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Upgraded PCMI wireless card and computer slowed

dksix

Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:39:20 pm

I have a Dell Latitude D630 running Zorin Core 5.0 (32bit), Ubuntu release 11.10, Kernel Linux 3.0.0-15-generic, GNOME 3.2.1 with 3.0 GiB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo T7500. The machine had the OEM Intel PRO/Wireless 3945AG (802.11a/g) wireless card and I upgraded to the optional Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN(802.11a/g Draft n) but now my computer is loading the internet pages slower. I upgraded the driver and software on Zorin it now shows iwl4965 as the driver and I'm getting connections speeds of up to 130 Mb/s, before the upgrade never more than 54 Mb/s. So to me it looks like I have everything right and the connection speed has more than doubled but the pages are loading half as fast as before. What gives? This is a dual booting machine with XP on another partition. I installed the correct drivers for XP and on that side my connection has improved. Windows doesn't show the connection speeds I see in Zorin but the machine is noticeably faster when loading pages and downloading than it was before the card change. There should be compatibility issues from the hardware side as this is the card that Dell used as an option or standard on latter D630's, Windows is having no issues with the upgrade and this is a support card in Linux. I checked all that before I ordered this card, in fact I choose this card for those reasons. Any input or suggestions would be a great help.

madvinegar

Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:53:06 pm

Since you are getting better internet speeds after the upgrade, probably the wireless driver is fine.
The fact that your pages are loading slower, maybe has to do with the kernel and gnome upgrade you did.

I though that Gnome 3 would come with Zorin 6(?)

dksix

Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:31:24 am

swarfendor437 wrote:I wonder if he is actually triple booting madvinegar rather than dual-boot - he states he has Zorin, Ubuntu and XP which is feasible. Can't be running Gnome 3 without breaking the system I would have said. To dksix - what happens when you go to System/Administration/Additional Drivers? I would also take a look here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... pe=Drivers

and here:

http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/

You may need to install the driver manually instead of the route outlined earlier as it may not work.
The other option is to see if you get any improvement by using the 'Windows Wireless Driver' option - this will look for the *.inf file from the CD or wherever you have the driver files.


I had already found those sites. The way I understood it was that the driver should be included in the Kernal 3.0.0-15. Is that incorrect? What do you mean triple booting? What I listed was just the info from the System Monitor. Are you saying that there is something wrong with having Ubuntu, GNOME and Zorin all at once? To be honest (if it already wasn't obvious) I don't know how all this stuff fits together. Kernal, GNOME Ubuntu and Zorin, Zorin is the OS I installed but as far as the others-I'm not sure what they are to do or what place they hold in running the machine. I do plan on learning more about Linux and all but lately I've got too much going on for it right now. There was a recent update that changed the Ubuntu to 11.10 and everything changed then. I just thought I'd give it chance but didn't like how everything changed, I had just started figuring out where things was in the menu's. My desk top computer is running the same version of Zorin (both loaded from the same disk) but it never upgraded the Ubuntu. The update came through my auto updates and I just accepted it. Maybe I should just reinstall Zorin and keep the version of Ubuntu that came with the 5.0 release or Zorin.

madvinegar

Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:41:40 am

Just to understand. You have a PC that is dual boot with zorin and WinXp, correct? So when you say that your ubuntu kernel was upgraded you mean the "ubuntu" on which Zorin is based, correct?

Zorin 5.2 is based on ubuntu 11.04 and gnome2. I think that Zorin 6 will be based on ubuntu 11.10 and gnome3.

If all the above assumptions are correct, it is the first time I hear that the kernel of Zorin 5 was upgraded by the auto-updates to gnome3. Are you sure that you have not made any attempts for upgrade yourself - I don't know how?)

I have 5 PCs/laptops running zorin 5.2 and the last kernel update was to 2.6.38-13 (ubuntu version 11.04 natty).

Probably, as you say, it is just best to re-install Zorin 5.2, and leave it to upgrade by itself, up to 2.6.38-13 kernel. Maybe the system got confused with gnome3 and ubuntu 11.10 on a version of zorin (version 5) which is based on gnome2 and ubuntu 11.04.

dksix

Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:32:20 pm

Thanks for you time and help madvinegar. Here is a screen shot of the connection information and system information from System Monitor. I don't know where to find the information on my Zorin version, maybe I am using 5.2 after all. Here is a thread I started after the machine updated the Ubuntu viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1437 . I had problems getting 5.2 to work and thought I had ended up going with my 5.0 disk. By the way, it took about 12 seconds (a 12 count, not stop watch) for the "post comment" page to load after I clicked the buttom at 86 Mb/s,my weaker desk top (AMD 64 4000+ and 1 GIG of RAM) loads it almost instantly. I may just do a reinstall today but I would still like to understand what went wrong. BTW, the update in question was after I had the software check for updates. Thanks again for you help.

dksix

Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:40:22 pm

I can't get the screen shot to load.

dksix

Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:52:32 pm

I only used "danny" when naming the computer, the rest was created by the software. What about the versions listed in the screen shots, are they the versions they should be?

dksix

Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:28:43 am

I reinstalled. The Kernal version is now 2.68.38-13 which appears to be too old to have the driver for the new wireless card. It was running as a generic driver and connecting at 54 Mb/s. I messed with it, tried to install the windows driver and now the card is gone and I can't figure out how to get it back. I've messed with it all day and I'm frustrated. How do I get the system to find the card?

dksix

Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:18:49 pm

Ok, I did try to follow the directions in this post viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1511 and I had eth0 and then something like 0I as the second block of info. I ended up doing a full reinstall, that I just got complete. I'm back again at step 1, connected at 12 Mb/s using iwlagn as a driver (sitting 1 meter away from my router). I'll get a screen shot of what the laptop has and put it up shortly.

dksix

Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:35:49 pm

This is what I have now.

Wolfman

Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:00:04 am

Hi,

at the bottom of your pic on the left it states "Available to all users", you must also put a tick in there!!. (Don't forget to save it afterwards!!)

Regards Wolfman :D