wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

[tomcloyd]

I have in the recent past has fine wireless connectivity with my HP Mini 110 netbook. Then a few days ago - poof! Gone. It's not my main machine, so I was slow to notice it, and cannot connect the problem with any prior event.

It's a dual boot machine, so I booted to WinXP, and connectivity is fine. I then launched a KB 10.10 live disk using the netbook...no connectivity. Very strange.

Getting desperate, I got a KB 11.04 alpha-3 live disk running (an epic in itself, believe me), and...again no connectivity.

I have NO idea at this point even how to approach this problem. I seem NOT to have a hardware issue (else WinXP wireless would be messed up, which it isn't). I don't have some corrupt system file, else connecting from either of my live disks would have worked, which they didn't.

Can anyone suggest to me how to approach this problem Without wireless Linux, this machine is of much less use to me. It really ought to work. I suppose I could try another flavor of Linux - say PCLinux...

Any ideas would be most welcome.

[GreyGeek]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/06...-netbooks.html

[tomcloyd]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

Damn. You're quick, and good. How'd you do that? That's a terrific resource, full of ideas and solutions, and hope, which I could use some of right now.

I love this little HP Mini 110. You can practically stick it in your pocket, but it does everything my desktop does (but sloooooower!). I want it in my toolkit a while longer, and it now looks like this can happen.

Thanks a whole bunch!

[GreyGeek]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

How do I do that? I learned from Snowhog and Dibl. They're the Masters! But, I've given up trying to catch them ... they post a LOT more and faster than I do!

My wif'e Acer Aspire One ADO521 netbook is a 10.1" wonder box. I jazzed it up to 2GB of RAM, which made all the difference in the world as far as speed goes. She loves that little box, and so do I. When this Sony VAIO gives it up I'll probably switch to an Acer Aspire or some other 10.1" netbook, since I don't code any more.

P.S. .. Isn't that Caitlyn Martin a sharp gal!

[tomcloyd]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

Yeah - gotta love dibl and snowhog! (But right now you're my hero - I was having nightmares about having to replace this netbook, but not now...)

Your Acer story is interesting. Yeah, having a very small computer that just gets it done, albeit slowly, is very cool.

As for Caitlyn - yes, very sharp, and willing to share. Grateful am I.

Be well...

[wizard10000]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

I have an HP (Compaq) Mini 110c. Wireless drivers are closed source and IIRC are not provided on the live CD - you have to install over a wired connection and install the drivers through Hardware Drivers.

I strongly recommend pitching network-manager-kde and installing wicd instead - note that the wicd install *should* remove all the networkmanager components but has been known to leave one or two laying around that break networking. If you install wicd and things don't run just great, look for network-manager components that haven't been removed.

ps - although 2GB RAM is nice I got the biggest performance boost from installing a decent 500gb hard drive. I used this one -

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152236

and I get consistent reads *and* writes over 100mb/sec. I heart Samsung hard drives

The other tweak that was worth a little effort was installing GMABooster. The Intel GMA chipset is designed to run at 400MHz but on a netbook is choked down to 166MHz for power savings. I call GMABooster from /etc/rc.local and set the video chipset speed to 400MHz and have *no* problems with choppy video.

http://www.gmabooster.com/home.htm

GMABooster is donationware - the Windows version expires once a week but the Linux version does not. Once you install it all I do is add a couple lines to rc.local that look like this -

cd /home/wizard/scripts/GMABooster
./GMABooster 400

You'd have to re-run it after a suspend, but I never suspend this machine anyway.

cheers -

[dibl]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

The other tweak that was worth a little effort was installing GMABooster. The Intel GMA chipset is designed to run at 400MHz but on a netbook is choked down to 166MHz for power savings. I call GMABooster from /etc/rc.local and set the video chipset speed to 400MHz and have *no* problems with choppy video.

http://www.gmabooster.com/home.htm

GMABooster is donationware - the Windows version expires once a week but the Linux version does not. Once you install it all I do is add a couple lines to rc.local that look like this -

cd /home/wizard/scripts/GMABooster
./GMABooster 400

You'd have to re-run it after a suspend, but I never suspend this machine anyway.

cheers -

This caught my attention. My Toshiba NB205 running Debian Sid and KDE 4.5, on a 40GB SSD, is a marvelous little netbook, but one minor annoyance is that after every boot Kwin pops up a message that Desktop Effects were suspended. (Never mind that I don't need 'em on the netbook). So I thought, since it is an Intel 945GME, that GMAbooster might speed it up.

Boo hoo hoo -- glxgears went from 60 fps down to 45 fps, with GMAbooster set to 400.

Oh well, it looks like a nice little utility, for platforms that are able to make use of it. Toshiba obviously did something a little "non-standard" with their design for NB205.

[wizard10000]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

I saw the same thing with sync to vBlank disabled - but I had to install driconf to even get sync to vBlank disabled. Even then, glxgears said it was synced to vBlank

I do know it made my flash videos quit stuttering

[dibl]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

Flash videos play perfectly in Kaffeine, fullscreen on the Tosh NB205. I should know enough to leave a working system alone.

It uses direct rendering by default -- I did set it to Vsync once, as an experiment, but Kwin still suspended Desktop Effects, so I set it back.

KDE 4.6 is coming into Sid later this month -- we'll see whether it makes any difference.

[wizard10000]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

I should know enough to leave a working system alone.

Discoveries are made by not following instructions.

[tomcloyd]

Re: wireless networks no longer detected - very robust problem

Discoveries are made by not following instructions.

Oh...I really like that. An added thought: sometimes we don't follow instructions because we didn't know about them or couldn't understand them. Mandatory intermittent diversity is the source of genetic creativity - and a lot of death, of course. So it is, I have observed, with cultures (my first professional concern) and individual psyches (my second). It fascinates me that well-functioning societies NEED both conservatives and liberals, although they don't always need to be in the same room!

UPDATE: This got me going again - I didn't have to do anything else:
1. From the packages, installed wicd (via a wired connection to my netbook).
2. Removed network-manager and plasma-widget-networkmanagement packages.
3. Rebooted (as a precaution), and established a wired connection via wicd.
4. From the launch menu launched the "Additional drivers" item, and let it do its search.
5. From the two Broadcom drivers found, I selected the "Broadcom B43 wireless driver", and activated it.

At that point I could not only see my wireless network (which was possible before), I could connect to it (not possible before) using wicd. I'm back to where I was a number of days ago. I believe I had to do this procedure at some point in the past, but neglected to take note of it, sadly. This time I have careful notes, should this issue arise again.

As for gmabooster, will give it a try...

Thanks again for all the response.