After 11.3 install on my dv7t, the wifi seemed to work OK.
I tried turning on KNetworkManager (and turning off ifup) but KNetworkManager says it’s disabled and the red light doesn’t switch to blue. So I tried turning ifup back on, and now the light constantly toggles between red and blue! So I guess I will try to download some drivers… What is a command that will tell me the wifi chipset I have? The specs that came with this unit just say Intel Wireless-N and PCWizard (under windows) ignores the wifi chip.
After I download the driver, how do I get the system to use it? maybe there’s a DIY someone can point me towards?
TIA!
Patti
Forgot to mention I want KNetworkmanager because that is how I used to access /dev/ttyUSB0 in 11.1
Read the sticky, Patti!!!
<giggle> Thanks!
Patti: So busy her head is spinning: 3 end-of-FY reports to be written, code to be debugged, an Atlas 5 rocket launch to do, a laboratory full of equipment to calibrate, 50-hour workweeks… Sorry I didn’t see the sticky sooner. I did try searching, honest. Just all-wrong search terms 'cause my head’s bazcomboobled.
Gave up. Reinstalled. It works fine. Weird.
OK, 11.3 reinstall & download all updates, the KNetworkmanager now has worked just fine for two days. Video driver from ATI repository installed, but sometimes PersonalSettings says 3D is enabled, sometimes not. Tried reinstalling it just now and still no 3D, but after the reboot, (hoping 3D would magically be supported) KNetworkmanager is dead. The tray icon says it Network Management is disabled, but when I open YaST, it says it can’t change the network settings because Network manager is enabled. This is where I started the thread.
OK, very bizarre. I guess time for another reformat and reinstall 11.3. They say the third time is the charm. I still can’t figure out how each network option (KNetworkmanager and ifup) can claim it’s the other one that’s in charge. And what does that have to do with the video driver? Funny thing about the video driver - it’s obvious from the FPS of the screen that the driver is installed, but Personal Settings say compositing isn’t installed.
i7-720QM 1.6GHz
11.3 x86_64
8GB DDR3
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
EDIT: Rebooting again, now KNetworkmanager is back and wifi is fine. Compositing still not supported. Uninstall and reinstall ATI repo drivers?
Ok, curiouser and curiouser. After another shutdown and reboot, KNetworkManager was again claiming it was disabled, but I noticed the hard drive flailing, so I let it thrash and it kept the hard drive LED lit solid for about 3 - 4 minutes, then suddenly it got finished with whatever it was doing and KNetworkManager (and my wifi) sprang to life. What’s up with this??? I’m doing normal shutdowns… :\
EDIT: the CPU time was only a couple percent the whole time the hard drive was thrashing, but the HD throughput on Gkrellm was up at about 80%.
OK, so I don’t know what was hanging up KNetworkManager. It seems to be fairly stable now. Just trying to debug the video drivers. It seemed to want to install a new kernel (from the ATI repo?) but the numbering is the same as the old kernel…
I am SO DENSE sometimes - finally got everything needed installed from the ATI repo, then I had to uninstall it all, THEN, when it would only reboot to command-line, then did I install the driver I downloaded from the ATI site. It seems that if you’re not careful, the xorg.conf file can get left in an unusable state. I think NVidia has a tighter setup in this regard than ATI, but with a laptop, you’re more or less at the mercy of the builder.
Hopefully compositing (and 3D) will stay working now. 
Oops - nope, after a reboot, PersonalSettings reports compositing is not supported by my system. Shoot! Now how to uninstall those drivers again. ATICONFIG reports all is fine - for some reason KWin partially looses contact with my Radeon 5650 video card… I wonder if that’s an xorg.conf problem somehow?
Maybe if I reinstall 11.3 but don’t update the kernel - it seems there is a kernel problem with the most recent kernel(s) and ATI Radeon 5xxx