, due largely to the fact that such issues are very complicated and often have absolutely nothing to do with the way you got ubuntu to recognize your wireless card. That said, I will do what I can to help. My first suggestion will always be to turn off all encryption first to see if you can at least connect to an open network.

NOTES:

- Dell driver version updated to R151517.EXE on 30 March 2007
- Ndiswrapper version updated to 1.41 on 1 April 2007
- If you are using a Dell laptop that's NOT model E1505, you need to go to Dell.com and search for the drivers that correspond to your specific model. Use those instead.
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Last edited by paperdiesel : 2 Weeks Ago at 11:52 PM. Reason: added note about /etc/modules
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#2 
Old November 12th, 2006
varunbhalerao varunbhalerao is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
Great ! thats a nice, easy how-to - and works perfectly. I needed to manually put an ESSID from the last command into the the config of the wireless card (system->administration->networking) - it wouldnt auto-detect networks there. If all need to do it, you might want to add it in the how-to !
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#3 
Old November 15th, 2006
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Zaffe Zaffe is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
Ty for this, working fine now
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#4 
Old November 16th, 2006
rodealmeida rodealmeida is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
Thank You. U save me. I was using windows because i couldn't set up my wireless connection. Now it's working fine and it was very easy to configure. Thanks
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#5 
Old November 20th, 2006
sudipta_cht sudipta_cht is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
God bless you!
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#6 
Old November 20th, 2006
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arthur_kalm arthur_kalm is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
I get the same result as before, no wireless. The light doesn't come up and the scan is empty. I can't connect to any networks. This is really annoying because wireless was working PERFECTLY under Dapper. I'm really _really_ disappointed with Edgy. Nothing seems to work (wireless, XGL/Beryl, suspend and hibernate). I'm going to mess around with it for a while but I might just go back to Dapper.
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#7 
Old November 20th, 2006
loismustdie loismustdie is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
i have a problem, and i'm new to linux in general, so i apologize ahead of time for not completely understanding the answers if that happens.

when i go to blacklist the bcm drivers, it says permission is denied. what do i do to get around that? i'm using sudo, and i've already typed in the only password i know of. what's going on?
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#8 
Old November 21st, 2006
loismustdie loismustdie is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
so nevermind on that, i logged in as root and fixed the problem. the next thing is that i'm actually having trouble with an earlier step.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

this command gets me the following reply:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package linux-headers-uname -r

again, i'm completely new to linux and don't know what i'm doing wrong. anyone?
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#9 
Old November 21st, 2006
ILoveLily ILoveLily is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
Quote:
Originally Posted by loismustdie View Post
i have a problem, and i'm new to linux in general, so i apologize ahead of time for not completely understanding the answers if that happens.

when i go to blacklist the bcm drivers, it says permission is denied. what do i do to get around that? i'm using sudo, and i've already typed in the only password i know of. what's going on?
Open a new terminal and do "sudo -s" and then try the same code without the sudo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by loismustdie View Post
so nevermind on that, i logged in as root and fixed the problem. the next thing is that i'm actually having trouble with an earlier step.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

this command gets me the following reply:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package linux-headers-uname -r

again, i'm completely new to linux and don't know what i'm doing wrong. anyone?
see where it says "uname"? that;s where you enter the linux headers version number. first type "sudo apt-get install linux-headers" and it will give you a selection and then choose the version replaced with "uname"

However, I am having problems installing the driver. It is giving me the error with something like "code at line 167". Any ideas?
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#10 
Old November 21st, 2006
loismustdie loismustdie is offline
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Re: HOWTO: Dell Inspiron E1505 Wireless (Broadcom 1390 WLAN)
i'm getting the same line 167 message now.

and it's showing that i've got like three drivers installed somehow. how can i remove specific drivers for the device?

and thank you very much for the previous answer. that was extremely helpful.
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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

*donsony*, next time please just post the link and a short excerpt from the page.


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## donsony (Jun 6, 2007)

Won't happen again! I apologise If I broke any forum rules!


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

donsony said:


> Won't happen again! I apologise If I broke any forum rules!


No problem, we have that nifty web reference tool to keep from posting an entire page here. It's a copyright issue, and we try to be sensitive to those matters. We also don't shoot first time offenders as a rule.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

donsony,

Thanks for trying to help, but please note:

The article you posted applies to getting linux ubuntu to recognize the 1390 wireless card. I am not running linux ubuntu, I am running WinXP. Also, from the article (buried deep within, so I understand that you might not have read that far):



> If your wireless card is being recognized by the system, but you simply cannot connect to your desired wireless network, please understand that your issue is beyond the scope of this how-to ...


My wireless card _is_ being recognized by the system. In fact it will even connect to another wireless network, just not the one I want it to.

Anyway, I do appreciate everyone's efforts to help me figure out what's going on here. I'm still not able to connect wirelessly to my network, so any further suggestions are welcome...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Have you checked for upgraded firmware for the router? How about doing a factory reset on the router and reconfiguring it? That will sometimes beat them into submission.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

JohnWill,

Excellent ideas (especially the one about beating the router into submission, I was quite ready to try that one last night!).

I'll try them this evening. I'm also at the moment perusing the Netgear forums to see if anyone has posted similar problems there, and if Broadcom has a forum, I'll look there as well.

Thanks for staying with me on this.


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## Grubbs (Nov 17, 2003)

A firmware upgrade to my router did the trick! Thanks again to all who have offered suggestions.


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## usulis (Aug 7, 2007)

See http://www.wikisos.org/wiki/Ubuntu_7.04:How_to_install_Dell_Inspiron_Wireless_%28Broadcom_1390_WLAN%29 for screencast


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