I installed a new hard disk, and reinstalled my OSes ,openSUSE, mandriva and PCLinuxOS. I’m wondering why all I have to do for the other OSes is enter the WEP password and save it and I have wireless. Is there a reason I can’t do this with openSUSE ?
Depends, in YAST you can set it use ifup (default) or knetworkmanager (alt for KDE). In Yast, with ifup you can define the wireless and the parameters and if the driver for the wireless device is matched to your device all should work for a single mode connection. If however, you regularly try to connect to many different hotspots, then one would normally get one working using ifup and then switch over from ifup to knetworkmanager in Yast and let knetworkmanager modify for each different hotspot.
Well, its The standard install of KDE with Knetworkmanager.
This is just to access one network only. I know there is a trick to get it working, (It eludes me at the moment) But the point is, should it not be as simple as possible?
I asked a friend of mine (who I introduced to Linux about a year ago) to try setting up wireless, He spent half an hour or more trying, no success, so at what point does a windows user trying Linux for the first time give up? As mentioned earlier, this problem is not needed!
Indeed it does ‘depend’ on a lot of things, including (1) legacy files on one’s /home (2) what hardware one has
Now, reference item (2), I put an openSUSE LXDE liveCD into an old PC, booted, and clicked on the network icon in the lower right corner, saw and selected my SSID, and it ‘just connected’ to the wireless. No pain. Why ? That hardware is supported. The LXDE software is good.
More on item (2) , with openSUSE-11.3 KDE4 and using a user with the same /home from openSUSE-11.1, 11.2 (that I had carried forward over various updates) there was no way I could get the network manager to work. And I KNOW the wireless hardware was supported. I created a new user, and it ‘just worked’ for the new user. Ergo ? Somehow in the past KDE4 versions (11.1/11.2) on same PC I messed up the /home/user configuration so bad I could not figure out what I did to undo it.
More on item (2), … I have found every openSUSE release since 11.1 (I did not look before) and the wireless ‘just works’ with Gnome as long as the hardware is supported. Note I am a big KDE fan. I like the look of Gnome, but in some key areas for me its functionality lacks, BUT I will say when it comes to wireless, Gnome has their act together much more than KDE4 has in the past.
Now reference item(1) … some distributions work REAL good with hardware-a and fail with hardware-b. Others work real good with hardware-b and fail with hardware-a. There are no GREAT distributions when it comes to all hardware. None. Its unfortunate, but thats just the way it is. Its all tied into the way updates/fixes to hardware are often created, where a fix goes from downstream (where it works on one distribution) to upstream (where it is incorporated in the kernel or some other package) and then back to downstream (where all distributions benefit). And ironically, when it comes to sharing the work that has been done downstream to get wireless to work (and it is shared by the distribution sharing/submitting their unique fixes upstream) the most popular Linux distribution has a very poor reputation for being slow. Their contribution to the community in the upstream flow is limited and very low in proportion to their popularity.
First read oldcpu’s reply. That explains the lot. On my laptop it works like you would like it. A simple change you can make right now, is to replace Networkmanager-kde4 by plasmoid-networkmanagement. Have’nt seen an easier wifi solution yet. Click, enter passphrase, set to connect automatically, done.
Indeed it does ‘depend’ on a lot of things, including (1) legacy files on one’s /home (2) what hardware one has
In this case, It is a totally fresh install on a new hard disk, no old /home.
Now, reference item (2), I put an openSUSE LXDE liveCD into an old PC, booted, and clicked on the network icon in the lower right corner, saw and selected my SSID, and it ‘just connected’ to the wireless. No pain. Why ? That hardware is supported. The LXDE software is good.
I was using wireless on 11.3 before the change of hard disk, I doubt that the Seagate disk lacks support.( I also have LXDE installed, have not tried with it yet though).
This is not a hardware problem, The network icon even shows the signal strength.
As I have mentioned there is a ‘trick’ to getting this going, and it is simple, but not obvious, obvious would be good!!
Try Gnome and Gnome’s network manager (which is what LXDE uses). It works better. AND it is likely what those other distro’s that you quote are using.
LXDE connects easily, Back at KDE, I can’t get plasmoid-networkmanagement to work for me though.
Try Gnome and Gnome’s network manager (which is what LXDE uses). It works better. AND it is likely what those other distro’s that you quote are using.
