Background:
I have a Dell Mini 9 that came with Ubuntu 8-something preinstalled. I created an Ubuntu 11-something installation USB. Booting from the USB, I was able to download/install the proprietary driver to connect wirelessly to the internet. However, Ubuntu 11 would not fit on my 3.8 hard disk. I created an installation USB with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, ran it off the USB, then apparently successfully installed it on my hard disk. However, I cannot load a driver for wireless internet access.
Here is what happens when I boot from the hard drive:
gdu-notification-daemon One or more hard disks report health problems. Click the icon to get more info.
Clicking on the icon yields: 3.8 GB Hard Disk - ATA STEC ATA DISK vS020.1.0 Disk is being used outside design parameters
When I go to System, Administration, Hardware Drivers, it says: Downloading package indexes failed, please check your network status. Most drivers will not be available.
Then, when I close that box, the "Hardware Drivers" window is blank except for: No proprietary drivers are in use on this system.
My goals/problems: I'm not sure what to say about my hard disk problem, but that aside, it seems I am dead in the water in any event if I can't get a driver to enable wireless internet.
Potential questions: Is there a way to fix my hard disk? Another way to install Ubuntu (10.x? 11.x?) to make the hard disk problem go away?? If I fix the hard disk problem, will I be able to access the drivers? Or is there a way for me to go online with my other computer (running Windows XP) and download the necessary driver (which one?) to then load onto my Mini 9 via USB?
Thank you very much for the help of this great community!