[SOLVED] Another refugee from XP - with a wireless problem

Hello to all on the forum

I am a newcomer to the world of Linux OSs, perhaps one of many contemplating a change after relying for many years on Windows 98 and then XP.

I am fascinated by the range of choice in the Linux world, but intimidated by the jargon and the technique of "command line" (or "terminal") operations. So as a first step I am reading widely and beginning to try out some of the Linux OS distros, thanks to the wonderful LiveCD (or LiveDVD) sessions. Once I am comfortable with whichever Linux OS I choose, I shall want to install as dual boot so that I retain the XP option for certain functions and activities (notably graphics and photo work)

I have however just come up against what seems to be an early obstacle with Zorin, which is the reason for this post.

I have two laptops running XP. My main one is a Dell Inspiron 1520 (2GB RAM, Intel Core2 Duo 2.00GHz, 250GB HDD). The other is an older Inspiron 8600 (512MB RAM, Pentium M 1.5GHz, 60GB HDD) which I use as a spare or reserve.

I have tried out a limited selection of Linux distros. Zorin was looking like my favourite, with Linux Lite as a possibility, but neither would run on the older 8600 whose CPU does not have "pae". So advice from other forums and sites led me to try LXLE (a Lubuntu variation which does not need a "pae" CPU) as well, and that works fine on both the newer 1520 and the old 8600 laptop.

Nevertheless I have been persisting with Zorin Live sessions on my main (1520) laptop, just to get more familiar with it. And there is a problem.

The other two OSs (Lite and LXLE) connect easily via either wired or wireless connection to my Netgear router. BUT..... while Zorin works fine with the wired connection, it cannot connect wirelessly. It claims that firmware (a driver) is missing. The wireless card (?) in the 1520 is Broadcom (haven't verified which particular model). Zorin says I need the Broadcom STA proprietary driver, but when I try to download or activate it, I get a 'failed' message. I have looked at var/log/jockey.log as instructed. The info there is meaningless to me, but it appears to show that BroadcomWLhandler or bc43xx has been looked for but is "blacklisted" (?).

Some searching of forums and websites reveals that there is a big, widespread and long standing problem with Zorin and Broadcom wireless drivers. Worse, there seems to be not one simple and agreed fix, but a multitude of suggested solutions, most of which involve lots of incomprehensible commands in the terminal. I am not willing to go down that route, for two reasons. One is that I don't want to mess with my computer or its drivers when the OS is running only as a Live session off a CD/DVD or USB stick (I am assuming that any changes I make won't actually make a permanent difference to the Zorin OS 'image' which I am using for the Live sessions) . The other is that since the computer and the wireless connection works flawlessly not only with the installed Windows XP but with the two other Linux OSs I have tried so far, I doubly don't want to mess with the existing wireless drivers or setup at Zorin's behest if that then risks causing problems for these other OSs.

So.... the crunch. Is this a dealbreaker? If the only way to get Zorin to work wirelessly is (a) to install it; and (b) to jump through all sorts of hoops in the terminal in the hope that some combination of codes will magic the Broadcom wireless connection into working with Zorin, then I'm not very interested in playing. I'm happy to customise wallpapers and try out new software apps, but I want an OS in which the fundamentals work straight out of the box.

Is there an agreed diagnosis, and a simple, agreed, solution to the problem? Or do I just write Zorin off as more trouble than I need?

Hi,

use the network cable you have to update your system once installed and run this terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) command, you should find your drivers are there after a reboot:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

Madvinegar is the WiFi expert, you can sit and wait for him too!.

Thanks Wolfman...

You say "....once installed....". As you may have guessed, I'm not in a mad rush to shift over to Linux (Zorin or whatever...). After all, XP still works, but is likely to become a little less secure so I'm taking care!

But your advice will - I hope - help if after the various trial sessions I do decide to go for Zorin after all. I'm not one of these people who likes to change OS as often as they change their shirts (some Linux enthusiasts seem to run a different distro every time a new one appears!). Whichever OS I choose, I'd like to stick with it, and count on support, for a decent period (years, not months).

Meanwhile I'll keep checking this thread in case others are prompted to comment on the Broadcom wireless driver issue.

Hi

Internal WIFI does not work out of the box in Zorin distros. Look this link and Madvinegar's reply so you may get it working.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7051

If you want a years lasting support to a distro from Zorin so you have to wait few months until Zorin 9 (LTS) distros are released. My suggestion is that use LXLE until that if it works fine with your laptops either installed to HDD or from a persistent USBlive drive.

