Zorin Os Wifi Problems

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

NozSpark

Seaman stains™
Supporting Member
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
12,328
Reaction score
133
Location
North Wales Riviera
So, as we've bought our daughter a new laptop for Christmas (ended up with a Toshiba one) I have now inherited her old Acer Aspire 5310.

I've installed Zorin 32 bit on it and I'm now having a problem figuring out how to get the WiFi card working.... I'm currently working with a wired connection but I'm sure that Mrs Noz wont be happy with a cable trailing across the living room for very long.

While I do quite like it, and it is much faster than the old XP install I cannot continue with it like this, so I either have to fix it or maybe try another OS.... hopefully I won't have to go back to XP but I will if I have to.... :(

Does anyone have any ideas??

 
what wifi card is it?

not sure just how zorin works,

but try

ctrl & alt & t

then type

lshw

should show you a list of all hardware,

oh, and make sure there isnt simply a switch for wifi that needs turned on  ;)

 
good job noz,

im surprised b43 isnt in zorin, its what all my laptops use,,,,,,  its in ubuntu/lubuntu etc standard,

but, i usually install under ethernet and click install updates,

then when rebooted I update again before I do anything, so maybe it just retrieves it off the net,  :C

 
Yes Noz,

Is HPLIP in zorin by default?

If not install it from software centre, 

You then connect your printer to network,

Go to print from lappie, print anything, then from printer icon select the WiFi printer instead of the USB one.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The thing with Zorin is IMHO that it's more like Windows than Ubuntu on which it's based.

I 'm running Zorin 8.1 64-bit on 3 pcs now.

Try installing HPLIP Toolbox as above.........it is available in the Software Centre as steps says. Yes, that's the correct command line - you'll get options for connecting it USB, wireless etc.

Btw, Simple Scan is worth installing - does what it says on the tin. Also Shutter is just like the Windows Snipping tool for screen grabs.......only better. And Microsoft Office 2010 works perfectly and quickly under WINE.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had a similar issue when I installed ubuntu on an Acer laptop. Wi Fi would not work.

It was solved by the good people of this forum in this thread http://talk.electricianforum.co.uk/topic/25978-help-i-thought-ununtu-was-supposted-to-be-perfect-and-simple/  Post #86 in that long thread was the solution.

Seems linux variants don't seem to want to "do" wi fi "plug and play"
The problem Dave us a lot of the card manufacturers will not release the code without being paid, so Ubuntu cannot legally make it available,

Lots of individuals have reverse engineered though so if you know where to look you can find ripped drivers,

HP are very good in that they not only release the code, they make the Ubuntu drivers available on their own website,   :)

Oh, wifi worked straight out of the box on my HP laptop, as did my printer, but, I haven't got simple scan to work on WiFi yet, but I've never actually tried to do anything yet,,,, 

 
Um........just realised that all 3 of my pcs printed to the HP printer via USB WITHOUT first having to install HPLIP or do anything at all tbh. A Samsung lappy and two bitsa desktops.......

 
Just to balance the equation. We recently got a new HP colour laser printer network connected (first time having a network connected printer)

To get the Windoze pc to find and install the printer we needed to run the install software that came with the printer than then first had to update some element of windoze before the installer would run (.net framework or something IIRC)  took hours.

The Ubuntu laptop just scanned and announced "HP network printer detected"

 
Im not exactly sure if I've installed the HPLIP toolbox or not,,,,,, what does it do? how do you access it?

I can access the printer settings through system settings/printer & clicking on my printer if thats what it is?????

Just need to sort out my email accounts now,,, cant remember the blinking passwords though, for a couple of them

 
HPLIP just does its hob quietly in the background,

If your printer is working ok then you probably have it and it is doing what it should,

Have you tried to print anything yet,?

Just start a document and type TEST  then print it, if it stays queued then click on printer icon and check it sees your wifi printer. 

 
Im not exactly sure if I've installed the HPLIP toolbox or not,,,,,, what does it do? how do you access it?

I can access the printer settings through system settings/printer & clicking on my printer if thats what it is?????

Just need to sort out my email accounts now,,, cant remember the blinking passwords though, for a couple of them
Just run  "hp-toolbox"  from the terminal. To clean print heads it's  "hp-clean" etc.

 
Top