On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 5:55 PM, Ed C. <eminmn at sysmatrix.net> wrote: > > Sorry about the scattergun approach. I was trying to provide as much > context as possible for dealing with the main question: why didn't > Debian figure out the Thinkpad wifi requirements? I've installed > slackware, red hat, and a couple of buntu's and the wifi always worked Two thoughts: I had an issue dual booting my Win7 laptop and Fedora. For some reason, rebooting the laptop into the other OS would cause the wifi NIC to go offline. In order for the NIC to function, I ahd to shut down the laptop, then power it on between OS changes. That was specific to an Intel B/G card. For awhile the Atheros driver was considered "dirty" (as in contained code from undetermined sources) so Debian did not include the drivers in the standard distro. I don't know if this is related or not to your issue, but it could explain why Debian didn't just see and use your wifi. Sometimes Debian doesn't include "normal" stuff to remain free of copyright issues. Can you please post the output of 'lspci -nn'? That will give us a hint about your wifi card and perhaps hint at the issue. Brian