I am pretty sure that in order to get the wifi working in XP you had to install the required drivers that came along with the laptop.
If your laptop had XP preinstalled, then the person who installed XP had to go through this process.

With linux it all comes down if the firmware of the wireless card you have is pre-installed in the kernel. If yes, the wireless is just picked up automatically. If not, you just add it yourself (like installing drivers in XP).
Some linux distros may include the firmware of your card (like LXDE), some others may not (like Zorin). On the other hand, Zorin may include firmware for my laptop's wireless card, while LXDE does not. It's all up to the devs of the distro when preparing the iso. This does not make one distro better than the other and at least for me, is certainly not a dealbreaker if I just have to run 1-2 commands to get it working. With the commands you basically download the firmware needed and place it in the right folder.
So, my opinion is that you need first of all to find a distro that you like, one that satisfies your needs (working needs, appearance needs, hardware needs, speed needs, stability needs, response needs etc) and then we can help you sort out the wireless problem. I am pretty confident that we can get your wireless card working since it is working in LXDE. Also broadcom is pretty well supported in Linux. The reason that most distros do not come with broadcom firmwares preinstalled is because in many cases you need to remove one firmware in order not to conflict with another.

Apologies for the long introduction. If possible when you boot into the live session of Zorin, could you please open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and post back here the results of the following commands?

lspci -nn | grep 0280
lsusb
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

These are 4 different commands. Each line is a command. You copy/paste each one into terminal and press <enter> after each one.

As regards your older laptop (512 ram) and in case you like Zorin, I would suggest for your to try Zorin Lite (which is based on LXDE).
You must also be aware of the support cycles of the distros. For example Zorin 6 is an LTS (long term support) release and will be supported till 2017.
We are expecting Zorin9 now to be released which will be supported till 2019.

On the other hand, the Lite (LXDE) releases were not LTS. The first LXDE LTS release with 3 years support has just came out (Lubuntu 14.04). Therefore I can only understand that the next version of Zorin Lite will be based in Lubuntu 14.04 and will be LTS as well.

If even LXDE is heavy for your laptop, there are other more lightweight distros like crunchbang, puppy linux etc.

Madvinegar wrote:
"Some linux distros may include the firmware of your card (like LXDE), some others may not (like Zorin). On the other hand, Zorin may include firmware for my laptop's wireless card, while LXDE does not. It's all up to the devs of the distro when preparing the iso. This does not make one distro better than the other and at least for me, is certainly not a dealbreaker if I just have to run 1-2 commands to get it working. With the commands you basically download the firmware needed and place it in the right folder."

Addition to that:
That is in most cases true. However there is many other things that can differ from one distro to another. Combined to that what Madvinegar said, there might be also need, not only for typing few command lines but also, either install totally new or additional set of application software or sometimes even replace parts of hardware to get the os. working. Only to be aware also of these differencies, you can select the best os. for you.

Hi madvinegar, LXLE as I understand it was the first (and only LTS) based on 12.04 - support for that is just like core April 2017! (And wireless works out of the box but have had issues with the Panel disappearing (using MultiSystem in 'live' mode)

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi madvinegar, LXLE as I understand it was the first (and only LTS) based on 12.04 - support for that is just like core April 2017! (And wireless works out of the box but have had issues with the Panel disappearing (using MultiSystem in 'live' mode)

Yes you are right, but LXLE is not officially supported by Ubuntu/Canonical.

The first official Lubuntu to be an LTS (3 years) and officially supported by Canonical is now Lubuntu 14.04.

I have tried Lubuntu 14.04 but I prefer LXLE, not least in looks and applications loaded!

Question related to official support from Canonical. Is there some difference whether it is Ubuntu or Lubuntu compared to the derivatives of these mother os.es like Zorin or LXLE? At least these derivatives launches Long Term Supported (LTS) distros accordiing to the same time scedule and uses the mother os.es software centers and have updates like the mother os.es. LXLE seems to be preparing now a Lubuntu 14.04 based (LTS) like Zorin 9 Lite. How to know whether some distro is or isn't (officially) supported? There are many such open questions that are not clear for a Linux user.

Henriolavi wrote:Hi

Internal WIFI does not work out of the box in Zorin distros. Look this link and Madvinegar's reply so you may get it working.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7051

If you want a years lasting support to a distro from Zorin so you have to wait few months until Zorin 9 (LTS) distros are released. My suggestion is that use LXLE until that if it works fine with your laptops either installed to HDD or from a persistent USBlive drive.

Please lets keep this thread to what it is about and not make a political discussion out of it!.

An btw, mine (WiFi) works fine out of the box!.

