Thanks for your help. Responses to your suggestions are given below.
Ben Finney: Detect network hardware.
Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or floppy.
The missing firmware files are: b43/ucode15.fw b43/ucode15.fw b43-open/ucode15.fw b43-open/ucode15.fw
If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue.
Load missing firmware from removable media?
NO
Yes
Santiago Vila: not quite sure what I am looking for in /var/log. Doing a ls on that directory gives the following:
root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
alternatives.log cups dpkg.log fontconfig.log kern.log popularity-contest syslog user.log
apt daemon.log exim4 fsck lastlog popularity-contest.0 syslog.1 wtmp
auth.log debug faillog hp lightdm popularity-contest.gpg syslog.2.gz Xorg.0.log
btmp dmesg firebird installer messages speech-dispatcher syslog.3.gz Xorg.0.log.old
Yvan Masson: I got the following:
root@mylaptop:~# dmesg | grep firmware
[ 17.356396] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-2)
[ 17.356487] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 17.357131] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43/ucode15.fw (-2)
[ 17.357219] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 17.357980] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-open/ucode15.fw (-2)
[ 17.358072] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 17.358674] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: failed to load b43-open/ucode15.fw (-2)
[ 17.358766] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 17.359404] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
Henrique de Moraes...
root@mylaptop:~# lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 075e (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SMBus (rev a1)
00:01.3 Co-processor: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Co-Processor (rev a2)
00:01.4 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 SATA controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0ad5 (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:14.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Link Control
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C77 [GeForce 9100M G] (rev a2)
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
root@mylaptop:~# cat "/proc/cpuinfo"
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 17
model : 3
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
stepping : 1
microcode : 0x2000032
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock nrip_save vmmcall
bogomips : 3999.64
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 17
model : 3
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual-Core QL-62
stepping : 1
microcode : 0x2000032
cpu MHz : 2000.000
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit hw_pstate lbrv svm_lock nrip_save vmmcall
bogomips : 3999.64
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
root@mylaptop:~# cat /var/log
cat: /var/log: Is a directory
root@mylaptop:~# cd var
-su: cd: var: No such file or directory
root@mylaptop:~# ls
root@mylaptop:~# pwd
/root
root@mylaptop:~# cd /
root@mylaptop:/# ls
bin boot dev etc home initrd.img lib lib64 lost+found media mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var vmlinuz
root@mylaptop:/# cd var
root@mylaptop:/var# ls
backups cache lib local lock log mail opt run spool tmp
root@mylaptop:/var# cd log
root@mylaptop:/var/log# ls
alternatives.log cups dpkg.log fontconfig.log kern.log popularity-contest syslog user.log
apt daemon.log exim4 fsck lastlog popularity-contest.0 syslog.1 wtmp
auth.log debug faillog hp lightdm popularity-contest.gpg syslog.2.gz Xorg.0.log
btmp dmesg firebird installer messages speech-dispatcher syslog.3.gz Xorg.0.log.old