first I see it, then I dont

[T_Beermonster]

I recently installed SabayonLinux-x86_64-3.4f
When i first logged in Knetwork manager correctly reported my BelkinF5D7050B as an rt73 chipset and saw my wireless network. It let me enter my WPA key and even completed the connection to report an excellent signal strength. However I couldnt actually access the internet (though i could see my routers management page so I know that the network was working). After about five minutes of fruitless browsing of the help pages knetwork manager informed me that it was trying to connect to the wireless network again (despite still showing an active connection) but it got stuck at 28% before giving up and claiming not to be able to see any networks anymore. Now I cant get it to connect, I can force it to admit the network is there by entering the SSID in the connect to another network page, but it still wont connect, it doesnt even ask me for my WPA key it just does the 28% trick.
I have read on these forums elsewhere that you can close knetwork manager and then run
# net-setup

unfortunately when I close windows and reboot SL, log in etc. I find that whatever running # net-setup means it isnt anything obvious.
Maybe I'm stupid.
I've tried both as superuser and normal user entering into the konsole:
# net-setup
#net-setup
net-setup

each time it just reports that it is an unknown command.

I've tried various versions of linux before and the inability to get a wireless network running has always rendered it useless, this time however it worked, out of the box! then it broke!

Could anyone offer me any suggestions? preferably keeping in mind that anything to be downloaded from the internet prior to having the wireless network up and running will involve switching back and forth into windows.

[WarraWarra]

Best or first thing to try is to run the live dvd again and get the wifi working in there provided teh signal / noise of the wifi connection is good enough.

If seeing the router + can log into it then /etc/resolv.conf has bad DNS ip's "nameserver 4.2.2.2" , sometimes setting this to the actual wifi router ip and letting it forward the DNS request does help.
"nameserver 192.168.0.1"
"nameserver same ip as in live dvd one"

The connection / WPA 28% will have issues if the signal is close to or bad even if knetwork claims it is excelent as it does not keep in mind noise / resending packages during connection = wpa = 28% and it needs a farily okay signal to make a propper connection.

You could try to turn off the wpa and only have mac adress access or have both to off and see if it connects. Some Wifi routers have issues if the chip in them is very similar to the one in the wifi card on pc = gets confused or something.

Fix = move pc / wifi router a round a bit so see if the signal increases or even a windows software to check noise + signal readings. Then try another wifi channel as 4 or 9 seems good in noisy environs as portable phones / water heater / mirrors can interferre with the signal = causing more noise = bad connection.
You could also kill knetworkmanager and then as root in terminal:
# su
passwd:
# net-setup
This should guide you thru the wifi connection once knetworkmanager is dead.

Why net-setup is not working = weard as it might have been removed from the isntall list or something like this as it works in the live dvd mode.

You can also try the ndiswrapper + windows *.inf install way , see the networking part of the forums on top is a sticky "Before 3.4e ipw3945 ......" as this has the ndiswrapper + links and modprobe -r or similar you would need to complete this + make it permanent if it works correctly with WPA etc .

Hope this helps.

[T_Beermonster]

I think the net-setup problem was because I had installed over an old SUSE distro and I suppose some things got jumbled.
I did a clean install and as before knetwork manager picked up my wireless network, allowed me to enter my WPA key and connected. This time I could get onto the internet. After 5 minutes or so browsing my emails I lost the network connection and it went back to the old 28% trick.
So I went into windows and disabled encryption and just activated the MAC filter on my router. Still no joy, just 28%.
So i turned off knetwork manager and tried net-setup (which worked this time so i assume it was the clean install rather than overwrite) but as far as I can tell it acheives nothing (I'm afraid i find it a bit difficult to tell whether a zero throughput for the ESSID is supposed to mean it cant see the network or it simply cant send any packets).

I decided to take a shot at following the guide viewtopic.php?f=52&t=2862
as far as possible (obviously some things are different in a predicatable way from the guide such as wlan0 instead of rausb0) though some of the files it suggested editing simply arent created ( /etc/modules.d/rt73 for example is not created and nothing similar is either) and it doesnt seem to achieve much.


I'll have a go at wrangling with ndiswrapper tomorrow, but I just cant understand how it can work fine for 5 minutes and then nothing, it seems a bit much to have to do a clean install every time I want to get online.

gah, I'm ranting.

[WarraWarra]

Not sure if I posted it here before but I have permanently disabled WPA / wep for my router only mac adress allow list now and this gives better range / speeds than with wep /wpa even better than in windows. Yes mac adress spoofing that happens less than what wep gets hacked these days.

WPA seems to want to mod the wifi card firmware or write some junk to the wifi card and this stayes for several reboots on the installe dhd SL / gentoo / LINUX somewhere or until clean install + connect with disabled WPA /wep.

Wep has been cracked ages ago 3 -> 4 years ago or something like this and wpa likely as well but not made public yet so if someone wants your connection / data they will get it = result = make it easy for them and track the buggers LOL.

Have not tried wpa + PE1.1 yet or likely there is a new wpa_suplicant or a replacement for it that fixes this not sure.

Either way this 28% just tells you you are on the edge of the wifi signal / noise limit and either need a closer place for the pc / laptop or remove the water heater ot mirror that blocks the signal / degrades it.
Alternatively use without wpa /wep /wpa2.
Might try the gentoo.org handbook install method part for networking to fix this if disabeling wap /wep or reinstall after becking up data.

Hope this helps.

[T_Beermonster]

if the problem is with the location then frankly there isnt much i can do (if it were my choice I'd have been running a wired network, but its a rented house so i cant run cables and I'm further constrained by the stupid placement of power points and telephone sockets - do builders not use electronic devices?) and yet another linux attempt will have to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Presumably the way the linux drivers handle noise is less robust than the windows drivers (since I have no problems in XP) so I'll give ndiswrapper a shot this evening but if that fails I guess it will just be another one to chalk up to experience.