Won't connect to wireless? [Solved]

[temiller]

I just installed 5.1KDE, and I have a Netgear W111v3 wireless adapter. The adapter will recognize the wireless, and it will see my router, but when I go to connect, it will say "activating" then I'll have to re-type in my password. I've searched, but not really sure of what to search for this problem. Any ideas on why its not working?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Is your WiFi network WEP-encrypted or WPA-encrypted? If it's WPA-encrypted, I know that you wrote that your PC sees your router but is the router configured to not broadcast the SSID?

If it's a WPA-encrypted network with the SSID hidden by the router, uncloak the SSID in the router and try to connect. Then hide it again and try.

Have you tried unencrypting your network and connecting to an unencrypted network?

If it's not hidden and/or not a WPA-encrypted network, try the following as root user in a Konsole window and post the Konsole output in this thread:

Code: Select all

iwconfig

From that you should see your WiFi card's device name, which will probably be wlan0. If it is, try the following command:

Code: Select all

iwlist wlan0 scan

You might have to try the above command a couple of times to get a result.

To show you the sort of thing to expect, below is the output of the above two commands on my laptop in the hotel in which I'm currently staying:

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# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abg  Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=15 dBm                                             
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off         
          Encryption key:off                                           
          Power Management:on                                         
                                                                       
vboxnet0  no wireless extensions.                                     

pan0      no wireless extensions.

# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     No scan results         

# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :         
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1D:7E:B7:80:6F
                    Channel:11               
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=22/70  Signal level=-88 dBm 
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"linksys"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000001fd64d71180
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2480ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00076C696E6B737973
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: Unknown: 050400010002
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101020003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C334E1003FFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1A4E1003FFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C340B0F0800000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D160B0F0800000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
                    IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010001000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD0E0050F204104A0001101044000102



[jmaher1023]

The easiest way to fix this problem is to install nm-applet. There seems to be something wrong with the KDE plasma network manager. I've never been able to connect to a wireless network with it. I just did a fresh Sabayon 5.1 KDE install on my wife's laptop, and ran into the same problem: my card could see other networks, but wouldn't connect. I hooked up to a wired connection, downloaded nm-applet and it's deps, and bingo! No problem since! BTW, don't let anyone tell you that wicd is a good alternative...never been able to connect with it either! Good luck!

[Fitzcarraldo]

There seems to be something wrong with the KDE plasma network manager. I've never been able to connect to a wireless network with it.

Curious, because it works perfectly for me. The only thing I can think of is that its performance is a function of the hardware it's running on, but that doesn't seem logical either.

BTW, don't let anyone tell you that wicd is a good alternative...never been able to connect with it either!

Same for me (well I did get it to connect once, but it was flaky). But some people who can't get NetworkManager to work do have success with Wicd. I have no clue why the opposite is true for some people. Networking under Linux is sometimes confusing, to say the least.

[temiller]

I was able to get it working. I just slept on it then got up and tried and it magically worked. I'm very new to linux so i'm learning as i go basically.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I just slept on it then got up and tried and it magically worked.

Ah, the 'magic' solution! Anyway, glad it's now working.

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