Sorry ?
Now I don't understand what here is considered to be "political discussion"? Everything I wrote here is on the core area of this topic and based on Madvinegar's reply and my experience of installing Zorin distros.

Having started this thread, I have only now come back to it. The discussion seems to have expanded to embrace three separate subjects...

i) how to get wifi which uses a Broadcom driver to work with Zorin - which was my original question;

ii) the merits of Zorin versus LXLE (lubuntu); and

iii) which versions of each of these have Long Term Support.

I'd like to follow up on the specifics of my original question.

madvinegar wrote:
With linux it all comes down if the firmware of the wireless card you have is pre-installed in the kernel. If yes, the wireless is just picked up automatically. If not, you just add it yourself (like installing drivers in XP).

My questions are as follows (and they will reveal how limited is my knowledge!).

- Is it possible to add or replace the wireless driver which Zorin requires in order to run a Broadcom-based wireless connection while Zorin is running as a Live session from a USB stick? I am running Zorin at present from a USB stick, and it has what is called "persistence" so that changes I make to the Zorin settings are 'saved' on the USB stick for subsequent sessions. Can I add the Broadcom driver such that - in effect - it goes into Zorin on the USB stick and does not have any effect on the rest of my laptop?

- Or is it only possible to add or change drivers after the Zorin OS is permanently installed (as a dual boot - I will be keeping XP) on the laptop's hard drive? I am nervous about installing/uninstalling drivers where there is a risk that it might upset the existing settings/drivers/connections that I have for running XP normally.

madvinegar wrote:If possible when you boot into the live session of Zorin, could you please open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and post back here the results of the following commands?

lspci -nn | grep 0280
lsusb
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

These are 4 different commands. Each line is a command. You copy/paste each one into terminal and press <enter> after each one.

I will follow up on this in a separate post once I have worked my way through them (terminal commands are a new challenge for me - also I will need to check how to post screenshots or images of the results into this forum).

madvinegar wrote:As regards your older laptop (512 ram) and in case you like Zorin, I would suggest for your to try Zorin Lite (which is based on LXDE)......
If even LXDE is heavy for your laptop, there are other more lightweight distros like crunchbang, puppy linux etc.

On this separate question - of what distro to use on my older (512 ram) laptop - the difficulty is not only "lightness". The CPU in the older computer does not have "pae". Does Zorin Lite require pae? Apparently my choice is either to run a distro which does not require pae (like LXLE Lubuntu), or to try a distro which needs pae and do some kind of workaround to enable it to function. At the moment I am too much of a newbie to get into workarounds!

Short ansvers. The driver change in the USB is only changing the driver in that os. So it is safe to do that. Some other tries to install Zorin 8 Lite failed due to non pae so I believe that LXLE is the easyer os. to installl in a nonpae computer not needing workarounds if it runs already as live from USB drive.


Regarding the "merits" these distros are very different types Zorin Lite is more a skeleton or. an os development kit having very limited selection of applications ready installed. In LXLE there is a much wider ready installed set of applications installed. At the moment Zorin 8 Lite is not a (LTS) distro. Next release Zorin 9 Lite will be a (LTS). LXLE releases only (LTS) distros. Now it is based to Lubuntu 12.04 mother distro that is also a (LTS). Next LXLE will be based to Lubuntu 14.04 like Zorin 9 Lite.

1) Yes you can add the firmware for your wireless card while on USB stick. Since you have persistent space, the changes will be kept after the reboot. Your XP partition/installation will not be affected at all.
2) You do not need to post screenshots for the results of the commands. Just copy and paste the results from the terminal in a post here on the forum.
3) I think Lubuntu does not require pae. But since you are happy with LXLE and it works fine in your old laptop, you can stay with that. The only difference is that Lubuntu 14.04 has a newer and more advanced kernel than LXLE. You can try it in a USB stick and see if you like it. However most probably it will not contain the firmware for your wireless card, and you will just have to add it.

Now You may be happy having two almost same content of answers given at the same time independently so you can really relay on this support from forum.

Here is a case study trying to install Zorin 8 Lite or Lubuntu 14.04 to a nonpae computer using workaround (forcepae).

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7066

Thanks, madvinegar - this answer is the reassurance I was hoping for.

madvinegar wrote:1) Yes you can add the firmware for your wireless card while on USB stick. Since you have persistent space, the changes will be kept after the reboot. Your XP partition/installation will not be affected at all.

However.... the question now is, how do I add the firmware? I have tried. This is what happens....

