WLAN working but network interface disabled

[MicheleZ]

Hello,

After 10 or so years of Windows I finally decided it was time to move on and just a couple of days ago I finally resoved to install kubuntu on my laptop. Things are going kind of ok (there is really a lot too learn and too much information), but I have a problem I cannot solve with my WLAN card which is a compaq W200.

Thanks to a couple of wiki pages I managed to install the WLAN card which can see my access point (at least this is what the KWifiManager tells me), however when I go to System settings ¦ network settings, the eth1 is disabled and trying to enable just results in a quick flash of green.

Question: do you have a suggestion on what to do to enable the wireless network interface?

Additional info:
Please note that the ethernet cable connected to the Wireless router functions perfectly. Also when in Windows (the laptop is dual boot) the WLAN works.
Interestingly the KWiFi manager tells me that I am connected to the network with the SSID I know and provides the MAC address of the access point, however in the low left corner it says AccessPoint:UNKNOWN.
Of course the local IP is not available.

Last but not least: being this my first post please let me know if I gave too little or too much information. I am still learning (and there is a lot to take in!)

Thanks very much for any help you may give me.

Cheers,

Michele

[warbuckle]

Hello,


try:

from a termianl...........

sudo dhclient eth1 hit enter, or whatever your wifi device is named.

had the same problem with an Atheros chipset on my Acer laptop.

Will

[MicheleZ]

Thanks a lot Will,

the dhclient did the trick ... almost... :)

Since I was more and more frustrated with the Compaq module, I dig from a drawer my faithful Cisco Aironet 350 and with that everything works fine.

The only issue is that after booting I need to run the configuration program + the dhclient. I guess I will need to take a good look at the installation and boot forum.

Thanks again,

Michele

[bmr5770]

To get the wireless setup to auto configure on boot, I believe you need to edit your /etc/network/interfaces file and add something like the following:

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_keymode open
wireless_key XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
wireless_mode managed
wireless_essid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

auto wlan0

The keymode and key are only needed (I think) if you're using encryption.

Beemer

[apo]

i use kubuntu dapper 6.06, setting wlan :
u should use root :
#iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b+/g+ ESSID:"knet-LAN" Nickname:"acx v0.3.21"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=52/100 Signal level=33/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
:/home/apo# iwlist :

root@warehouse:/home/apo# ls /lib/firmware/
2.6.15-19-386 2.6.15-20-386
root@warehouse:/home/apo# uname -a
Linux warehouse 2.6.15-20-386 #1 PREEMPT Tue Apr 4 17:48:51 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
root@warehouse:/home/apo# cd /lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386# ls
acx atmel_at76c502-wpa.bin atmel_at76c504.bin ipw2100-1.3-i.fw zd1211b-WS11UPhm.fw
atmel_at76c502_3com.bin atmel_at76c503-i3861.bin atmel_at76c504c-wpa.bin ipw2100-1.3-p.fw zd1211b-WS11UPhR.fw
atmel_at76c502_3com-wpa.bin atmel_at76c503-i3863.bin atmel_at76c505a-rfmd2958.bin ipw2200-bss.fw zd1211b-WS11Ur.fw
atmel_at76c502.bin atmel_at76c503-rfmd-0.90.2-140.bin atmel_at76c505-rfmd2958.bin ipw2200-ibss.fw zd1211-WS11Ub.fw
atmel_at76c502d.bin atmel_at76c503-rfmd-acc.bin atmel_at76c505-rfmd.bin ipw2200-sniffer.fw zd1211-WS11UPh.fw
atmel_at76c502d-wpa.bin atmel_at76c503-rfmd.bin atmel_at76c506.bin isl3890 zd1211-WS11UPhm.fw
atmel_at76c502e.bin atmel_at76c504_2958-wpa.bin atmel_at76c506-wpa.bin zd1211b-WS11Ub.fw zd1211-WS11UPhR.fw
atmel_at76c502e-wpa.bin atmel_at76c504a_2958-wpa.bin ipw2100-1.3.fw zd1211b-WS11UPh.fw zd1211-WS11Ur.fw
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386# cd acx/
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx# ls
0.1.0.11 0.4.11.4 0.4.11.9 1.0.7 1.0.9 1.2.0.30 1.2.1.34 1.7.0 1.9.8.b 2.3.1.31 default readme.txt
oot@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx# ls default/
tiacx100 tiacx100r0D tiacx100r11 tiacx100r15 tiacx100usb tiacx111c16 tiacx111c17 tiacx111c19
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx# ls -la
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx# cd default/
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# ls -la
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# ln -s ../1.2.1.34/tiacx111c17 tiacx111c17
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# ln -s ../1.2.1.34/tiacx111c19 tiacx111c19
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# rmmod acx
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# modprobe acx
root@warehouse:/lib/firmware/2.6.15-20-386/acx/default# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b+/g+ ESSID:"knet-LAN" Nickname:"acx v0.3.21"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:60:B3:21:55:07
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=52/100 Signal level=34/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed bea

[quintok]

I tend to believe it's better to use sudo than root but only because I don't believe I know enough about linux to give myself that much access.