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Rigit   05-08-2009 at 05:12:15 AM

I have a dynex DX-EBNBC wireless card. It will not work. By that I mean the lights on it don't even light up to show it's plugged in. Ubuntu suggests there may be an "off" switch but there isn't. It has been further suggested that it may be a software switch turned off by windows. Only windows can turn it back on. Problem: I don't have windows. OK that's not a problem but windows broke it. How do I fix it? Any ideas? I know this card is supported by ubuntu because I did a quick search before reformatting to check on hardware. People have reported using this exact card under ubuntu.

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MrLinux   05-08-2009 at 08:23:55 AM
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The card should work using the generic drivers; first thing to check is that the card is inserted correctly; next try booting with the card already inserted and see if it is detected (this is assuming it it a PCMCIA card?), some PCMCIA controllers don't detect card changes correctly and need to be re-configured to run in a polled mode.

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linux_0   05-08-2009 at 12:21:45 PM
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The best option is to use open source drivers if they exist and work.

If you have no other choice, you could use NDISwrapper with the closed source binary drivers from windows.

Good luck :)

------------------------------ $GNU_Linux=$Linus_Torvalds=AWESOME();

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Rigit   05-08-2009 at 03:42:34 PM
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MrLinux wrote :

The card should work using the generic drivers; first thing to check is that the card is inserted correctly; next try booting with the card already inserted and see if it is detected (this is assuming it it a PCMCIA card?), some PCMCIA controllers don't detect card changes correctly and need to be re-configured to run in a polled mode.



More to the story. I found my old netgear card and tried that. Same as the Dynex No signs of life. I'll try booting it with the card in. I think it was already in the first time.

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Rigit   05-08-2009 at 04:33:17 PM
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OK my netgear card started up today. It has 2 lights and one is lit all of the time. I'm not sure on the meaning of the lights. Sometimes they flash on and off together. Other times they alternate. But I do at least I have internet now. I like the Dynex card better though.

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Rigit   05-09-2009 at 03:00:51 AM
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I know there must be a way to get linux to turn the card back on though. Some help would be greatly appreciated. That card seems to have more stable connections at higher speeds. Although wireless s a whole new thing with linux. Almost unusable under windows. The connection is so tenuous to the point of being minute to minute on whether or not you actually have a connection.

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cydewaze   05-09-2009 at 03:55:45 PM
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On my wireless card, the two lights together mean it's connected, and the alternating means it's not. Not sure if yours is the same or not.

What sort of wireless security are you using. I had a lot harder time getting WPA to work than I did with WEP.

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Rigit   05-10-2009 at 12:07:28 AM
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cydewaze wrote :

On my wireless card, the two lights together mean it's connected, and the alternating means it's not. Not sure if yours is the same or not.

What sort of wireless security are you using. I had a lot harder time getting WPA to work than I did with WEP.



I'm not using any at the moment. Before you flip you should know I live rurally. To say that someone sneaking on my network is unlikely would be an understatement.

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cydewaze   05-10-2009 at 11:58:00 PM
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Guess it's not a WPA problem then! :P

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Rigit   05-11-2009 at 03:53:30 AM
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cydewaze wrote :

Guess it's not a WPA problem then! :P



No it seems that windows flipped some sort of "off switch" It's a software issue. Only windows can turn it back on but I don't have windows. I know there has to be a fix for this. This dynex card can't be trash just because of that. For now the netgear card I have is working.

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Zoron   05-11-2009 at 07:01:37 AM
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I've never heard of a "software switch" for a wireless card. In order for such a switch to function, the card would have to have some sort of permanent memory. There would be a way to reset or clear this memory if it did in fact exist.

More likely, the drivers were not installed for the card. The lights usually indicate two things: Link and Activity... but it depends on the manufacturer. Sometimes the Link and Activity light are the same light, while the other light indicates link speed. If there are no drivers installed and functioning for the card, the lights will not work. If you can find the proper Linux driver for the card, then you can turn it back "on"... but my guess is that unless there is a physical switch somewhere on the card or computer... the card isn't enabled because it doesn't have a driver installed. There is no other way to permanently disable the card... because to do so would be absurd. No one would buy or use a wireless card that could only be turned on or off with Windows. Now, it's not unusual for manufacturers to put out wireless hardware that only has drivers for Windows... but it's extremely unlikely that a card disabled in Windows will continue to be disabled after the OS is completely wiped and reinstalled. The only other option you can check is to see if the card has been disabled in BIOS... which is possible if the card came as part of the computer.

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
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linux_0   05-13-2009 at 11:33:33 AM
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I've seen the same thing, sometimes you have to power down for a few seconds when switching from windows to linux and possibly the other way around, although Linux is usually very well behaved.

Some ethernet and wireless drivers actually load certain firmware onto the ethernet or wifi chip so it's possible the different firmware versions may not play well with some operating systems. It's also possible the driver may leave a chip in a strange state which in turn can cause issues.

Some devices have their own RAM, NVRAM, EEPROM or flash for storing configuration data, firmware and other info.

I've had ethernet chips go bad or become unstable on some motherboards too.

In this particular case it sounds like a driver or device configuration problem or a bug with this revision of the device.

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MrLinux   05-13-2009 at 03:27:30 PM
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This How-To is a little dated but well worth reading...http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-HOWTO.html

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audiovoodoo   05-19-2009 at 12:04:26 AM
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Wasn't there a similar issue with early builds of 9.04 blowing out network cards with a duff firmware? I know there was a lot of discussion about it at the time.

------------------------------ BoM - Just another bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys
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