I have just installed openSuSE 11.2 on a Gateway 450SX4 laptop, and am having problems with getting my wireless connection to work properly. I have a Linksys WPC54G wireless card, which has a Broadcom 4306 chipset which is fully supported. However, I can get a link to my access point, but am unable to get further than this as far as Internet and LAN connectivity is concerned. My wireless AP is using WPA-PSK, and I have tried NetworkManager and the traditional method to get this to work, but nothing so far. The card is recognized properly, and I have installed the correct WPA-PSK passphrase, but nothing. I notied that wpa_supplicant was not running, so I started this,but still nothing. I can provide more information if needed, but any assistance now would greatly be appreciated. Thank you.
First, is your Access Point (AP) broadcasting the SSID? If not (as in hidden SSID) see this link or search the forums for SSID:
Cannot connect to a hidden SSID - openSUSE Forums
Using Knetworkmanager, the Manage Connections->Other screen “Show Tray Icon” must be checked in order to automatically start up the wireless when logging in. It takes a while. If you click on the System Tray Knetworkmanager icon just after logging in, you can watch it start.
Does the Knetworkmanager Connect To Other Networks screen show your WiFi network?
Thanks Mike, I was looking for the way to make knet start auto…
Do you have a suggestion why one would have to add the gw to the network?? As in route add default gw 192.198.1.1?
Here is my /etc/resolve.conf file:
search wildblue.com
nameserver 75.104.128.61
Thanks, forgive me for butting in guys.
Thanks for the reply. I should point out that I am using GNOME first, and that I have been trying to use NetworkManager to get it configured. The SSID is not broadcast, but I even tried to allow for broadcast from my AP and still no luck. I wonder if this has anyhting to do with wpa_supplicant not running by default as a service? I attempted to start it manually, but still nothing. Like I mentioned, I have a link light, but nothing else.
OK, after enabling the SSID again and rebooting, I am now connected to the AP! Great, however, when I went to disable the SSID broadcast, whenever I rebooted again I was unable to connect. I’ll have to look into a solution for this as I do not want to have the SSID broadcast around this area I am in.
Sorry about getting confused. There actually is no KnetWorkManager package at all. For KDE there is a combination of NetworkManager and NetworkManager-kde4 packages. There is a NetworkManager-gnome application, which is what you are probably using instead of -kde4.
My big problem is hidden ssid user WiFi never worked from user with any kind of manual connection attempt. It only works on autostart at login, or when removing a working connection wired eth0 cable. Until I figured out the show icon in system tray really meant autostart NetworkManager on login, I couldn’t get it to work at all. Are you sure your network is automatically starting when you login (maybe gnome has a different secret setting)? If you are sure NetworkManager is running, you could try unplugging a wired eth0 to start the WiFi (if you have wired available and only have a simple one wired and one wireless configuration).
I know gnome really hates root logins and makes it painful to get there, but I found hidden ssid KDE WiFi worked in root, but not in user. I suspect wpa_supplicant only runs on demand when you connect and you never connected before now?
I understand about hidden WiFi. My hidden ssid AP connection now works just fine on automatic startup.
I am running kde and not sure what I did would work under gnome or not.
I have seen some threads that said to broadcast the ssid, then it would connect. Then go back and not broadcast the ssid again and networkmanager would reconize it. That would be worth a try.
Here is the thread refered too.
“Cannot connect to a hidden SSID”
With my browser in my original thread reply above you simply click on it. The forum translated the original URL into what is in the thread reply. Also, if I hover my cursor on it the bottom of my Firefox shows the actual URL. I’ll try fooling the forum software, no promises:
Broadcasting ssid and setting up first, then hiding ssid before the next connect is the standard method for taking care of the KDE problem.
swampdog2002,
Of course I was only suggesting unplugging eth0 for testing purposes, not as a useful connection method.
What’s strange is that if I am connected to the wireless AP, then log into the AP and disable SSID broadcast, the AP updates its settings and reboots. Then, of course, NetworkManager in GNOME resets itself and then is able to connect once again to the AP, but this is within the same GNOME session. If I attempt a reboot, whenever I log back in the NetworkManager is unable to re-establish a connection to my AP, so something quite bizarre is going on here, but I don’t know what it is. Could it be a configuration somewhere that does not update itself upon reboot? Perhaps something needs to be changed in the wpa_supplicant.conf file?
The correct method would be to leave ssid broadcast on, connect to the WiFi and configure it. Reboot, login and make sure it is still working. Then log out, hide the AP ssid and log back in. Check for operation. Then try rebooting, logging back in and check it again.
You have never said if your NetworkManager is automatically starting up on login. This is critical, yet you have left us in the dark. Troubleshooting is a step by step process. If you leave steps out, you will fail. It is hard to try helping if you never confirm you have completed and verified an important step.
NetworkManager is set to start automatically upon login, but for soem reason it will not re-establish a wireless connection with the hidden SSID, regardless of performing the steps you and I have mentioned. In the worse-case scenario, I can just leave the broadcast of SSID as it is, but if I were to travel with the machine and have to connect to a hidden SSID somewhere else (such as work), I’ll most likely run into the same problems I am having at home, so that is why I am so concerned with resolving this. Again, I have read that there may be some lines that need to be added to some conf files, but no sure yet.
OK, dumb me. Now I feel very silly. I did not realize that if I simply left-clicked on the NetworkManager icon in GNOME rather that right-click that I got an option to connect to a hidden SSID from there. Well, after doing it this way, when I disabled broadcast of my SSID from my AP and rebooted, I have not had an issue with no connection. Quite frankly, now that I have this resolved (at least for now), this laptop is becoming quite a capable little machine now! Thank you everyone for your help on this.