Driver...??

BillyBoy13

The last time I asked a question here the answers went way over my head. Lets hope this time I can save some money, god knows I could be doing with it right now

So I had to get some custom software made for my business and whatever way the guy wrote it it only works on Linux.

Right fair enough. So I go out and buy two new laptops which come with windows. I was lucky enough the guy who wrote the program for me has a cousin who's doing IT in college so he put me in touch with him and he was able to install Linux Centos on the 2 laptops for a 150euro so happy days.

I thought all was going well until I took them home and realised I cant connect to my wireless router. So I call him back and he tells me its a driver issue and that he already looked on the Acer website but could only find drivers for windows. He said if I did some googling Id probably find something and he emailed me a link to a youtube video how to install the driver for when I find it.

So Im here googling for this driver and I dont know what Im looking for to be honest. Ive probably been looking at it already and not even known it

I have 2 acer aspires e1-531 I was kinda hoping maybe someone on here could point me in the right direction?

johndoe99

you should make a thread over on the Linux forums too, they might be able to assist you more:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=32

ZENER

Look for your 150 quid back. Linux is a free OS that you could easily install yourself from a cover DVD from any of the popular Linux mags. Aside from that, if I were to hand someone a laptop back after reinstalling Windows but didn't get the wifi working I'd be out of business pretty quickly.

Another option is to reinstall Windows on both laptops and install VirtualBox to run Linux (Mint would be my distro of choice). No issues with wifi drivers or any drivers for that matter, and you get the best of both worlds !

But get your 150 quid back . . .

Ken

Tokyo

You paid a guy €150 to install a free operating system on two laptops. If he left it that the wi-fi isn't working then he didn't finish the job he was paid for.

Tell him to come back and finish what you paid him to do.....

SamAK

I had this issue with my HP laptop...couple of years old, perfectly fine in every way but one day it just decided to say 'no' and hasn't connected to the internet since, either through WiFi or a wired connection. It detects the wireless network fine, and 'connects', but has the yellow triangle and says 'limited connection'.

Tried re-installing the relevant network drivers to no avail.

Still baffles me. Don't even use it now, since I have a Sony as well..

ZENER

BillyBoy13

ZENER wrote: »

Look for your 150 quid back. Linux is a free OS that you could easily install yourself from a cover DVD from any of the popular Linux mags.

I beg to differ

I know the Linux itself is free but I still had to pay the lad for his time. 2 laptops to be wiped, 2 linux installs and then he had to setup the custom software on each one which is kind of fiddly and takes another hour per laptop.

The place I normally go for getting stuff fixed wanted €140 just to wipe and install linux. Then the custom software install is a separate job, they said depends on how fiddly it is it could be over €100. So I saved myself around €100 when you think of it that way.

And yes, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not a bit annoyed about the internet not working. But at the same time, I was never going to get a professional service of a college student. Now if it was PCWorld and they gave it back not working Id be very annoyed because they actually are qualified experts with years of experience.

Anyway it's done now I'm not going to dwell on it

You know I didn't know what a driver was until a day or two ago, but now that I know what it is you'd think companies making these laptops would make linux drivers aswell and not just Microsoft ones.

yoyo

BillyBoy13 wrote: »

I beg to differ

I know the Linux itself is free but I still had to pay the lad for his time. 2 laptops to be wiped, 2 linux installs and then he had to setup the custom software on each one which is kind of fiddly and takes another hour per laptop.

The place I normally go for getting stuff fixed wanted €140 just to wipe and install linux. Then the custom software install is a separate job, they said depends on how fiddly it is it could be over €100. So I saved myself around €100 when you think of it that way.

And yes, I'm not going to lie and say I'm not a bit annoyed about the internet not working. But at the same time, I was never going to get a professional service of a college student. Now if it was PCWorld and they gave it back not working Id be very annoyed because they actually are qualified experts with years of experience.

Anyway it's done now I'm not going to dwell on it

You know I didn't know what a driver was until a day or two ago, but now that I know what it is you'd think companies making these laptops would make linux drivers aswell and not just Microsoft ones.

The bottom line is you paid for an OS to be installed and configured. If it was Windows you would expect the shop/person to install all device drivers, I don't see why it should differ when dealing with Linux. €140 may be a reasonable price if it includes configuring the OS and also the custom software, however you would also expect the person who configured the OS should resolve any driver issues as well.
For Linux based systems, generally companies don't provide drivers on their website. There are plenty of ways to get drivers for it instead, although it can be trickier. Most wireless cards use the same/similar chipsets and there are generic drivers out there which will do them. Again not your job to be messing about here, I would get the OS installer to sort this.

Nick

White Heart Loon

Check out ndiswrapper, it sometimes allows you to use the Windows drivers on hardware without drivers, YMMV
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Main_Page

ObeyTheSuit

h ttp://wiki. centos. org/ HowTos/Laptops/ Wireless

Think your gonna need to call him up

yoyo

Zombie thread closed.