- I click on the 'Network connections' icon and a popup says wireless connection not possible because firmware is missing;
- in System Settings>Hardware>Additional Drivers there is an "i" symbol. I click to get the additional drivers...
- a search progress bar shows, then an Additional Drivers panel pops up which says 'No proprietary drivers are in use...' and then lists and describes the Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver details. Lower down is an "Activate" button. I click it. It searches, then up pops a further panel saying 'Sorry, installation failed, for details see /var/log.jockey.log'
- I have managed to find that log. It has yards and yards of text and numbers, which i don't really understand, but it appears to record searches for quite a few additional drivers (I see references to nVidia and other software....).

But I do also see references to Broadcom and bcm. I have copied a small section which seems to be relevant. The aspect that intrigues me is the word "blacklisted..." and of course the log ends up with "error - could not find". Here is the copied extract:

2014-04-24 14:00:59,532 DEBUG: searching handler for driver ID {'driver_type': 'kernel_module', 'kernel_module': 'wl', 'package': 'bcmwl-kernel-source'}
2014-04-24 14:00:59,532 DEBUG: BroadcomWLHandler enabled(): kmod disabled, bcm43xx: blacklisted, b43: enabled, b43legacy: enabled
2014-04-24 14:00:59,532 DEBUG: found match in handler pool kmod:wl([BroadcomWLHandler, nonfree, disabled] Broadcom STA wireless driver)
2014-04-24 14:00:59,536 WARNING: modinfo for module wl failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module wl
'jockey_handler': 'KernelModuleHandler'}

2014-04-24 14:00:59,537 DEBUG: BroadcomWLHandler enabled(): kmod disabled, bcm43xx: blacklisted, b43: enabled, b43legacy: enabled
2014-04-24 14:00:59,537 DEBUG: got handler kmod:wl([BroadcomWLHandler, nonfree, disabled] Broadcom STA wireless driver)
2014-04-24 14:00:59,537 DEBUG: querying driver db <jockey.detection.LocalKernelModulesDriverDB instance at 0x943ffac> about HardwareID('modalias', 'platform:dcdbas')
2014-04-24 14:00:59,537 DEBUG: querying driver db <jockey.detection.LocalKernelModulesDriverDB instance at 0x943ffac> about HardwareID('modalias', 'wmi:05901221-D566-11D1-B2F0-00A0C9062910')
2014-04-24 14:00:59,538 DEBUG: querying driver db <jockey.detection.LocalKernelModulesDriverDB instance at 0x943ffac> about HardwareID('modalias', 'pci:v00008086d00002A00sv00001028sd000001F1bc06sc00i00')
2014-04-24 14:00:59,541 DEBUG: querying driver db <jockey.detection.LocalKernelModulesDriverDB instance at 0x943ffac> about HardwareID('modalias', 'wmi:9DBB5994-A997-11DA-B012-B622A1EF5492')
2014-04-24 14:00:59,541 DEBUG: searching handler for driver ID {'driver_type': 'kernel_module', 'kernel_module': 'dell_wmi'}
2014-04-24 14:00:59,542 DEBUG: no corresponding handler available for {'driver_type': 'kernel_module', 'kernel_module': 'dell_wmi', 'jockey_handler': 'KernelModuleHandler'}

There is of course a lot more in the log but it does not seem sensible to post the whole thing into a forum thread.

Does any of this help to shed light on the problem? If what I need to do is download the right firmware (driver) into Zorin on my USB so that it can see and make the Broadcom wifi card in my laptop operate, how do I actually do the download?

You can do that in two ways.

1) Plug an ethernet cable and run a few commands.
2) Download the firmware from another computer and put it in a USB stick, then boot in to Zorin Live USB and copy paste the firmware from the stick into the right folder (and probably run a few commands).

If you post back the results of the command I gave you I can tell you which will be easier.

lspci -nn | grep 0280
lsusb
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

OK, madvinegar, I have made my first steps into the world of the terminal....

I tried each of your commands in succession, and this is what I got. I hope it makes sense to you, because I can't understand very much of it! But perhaps I ought to say, though I guess you will be able to spot this anyway, that as well as the USB stick (running Zorin as a live session) I also have two HDDs plugged into my laptop. One has my documents, files and photos, the other my music collection. And my laptop is ethernet-wired to a Netgear router.

