Ubuntu

device manager style utility in ubuntu 8.04?

Asked by thbsp

how do i install or access a windows device manager style utility? i'm using ubuntu 8.04 lts, which i installed from a live cd image i downloaded a few weeks ago. what i would like to find out is what wireless card i have installed, or if ubuntu is even able to detect it.

the response in other similar questions suggested the command:
sudo apt-get install gnome-device-manager
which gives the error:
"Package gnome device manager is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean thta the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another souce"

other suggestions were to do the same as above but for the package 'hal-device-manager', but from what i can find it seems to have been replaced by gnome device manager.

i've also looked through everything in the synpatic package manager that comes up in search results for 'gnome', 'manager', 'device' or 'hardware'. there was an entry called 'hal', but i can't see a way to run it from the package manager and 'hal' isn't a recognized command in the terminal. is this the utility i should be using, and if so how do i run it?

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Johannes Pilkahn
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Robert Spanjaard (spamtrap-arumes) said : 		#1

use the command "lspci" in a terminal. If Ubuntu detected it, it should be listed there.

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thbsp (thbsp) said : 		#2

alright: my wireless card is listed there, but network manager isn't listing any of the at least ten networks my other computers are detecting, which brings me back to the point of having a device manager, not just a device lister:
how do i find out if the card is working correctly, and how do i install drivers for it if it isn't working?

as an alternate solution, i attempted to install the windows driver for the device. i believe i have the correct windows driver, but following the directions here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/ndiswrapper.html,
i have come into a similar problem with the package not being listed in the package manager and not recognized when i try to install it at the command line.

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MFauzilkamil Zainuddin (apogee) said : 		#3

which wireless card are you using? what is the brand, model, etc
which package is not listed?

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thbsp (thbsp) said : 		#4

no packages with the term 'ndis' are listed. i was specifically expecting/hoping to find something like 'ndiswrapper', 'ndisgtk' or just 'ndis'.

lspci lists the card as a "broadcom bcm94311mcg wlan minipci (rev 01)"
i believe this is accurate, but i don't have a list of components from the manufacturer.

while i appreciate the help in this regard, this seems to be getting away from a general utility that allows me to modify settings for all the present hardware devices. something such as the hal or gnome-device-manager packages that don't seem to actually be present.

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Best Johannes Pilkahn (j-pilkahn) said : 		#5

The concept of the device manager as it exists in Windows is not present in a Linux environment.

As for the amount of information given, you might be more satisfied with 'sudo lshw'.

Given your current issue you might want to post the outputs of 'sudo lshw -C network' and 'iwconfig'.

Further, if no drivers are installed, you need the b43 driver. Check https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/b43

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thbsp (thbsp) said : 		#6

Thanks Johannes Pilkahn, that solved my question.