Wireless networking doesn't seem to work on a Lenovo Ideapad P500

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thecomputerguy10101
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Iscritto: 10/12/2013

I'm attempting to install Trisquel 6.0 (amd64) on a Lenovo Ideapad P500. I'm attempting to connect to the internet before installing (on the Live CD) but it doesn't seem to want to connect to the wireless network, it just wants to stay on eth0. wlan0 doesn't exist, so that could explain things. However, ifconfig and iwconfig give "bash: command not found".

thecomputerguy10101
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Iscritto: 10/12/2013

I think it might work if I installed the kernel from jxself's repository, but it's on a CD and would be impossible.

jxself
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Iscritto: 09/13/2010

You don't say what sort of WiFi you have. Since it's Lenovo my immediate concern is that it came with an Intel WiFi card. This needs non-free software to operate and would explain why it doesn't work because neither Trisquel nor my kernel come with any of that stuff. lspci should be able to tell you more details about your WiFi card. In either even, it should be possible to use ethernet to complete the installation.

jxself
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Iscritto: 09/13/2010

Oh, actually the network connection doesn't even matter since you can finish the install without a network connection in the first place. :)

Chris

I am a member!

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Iscritto: 04/23/2011

There is an even bigger free-software issue here from a practical perspective. Lenovo is using digital restrictions on its laptops and thats going to prevent them from replacing the intel wifi card with an atheros one. IE no wifi after install. The obvious solution of course is to get a USB dongle. Not ideal although probably a solution none-the-less.

I recommend people avoid at least: HP, Lenovo/IBM, Sony, Apple, Dell, and Toshiba. These companies use digital restrictions and proprietary connectors which wreck havoc on users freedom. While nobody offers a 100% perfect system these companies are going out of the way to be hostile.

And... of course I'm always going to advocate for a free software friendly system. ie I'll leave the two options to someone else to suggest.