Now I'll await your advice on how best to get Zorin to make a wireless connection. And thanks, by the way, for taking the time to guide me through all this!

live@live:~$ lspci -nn | grep 0280
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
live@live:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0930:6544 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 Stick (2GB)
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 13fd:1840 Initio Corporation Shintaro SH23SDOCK Hard Drive Docker [INIC-1608L]
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 059b:0470 Iomega Corp. Prestige Portable Hard Drive
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth)
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 413c:8126 Dell Computer Corp. Wireless 355 Bluetooth
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0a5c:4502 Broadcom Corp. Keyboard (Boot Interface Subclass)
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0a5c:4503 Broadcom Corp. Mouse (Boot Interface Subclass)
live@live:~$ sudo lshw -c network
*-network
description: Network controller
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
resources: irq:17 memory:f9ffc000-f9ffffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:1c:23:98:62:cf
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.0.4 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:17 memory:f9bfe000-f9bfffff
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:1e:4c:82:59:cf
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b43 driverversion=3.2.0-52-generic-pae firmware=N/A link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
live@live:~$ sudo rfkill list all
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
live@live:~$

Hi,

I just noticed this on the list you posted!:

"*-network DISABLED"

Left click the network icon in the panel and make sure that networking is "Enabled":

As I see you need the b43 driver. Your card is:
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)

You have two options.
The easy one is to plug an ethernet cable to get internet, and then run the following commands (one by one, pressing <enter> after each one.).

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43

(you can copy and paste the commands from here so as not to make any mistake).
After you run the last command wait 5-6 seconds and your wireless should spring to life. A reboot may be required.


The hard way (ok, not so hard) is to use another computer and download the firmware from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n2tjz9jnj9xw5xb/b43.tar.gz
(Don't worry, it's a file uploaded in my own dropbox account).
Copy the file that you downloaded into a usb stick.
Then go to your laptop, boot to Zorin using your live usb stick.

Plug the data USB stick and paste the b43.tar.gz firmware file you downloaded into your home folder.
Right click on it and select "extract here". A new file will be created named "b43".
Open terminal (ctrl+alt+T) and write the following commands, the one after the other, pressing <enter> after each one:

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43
sudo cp /home/$USER/b43/* /lib/firmware/b43
sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43

After you run the last command wait 5-6 seconds and your wireless should spring to life. A reboot may be required.

Hi, The hard way is not even that hard way

You do not need an other computer or another USB stick if you download a new b43 folder from the given link. Just use the Ethernet cable connection and download it to your Download folder in USBlive, move it to HOMElive folder extract it there and install accordingly, copying the command lines to terminal.

Having a persistent file in your USBlive installation all downloaded and installed files remain in their places. The first command line probably informs only that there already exists a b43 folder. The further lines however replaces the old one with the new one.

Thanks for this, Wolfman.

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

I just noticed this on the list you posted!:

"*-network DISABLED"

Left click the network icon in the panel and make sure that networking is "Enabled":

However.... I have just booted up into Zorin this morning, left-clicked the icon, and guess what - Enable Networking and for that matter Enable Wireless, are both ticked.

So how come they are enabled, but the readout from the terminal says "network DISABLED"? Beats me!

Meanwhile I plan to download the Broadcom driver using the advice which madvinegar has kindly provided.

Hi
The "Enabled" from the icon does not mean that the network is enabled from the other points of view. It is only the users indication (selection) does he enable the wireless networking. Ie. the lack of driver can cause that it shows to be DISABLED looking from terminal lshw-listing.

This is amazing!

madvinegar wrote:You have two options.
The easy one is to plug an ethernet cable to get internet, and then run the following commands (one by one, pressing <enter> after each one.).
......
(you can copy and paste the commands from here so as not to make any mistake).
After you run the last command wait 5-6 seconds and your wireless should spring to life. A reboot may be required.

I have just done exactly that. It worked like magic! Without even a reboot, the wireless connection appeared and was activated.

I am SO impressed. Having always been fearful of command-line type of action (in Windows I was always afraid of inadvertently wrecking something), the ease and speed with which those commands worked was an eye-opener. I am definitely getting to like Linux (and Zorin). Just so long as there are expert people able to advise and provide the right formulae to copy-and-paste, I reckon I might be able to cope with the shift from XP into this new world.

Many thanks to all (madvinegar, Wolfman and Henriolavi too) for the encouragement and the help. No doubt I'll be back on the forum with some other query soon, but meanwhile - on with the show!

Glad I helped my friend.
Keep the b43 file (and the set of commands) in a safe place in case you need it again for this laptop.

Thanks for thanks.

Having 6 years experience of using Linux I know the pain when not knowing what to do if something does not work. In these situations help is needed to get it solved.

It was important what madvinegar said to keep this folder and command lines in a safe place, due to when you decide to install the os to HDD you have to repeat that b43 installation.

120 blue ones for madvinegar!