And the wireless is working . . .
After bungling around with wireless drivers, the wireless-tools package,
and Google for a few weeks, I had an interesting thought. I knew that a
guy named Carl in California had gotten his wireless working pretty
easily using Slackware, which I had tried earlier with the same error
symptoms as with Ubuntu. In all cases, it sounded like everything was
working correctly, but that my wireless card’s radio was turned off. At
one point, someone suggested that the screen brightness switch, labeled
“Mobile - Normal,” might also control the wireless card.
I thought, “Maybe there is *another* switch that controls the wireless
card.” I looked along the top row of function buttons. Hmm, what’s that
little antenna graphic? I pressed F1, and since then the wireless
has worked beautifully. I can even click the wireless on and off, and it
functions seamlessly– no difficulties bringing the connection back up.