I just loaded this OS for the first time today. I tried the live USB and decided to give it a go. It loaded OK.
While in the Live USB mode the WiFi worked so I know the hardware and this machine work together.
I clicked the bottom task bar (if that’s what it’s called) and got to the network manager. It didn’t do anything. When it was open there were tabs across the top of the screen. I couldn’t change the tabs at all. It opened with the Wired tab shown.
I read several forum posts after doing a search. One said that if I shut down the machine and did a manual reboot that the network manager would function. That wasn’t the case for me. I had heard of YaST in a video so I opened it. I went to hardware and it scanned the machine. It recognized my external WiFi connection. It says the drivers are active.
I then went to Network Devices and found the Network Settings. It lists my device and says Not configured. By the way I have no easy way to check my ethernet connection because it is a desktop on the other side of the house where the actual modem is located. The Network Settings says Ethernet Network Card DHCP eth0. Does that mean it is working even though it isn’t connected?
The on page instructions in the Network Settings window says Press Edit to configure. When I do that it brings me to a page full of things I don’t know about or understand. It opens on the Address tab. What buttons should I fill in and what should I enter into any of the fields if they become active once I select one of the choices of: No Link and IP Setup (Bonding Slaves), Dynamic Address, or Statically assigned IP Address?
I’m sharing this residence with others who own the modem and connect throughout the house using a wireless router. As it is I don’t know if Open Suse is receiving a signal as configured. I know that when I used the live USB it recognized about thirteen signals from the neighborhood.
This is my first barrier in Open SUSE. I hope I don’t have too many. I was trying out Bodhi Linux and it was so buggy that I gave up on it. I know my external hard drive works with this OS. I’ll test my printer and video camera once this bug is handled. I’m eager to get working on this machine.
> I clicked the bottom task bar (if that’s what it’s called) and got to
> the network manager. It didn’t do anything. When it was open there were
> tabs across the top of the screen. I couldn’t change the tabs at all. It
> opened with the Wired tab shown.
>
Look closely and see if there is a message about NetworkManager not
running. I don’t use the wireless I have on this box but the 12.3 kernel
doesn’t include the driver for my ethernet chip so I needed the wireless and
eventually noticed the error message (RTFM!) and started NetworkManager from
a command line. After that, I was shown several available SSIDs and could
get to the setup pages by selecting the “manage connections” button.
Another thing to look at is to go into YAST, select Network Devices, then
configure your wireless device there. You may have to reboot or manually
start NetworkManager - I don’t recall - but that will get you to the point
you can select/configure your wireless connection even if it isn’t selected
by default.
Going back to the beginning, when you click on the Network Manager icon in the panel, are both Enable networking and Enable wireless checked? Your wireless connection is wlan0 and your ethernet connection is eth0.
Do you get a list of possible wireless connections? If so, select Manage connections>Wireless>Add>Scan and you should get a display of all the available connections.
Select yours and enter the password; Network Manager will already have detected the encryption method being used.
If you have KWallet enabled, this will pop up; then, assuming you have Connect automatically checked, you will only have to have KWallet running in future for wireless connection to be made.
Which of these steps fails for you will give you an idea of where the problem lies.
At the bottom of the screen along the task bar on the right side is an upward facing triangle. When I hover over it it brings up several places to go. One of them is Network Manager. That box is divided into “Interfaces” on the left and “Connections” on the right. In the Interfaces box it says “Network Manager is not running. Please start it.” Just below that is a box to put a check. It says “Enable networking”. When I put the check in the box the other message disappears but nothing else happens. No connections appear in the right side of the window. There is no option visible in that box that says “Enable Wireless”.
Since nothing happens there that is why I opened Yast. I get to the Network Card Setup and don’t know what to check or fill in. Maybe I don’t even need to be on that page. Please guide me to a solution.
I searched for KWallet because I don’t know what that is. On my machine there is only KWallet Manager. It doesn’t mention anything about wireless connections.
In the Yast Control Center the Network Settings window opens and recognized my WiFi connector. The name of it is there. It says Not configured. Beside that it says “Press Edit to configure”. Clicking Edit brings me to a window with the terms I don’t understand and the choices of connection types that I don’t know about. I mentioned this in an earlier post. Maybe that is the last step to get this working and all I have to do is make the right selections and fill in some blanks and everything will work.
In the Yast Control Center the Hardware Information scan shows the WiFi device is there under Wireless LAN. The device name is there. The Drivers are “Active”.
By the way, this sub-forum is entitled Network/Internet. That is what I’m trying to establish. I’m clicking and trying to work in Network Manager so I feel I posted this in the right place. Perhaps there is a slight crossing over between the two different sections. I know my hardware works because it has worked on this machine before loading the OS.
Let’s get this licked before the end of the night so I can start checking other things and start learning this new to me OS.
This solution worked. It is strange that this machine logged into the network without needing a password. On my other systems the connection would be made but when I would open a browser, it would take me to a Cisco password page. I would like to know why this is but if nobody knows it really doesn’t matter. I’m connected. I’ll worry about the smaller things later.
Thank you all for your help. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of my queries in the next few days as I configure everything else.
Now you have it working, it should appear under Manage Connections>Wireless; editing the entry (without actually editing it) will tell you what type of encryption it has.
Under the wireless security tab it says NONE. There are several other choices. If I clicked one would my signal be encrypted or protected and still work?