installed 11.1 on an older Acer notebook, everything worked fine at first. Wireless with the built in RTL8180L worked very well with the rtl8180 driver.
Then after a couple of days, I think after an update, it would not connect to my router any more. I tried and tried, even did a complete reinstall of os 11.1.
Everything loads fine and I can see my wireless network as well as those of my neighbors. But I can not connect. Makes no difference whether I use ifup or KNetworkManager. Tried countless options for the WPA settings.
It really drives me crazy, because it used to work and I can see the SSIDs of the WLANs, so there should somewhere be an answer but I am somehow stuck.
I have to admit I am very new to Linux.
My router says he wants WPA2 with
mode: infrastructure
authentication: WPA2-PSK
encryption: AES-CCMP
(translated from German)
I did get the collectNWData script and managed to run that. Is there a way to attach the output to a forum message as a text file or should I paste it in the message box?
The problem is likely not with RTL8180, but with NetworkManager.
There are two things to check:
(1) Look at the recent entries in /var/log/NetworkManager. If there are entries
that say something like “get_secrets_cb(): Couldn’t get connection secrets:
Requested setting is empty”, then you have the problem with dbus permissions.
(2) Check /var/run/dbus/at_console/ for a directory named “root”. If it is
there, delete it. That may allow your wireless to work.
If you have condition (1), and (2) doesn’t help, then switch to ifup control of
the wireless and configure with YaST.
sunbeamRunner wrote:
> Thank you very much for your fast reply.
>
> I logged in as “root”.
> I sure did have condition (1) and the “root” directory in
> /var/run/dbus/at_console/. So I deleted that.
>
> wlan still not connecting. Still condition (1).
>
> Closed NetworkManager and configured wlan with Yast (ifup). Again, it
> sees all ESSIDs around. Still no connection.
>
> One question: after yast finishes the network configuration, am I
> supposed to start the network with a third program?
Yes, you probably need to use the ‘sudo /sbin/ifup wlan0’ command.
Sorry, that didn’t do it either.
After all the back and forth between networkmanager and ifup, I decided to start over from scratch. So I deleted all partitions and installed new, this time with Gnome instead of KDE Desktop. Unfortunately, same effect, I can scan for and see all the wlans around, but can’t connect.
I changed the channel of the wlan
I changed the passphrase to something simple like
“housekeep77”
I switched to completely unencrypted wlan
Still no connection,
where do I go on from here?
I’m pretty much clueless at this point. It used to work so well and I can connect to the wlan without problems with my girlfriend’s other computer (WindowsXP :shame:).
sunbeamRunner wrote:
> lwfinger;1970107 Wrote:
>>
>> Yes, you probably need to use the ‘sudo /sbin/ifup wlan0’ command.
>
> Sorry, that didn’t do it either.
> After all the back and forth between networkmanager and ifup, I decided
> to start over from scratch. So I deleted all partitions and installed
> new, this time with Gnome instead of KDE Desktop. Unfortunately, same
> effect, I can scan for and see all the wlans around, but can’t connect.
> I changed the channel of the wlan
> I changed the passphrase to something simple like
> “housekeep77”
> I switched to completely unencrypted wlan
> Still no connection,
> where do I go on from here?
> I’m pretty much clueless at this point. It used to work so well and I
> can connect to the wlan without problems with my girlfriend’s other
> computer (WindowsXP :shame:).
If you are affected by the NetworkManager bug with WPA, it won’t matter if you
are using Gnome or KDE. The problem is that NM cannot get the “secret” via dbus
due to a permission problem. There is a fix on the way, but it is not yet
available. You will see that error in /var/log/NetworkManager.
If that is indeed the problem, the fix is to switch to ifup control and
configure with YaST, or alternatively, you can write your own version of
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0. That is what I do for the systems that do
not run a GUI at all. You will see what that file should contain from ‘man
ifcfg’ and ‘man ifcfg-template’. Of course, changing a file in /etc requires
root privilege.
I had run the collectNWData script already, but it didn’t help me very much. Towards the end of the log, it lists the available wlans around like (mine is the first one on channel 5):
*** iwlist scanning
ESSID:"§§§§§§§§1"
Channel:5
Quality=82/100 Signal level:-129 dBm
Encryption keyn
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
ESSID:"§§§§§§§§2"
Channel:6
Quality=19/100 Signal level:-130 dBm
Encryption keyn
IE: WPA Version 1
ESSID:"§§§§§§§§3"
Channel:1
Quality=26/100 Signal level:-129 dBm
Encryption keyn
IE: WPA Version 1
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
so … the hardware and the driver seem to work, but I can’t connect. I also looked at my ifcfg file and couldn’t find anything wrong.
So by now, I suspected a hardware problem - even though it sees the ESSIDs and, even more frustrating, it had worked flawlessly a couple of weeks ago.
But I have already invested too much time into this issue. So I got a Digitus cardbus wlan card with an Atheros chipset for 14 EUR yesterday, plugged it in and was connected within two minutes.
Goodness, how easy it can be…