Connect to network

[torben]

Hi,
I have installed OpenMandrivaLx_3.02 on an Acer Aspire E 17, but I have problems with the network connection. I have tried to set it up in the control center without success, although I am pretty sure that everything there is OK.

In iwconfig I can set essid and enc, but trying to set ap it says ap not associated.
In network centre the network shows up alright, but I can't connect.
I cannot connect to the router in Firefox.
I cannot ping the router in terminal (network not accesible)
iwlist scanning shows the router with the correct (ap) address.

Everything works alright in Windows.
I cant see what I am missing.
Can anyone help?
best regards
torben

 

[atanere]

Ah, networking is fun too. @wizardfromoz is likely gonna shine here... he's that kind of a wizard!

But I'll start the ball rolling. You shouldn't really have to set configurations (like essid, etc) unless your network is hidden and doesn't broadcast itself. Let us know if you do have it set up as hidden. Linux should work as well as Windows... it should just see your network, and you select it and give it the password and you're in.

Speaking of "seeing your network"... the network icon in OpenMandriva is extremely hard to see on my HP laptop. It is a gray color icon on a gray panel on the right side, between the keyboard and sound icons. Left-clicking on it shows the networks close to me... mousing over my network highlights it and provides a "Connect" button. After entering the password, it prompts for the KDE Wallet Service which I'm not familiar with.... the default selection (GPG encryption) fails for me and I have to choose "classic blowfish encryption" file. Next up, it wants a new password for the KDE Wallet... again, this is all new to me, but "Cancel" will not proceed, so I give it a password. Then it again asks for ANOTHER password, what seems to be the router password again... I enter the router password, the box disappears, but I'm not connected. But checking the network icon on the panel, and my home network does not show up now (just my neighbor shows). OK, time to reboot. After rebooting, my home network again appears in the network icon on the panel... I mouse over it, click the Connect button, and again the KDE Wallet passord is needed... I enter it, and it finally connects. The gray panel icon now is darker and better visible since a connnection is active. Firefox opens up the OpenMandriva website, so all is good. Another reboot and the network icon on the panel changed (it's red now, and different)... and nothing is available, so it apparently failed to start. Another reboot, and this time the KDE Wallet login comes up immediately... giving it the password then makes the network start automatically now. I'd guess this is the normal way it should work. Another reboot, and another failure with the red icon on the panel. I'm starting to think that OpenMandriva and/or KDE and\or this combination of them is not very user friendly!!!

I'm curious if you went through all of this??? Maybe your network actually is working if you can see it in the panel icon. And maybe your laptop will be more stable than mine, if you can get it working!

Well, if it's not working, the most likely thing (to me) is that the driver is not properly loaded. If we need to continue, let's find out what your WiFi card is... open up Konsole and tell us the output of this:

lspci | grep Wireless

 

[torben]

Hi atanere,
I was hoping to see you here.
I get:
Usage: lspci <[switches>]
and then a list of switches - amongst which I saw:

-k Show kernel drivers handling each device

Trying lspci -k I got at the very bottom:

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 3165 (rev 81)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless AC 3165
Kernal Driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernal modules: iwlwifi

which is what I saw in Device Manager.

I was thinking that the driver for the wireless card was missing, but it is not?
torben

 

[atanere]

Well, let me first re-direct you back to the wall of text that I posted about my experience... and this time let me just briefly ask, "Did you find the networking icon on the panel? And when you left-click on it, do you see any networks available?"

 

[torben]

Hi,
I see a very pale network icon and when I click it I see that network disconnected.
torben

 

[torben]

Hi,
When I left click it I see a list of available networks
torben

 

[torben]

Hi,
I am in!!!
I clicked "my" network and got in that way: Surprise.
Thank you
torben

 

[wizardfromoz]

Morning all - excellent result

@torben

I was working on adding to what Stan had contributed (very good, I might say) and I have a screenshot below of mine in the laundry

Note the darker panel.

If you go to Menu-System Settings (slide bars above the wrench on cog) -Appearance-Workspace Theme-Desktop Theme ... you can choose the Theme and Apply it, that suits you better re visibility. The one you are on will have the Apply button grayed out (likely Breeze). Breeze Dark or Oxygen might suit better?

Cheers, back in a couple of hours.

Wizard

 

[atanere]

Hi,
I am in!!!
I clicked "my" network and got in that way: Surprise.
Thank you
torben

Okay, that's great! I was just trying to make sure that we weren't trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and I'm really glad that it worked out that way (much less work! LOL).

Did your touchpad come to life now too? Or do you still need some assistance with that?

 

[torben]

Okay, that's great! I was just trying to make sure that we weren't trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and I'm really glad that it worked out that way (much less work! LOL).

Did your touchpad come to life now too? Or do you still need some assistance with that?

Hi,
I am glad you asked - no my touchpad did'nt come to life.
I have downloaded the driver from the Acer-site and I am trying to figure out what to do with it. And I dont know if that is the right one. Iy is called touchpad-lentech.....
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
torben

 

[atanere]

I have found some stuff on other Aspire models, and yours may be different.... but just in case, look in your BIOS/UEFI setup settings to see if you have any touchpad controls there. If so, there may be a setting to change it to "basic". If you have such a setting, please try that first and let's see what happens.

 

[torben]

Hi atanere,
Your advices work wonders - changing from advanced to basic in BIOS did it.
I suppose I can now delete the driver I downloaded.
Thank you very much.

torben

 

[atanere]

Woo-hoo!

But I can't take credit for any of the help I've given you here.... everything was found with Google.

And yes, you can delete that driver. I'd guess that it is a Windows driver anyway, so it would probably not have helped.

Cheers!

 

[torben]

Hi,
I have been on Google for hours on end and found nothing!
Anyway, my system works now.
torben

 

[atanere]

Hi,
I have been on Google for hours on end and found nothing!
Anyway, my system works now.
torben

I understand. Both Google and Linux take some practice, and we will probably never master either one. But the more we use both, the better we will get.

Glad your system is working okay now, and hopefully it will continue to give you good service.