I would actually have to try Gnome again to tell, with those distros KDE is the standard desktop (Yep, Gnomes tools could have been used also).
What does not work? You don’t see it? Then right-click, go Systray Settings, telll it to show “networkmanagement”. Replaced kNetworkmanager on dozens of systems by the plasmoid. Never had any issues except for it not showing. The above solves that.
What does not work? You don’t see it? Then right-click, go Systray Settings, telll it to show “networkmanagement”. Replaced kNetworkmanager on dozens of systems by the plasmoid. Never had any issues except for it not showing. The above solves that.
Well that got it showing, unfortunately It still gives a similar problem “waiting for authorisation” and never connects. I wonder if this problem is specific to WEP ?
What’s the card?
06:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002a] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e006]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Ok. I changed to the traditional method then back to network manager and it worked straight away, but I am at a loss as to why!
Getting back to the original question, I do see what I consider to be better network setup-management solutions.
A simple change you can make right now, is to replace Networkmanager-kde4 by plasmoid-networkmanagement. Have’nt seen an easier wifi solution yet. Click, enter passphrase, set to connect automatically, done.
Mandriva’s network manager includes a GUI network monitor, detailed network statistics that includes hourly, daily, monthly traffic and top ten traffic days. Plus other easily accessed details.
Yet it still manages to accurately detect appropriate network settings (and allow you to change them easily at will) All in an exceptionally easy to understand way, with minimum manual config needed.
At the other end of the scale is the network manager in PartedMagic, verry basic ,simple to use and another tool that is a pleasure to use.
I,m having no pleasure with this tool, I got this working, but none the wiser as to the problem.
Getting back to the original question, I do see what I consider to be better network setup-management solutions.
A simple change you can make right now, is to replace Networkmanager-kde4 by plasmoid-networkmanagement. Have’nt seen an easier wifi solution yet. Click, enter passphrase, set to connect automatically, done.
Mandriva’s network manager includes a GUI network monitor, detailed network statistics that includes hourly, daily, monthly traffic and top ten traffic days. Plus other easily accessed details.
Yet it still manages to accurately detect appropriate network settings (and allow you to change them easily at will) All in an exceptionally easy to understand way, with minimum manual config needed.
At the other end of the scale is the network manager in PartedMagic, verry basic ,simple to use and another tool that is a pleasure to use.
I,m having no pleasure with this tool, I got this working, but none the wiser as to the problem.
this link will offer a possible explanation to your dilemma
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-widget-network-manager/+bug/339313
look like you need to enter the wep passphrase in hex on your computer instead of ascii.
look like you need to enter the wep passphrase in hex on your computer instead of ascii.
Both options were tried numerous times, as was WPA and surprisingly setting the wireless network with no security produced similar results.
My frustration comes from the fact that each time I install 11.3 on this machine this problem occurs, the remedy appears to be random ( fiddle until it’s fixed ).
This makes it dificault to understand what is happening.
On the positive side, once wireless is set up it has been reliable.
On 10/30/2010 11:36 PM, dvhenry wrote:
>
>> look like you need to enter the wep passphrase in hex on your computer
>> instead of ascii.
>
> Both options were tried numerous times, as was WPA and surprisingly
> setting the wireless network with no security produced similar results.
> My frustration comes from the fact that each time I install 11.3 on
> this machine this problem occurs, the remedy appears to be random (
> fiddle until it’s fixed ).
> This makes it dificault to understand what is happening.
> On the positive side, once wireless is set up it has been reliable.
There are bugs in the released version of 11.3. After reinstallatioon, you MUST
immediately upgrade. If that is not possible because you need wireless to do the
upgrade, then you need to enter the Connection Manager, select wireless, click
on your connection, and click on edit. On the new screen, select the IP Address
tab. On the pull-down box that shows “Basic settings”, select “Routes”. On that
screen, clear the checkboxes that are below the tabs. Next edit /etc/resolv.conf
as root and add a line that says “nameserver 8.8.8.8”. Those two changes should
get you online to update the system and get the new packages that fix the
problems. At this point, you should be able to delete /etc/resolv.conf.
I updated immediately after install via wired ethernet. Clearly, there is something simple I keep missing.
For me this problem first showed up in M3, I was reluctant to post about it as if you are running milestone releases, you should know what you are doing,
my knowledge of both wireless and networking leaves a lot to be desired.