Problem setting up wired networking

[Anne Wilson]

On Friday 14 November 2008 17:27:52 Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-11-14 at 12:05 +0000, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > OK - I've got the livecd up.  This is not helped by the fact that it's a
> > gnome desktop, so I have to search for unfamiliar tools.  However,
> > attempting to connect with NM has brought some interesting info.
> >
> > 1. There is no list whatsoever of available wireless networks.
>
> Do you expect that there are other wireless access points in the area?
> Have you seen them with another system?  Just not showing any available
> doesn't mean that something is broken, it could just mean that there are
> no non-hidden access points within range of your card.
>
There is one next door that is constantly on, and should show as a weak 
signal.  There are a couple of others that show up sporadically.  I would 
expect at least my own and next door's to be listed.

> If you do know that there are some available, then I do suspect that
> there are deeper card/firmware issues at play here, not failings of
> NetworkManager.
>
Chuck's guidance seems to be leading us to that conclusion, too.

> > 2. De-selecting the radio button for Auto eth0 (not eth1, mind!) results
> > in a whirring, then the same connection being restored.
>
> It's not a de-selection, you've triggered it to re-associate that
> connection, in the case of your wired connection to re-dhcp.  I don't
> believe that currently there is a good way to disable a wired connection
> through the UI.
>
OK - fair enough.

> > 3. Attempting to connect to "Hidden Wireless" results, as on my own
> > system, with a request for a WEP key, despite the fact that it has
> > already been given the WPA key.
>
> When did you give the WPA key?  Are you saying that you gave it once
> when setting up the connection, it spun for a while, and then prompted
> you again for the key?  This failure mode is typical when it cannot
> associate with the access point.  We don't get good information as to
> why we couldn't associate (it doesn't say "bad password!") so we just
> assume that the password was wrong and allow you to try it again.
>
But it doesn't allow me to try again.  It asks for WEP keys.  There are four 
options, all WEP, whereas the main dialogue offers the same four plus two WPA 
ones.

> > 4. As on my own system, when the WEP key is requested there is no option
> > in the drop-down list to change it to WPA.
>
> That's because with WPA the access point can actually tell you that it
> requires WPA.  If you're not getting this, and your access point is
> setup for WPA, I would suspect that your card is never actually able to
> communicate with the access point, which could be a firmware/kernel
> thing.
>
The fact that wireless worked, however briefly, when I first installed F10 
makes me think that the card is not at fault.  However, I am tending towards 
believing that it is a kernel issue.

> > IOW, exactly like on my own system, it plain doesn't work.
>
> Thank you for trying, as I stated, I think the evidence in this trail
> points more toward a kernel/firmware issue than a connection software
> issue.  It would be good to file a bug against kernel and include the
> log messages related to your attempts to connect.

I'll see whether I can put together a suitable report out of all this :-)

Anne
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