wlan works only as root, kde4

alexrudolf · May 1, 2010, 10:24am

When using knetworkmanager, wlan can be set up as root and it works fine. When logging in as any other user and configuring the connection in the same way as with root, the network can still be seen but no connection is established.

Could this be a problem of permissions for normal users? Where do I set these permissions?

openSuse 11.2 fresh install

caf4926 · May 1, 2010, 10:43am

How do you mean it can be set up as root?

Do you mean - if you login as root? Because you really should not do that!

nikita65 · May 17, 2010, 11:01am

I also have the same problem.

Of course, one should not login as root, but you do that for fixing/investigating problems and in fact…

This one is a “route” problem I could not find a fix for but, here is what I found:

KDE4 login as regular user (with knetworkmanager):
. wlan connection/authentication/net config is ok
. route -n looks exactly the same as for “root-login” test
route (no options) waits a long time, trying to “resolv” some address?? which??
. can’t ping my gateway

KDE4 login as root (with knetworkmanager):
. route (no options) respond immediately
. everything works fine.

Tried many thinks (as user), (first, this was an upgrade from 11.1 to 11.2, then I installed 11.2 from scratch):

. ifup: sometimes when changing name of the interface,
after yast/ifup reset things, route works

. tried to remove/reset route manually but still does not route…

There should be some “permission” tweak to do somewhere but I could not find where, any help??
Or some “resolver” not resolving for user?

Thank you,
nIc

BTW: for others needing this, my mobile USB HUAWEI 220 was not dialing out, I fixed it by adding my user to “dialout” group.

DenverD · May 17, 2010, 9:05pm

nikita65 wrote:
> Of course, one should not login as root, but you do that for
> fixing/investigating problems … KDE4 login as root

you should never log into KDE/Gnome/XFCE or any other *nix-like
graphical user interface desktop environment as root…

doing so 1) opens you up to several different security problems, 2)
too many too easy ways to damage your system no matter how careful
your actions (example: just browsing in your home directory while
logged into KDE/Gnome/etc as root can lock you out later as yourself
due to permissions damage), 3) and, anyway logging into KDE/etc as
root is never required to do any and all administrative duties…

so, always log in as yourself, and “become root” by using a root
powered application (like YaST, File Manager Superuser Mode) or using
“su -”, sudo, kdesu, or gnomesu in a terminal to launch whatever tool
is needed (like Kwrite to edit a config file)…read more on all that
here:

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase-runtime/userguide/root.html
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh

l1zard · June 23, 2010, 2:59pm

@DenverD: and how did this fix anybodies problems? i cant stand people who did not know the answer to a problem but moving the topic to a question nobody has asked for. i think we can asume that anybody is aware he should not login as root to KDE Desktop.

i have the same problem. and as long as this is not fixed. kde4 simply is not usable for me. as i installed it on a mobile device. fortunately in gnome all works fine. so switching to gnome might be an option for people with this problem.

Dwarfer99 · June 23, 2010, 3:23pm

try ifup and wicd rather than knetworkmanager, which is still problematic for many users.

DenverD · June 24, 2010, 12:30am

l1zard wrote:
> i think we can asume that anybody is
> aware he should not login as root to KDE Desktop.

nope, you can not assume that…there are lots of folks coming here
everyday…

and, the poster i was responding to had made ONE post here…why
should i assume s/he knows ??