All you should need to do is name a wireless connection in the
connection manager - little icon up top. Right click the connection
manager and click wireless and new connection. For the name of the new
connection type in - wlan0 - and then at SSID type in the name of the
network or home network. You will need to also set the security as none,
WEP, WPA - and will need the passphrase (security key) if it is protected.

If you are just looking around for free wi-fi then at least type in new
connection and the name "wlan0" without the parenthesis. This will get
it sniffing for available networks and they will appear in the drop down
menu. Your driver should be just fine as Ubuntu Linux supports all
modern netbooks,laptops cards. I even have one of the very first 'every
child laptop' netbooks as an EEE PC netbook which is one some, as
Debian, say you may need to install a proprietery (purchase) driver.
This was not the case at all. The little EEE PC (900 series way back)
fired right up at Home Network and also at free wi-fi destinations -
Municipal Wi-Fi etc. There should be no need to install any additional
driver.

Reading around it appears that the Marvell chipset wireless cards are
more of a pain than the Broadcom ones to get working in Linux :-(
Might be as well just replacing it with a Realtek chipset one that you
can be sure is 'plug and go' ?

If you wish to pursue getting this one working the links below may
help, or may not ....

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/mrv8k

ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-96059.html

This might help:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1328011

A Linux driver is available here:
www.realtek.com/.../...View.aspx\
=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#2

Is there a way to plug the Laptop into a wired network connection?
If so then Ubuntu may connect over the wired connection and download
any needed drivers automatically.

I hope this to posts. Writing on my phone. Some times it is easier
to use a dongle Usb card or 3g card to update wifi drivers. I keep an
external device just for installs. The library that I Have been
teaching at has cat5 jacks that can be used by the patrons that have
cards. So many options that very few people should have problems any
more with this. If someone has a Usb device that lives close that is
the best option, but really the price of such a cure is low for such a
great OS.

Running Ubuntu 10.10 on an HP Pavilion dv 2000 and it has been suggested
> All you should need to do is name a wireless connection in the
> connection manager - little icon up top.

The connection manager icon brings up Network connections/ wireless
screen that allows me to enter the ssid
for my home network (the very one I am using now, on my Windows box).

I am in the "infrastructure" mode and MTU is automatic but the BSSID,
Device MAC and cloned MAC address
spaces are not filled in. They are blank because I have no idea what to
put there.

No matter which way the "wireless" slider switch on the front of the
machine is configured, a little orange (not blue)
light remains lit and every attempt to reach the internet fails,
although my windows machine sitting next to the
HP can detect the signal.

Driver? If so, which one and where should I seek it?
If not, what else should I try?

If the Wi-Fi light is orange then the card is not active and will need
a driver. Most likely cause is a Broadcom chipset Wi-Fi card and the
way around that is to connect the laptop with an ethernet cable to the
router then get all the Ubuntu updates plus hardware drivers that way.
Ubuntu will automatically start these updates but you can always fire
them up manually by going to [ System / Administration ] then clicking
on either 'Hardware Drivers' or 'Update Manager'.

Sometimes "orange light" means just that the wifi is not turned on. This
can often be acomplished with a little switch or a Fn key combo. In some
cases, if the system is designed so that things turned on/off are removed at
the bios level in Windows, it can be necessary to boot into window to have
wifi, etc. turned on.

Linux includes the driver for your wireless adapter. You can leave blank the MAC
stuff. However, you need to click on the "Security" tab, and fill in the type of
security and passphrase for your router.