I just downloaded the newest ubuntu for my Inspirion Mini netbook and I absolutely love it. The problem is Ubuntu wont recognize my wireless card. I know a fair amount about drivers working on windows for so long but I dont know what to do about this.
My wireless card is built in and it is a Dell wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-card
Can anybody help?
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General discussion
Wireless card won't work in ubuntu
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3 Posts
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BEFORE trying Ndiswrapper, try plugging your computer into your router via the Ethernet port, then reload the package list (sudo apt-get update) and go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers and see if there are any drivers offered to you.
You should also look online for help specific to your wireless chipset - you can find out the chipset model number by running the 'lspci' or 'lsusb' commands in the terminal. You might not be lacking a driver, but just may have to stop the wrong driver from loading.
Of course, the best thing to do is buy a model of computer that contains a wireless card that works out-of-the-box in Ubuntu, which I always do 
But in this case you should be able to get the card working.
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Hi,
I have a Dell Latitude D820 and an E6500 and I installed Linux with wireless working on both. I first tried the installation method that allows you to run Linux within Windows as an application (you will recognize it because it makes an Ubuntu folder on your C:\ drive).You cannot launch Linux from within Windows with either method unless you are running the Live CD.
Anyway, my wireless worked fine on the D820 but was grayed out on the E6500 and no amount of driver manipulation could get it to work. On that same machine, when I created a separate Linux partition, and installed as a second OS, the wireless worked fine. Go figure. I am teaching a class on OSes and 20 students have the same E6500. Some created NTFS partitions, and others EXT4 partitions, with successful results. Thay ALL had the locked out wireless with the "install within Windows" method, so it wasn't an anomaly of my particular machine. I have my E6500 at work so I can't tell you at the moment which wireless chipset is in there. I thought you might have a similar situation so I thought I'd share my story.
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