HOW TO: Network Manager and New Edgy Install (supports WPA)

[featherking]

This guide was written to help those who cant quite get Network Manager up and running for one reason or another.

(NOTE: This is only tested in gnome but in theory it should work the same in KDE but substitute the package 'network-manager-gnome' for 'knetworkmanger')

(NOTE2: Network Manager doesnt support Static IP's at this time, you will have to either use DHCP or not use NM until static ip's are supported. This includes your ethernet configuration as well..)

My first advice is to check if your wireless card is actually supported by Network Manager by looking here.

Once you have figured out if your card is supported, next we need to install the packages required:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome network-manager wpasupplicant

(wpasupplicant is only required if you are planning on using WPA encryption)

The easiest way to get NM to start controlling your network interfaces (plural because it will also control your wired connection) is to open up (in gnome, not sure on kde) System > Admin > Networking (the default networking tool) open the properties for all the devices there, whether wired or wireless and in the properties dialog box clear the box that says 'enable this connection'

This should change the output of your /etc/network/interfaces file to read:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

(In theory KDE users could just comment out all the lines in /etc/network/interfaces except for those listed above)

You may need to exit NetworkManager and restart your networking for these changes to take effect by running

sudo killall NetworkManager

then

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

To bring Network manger back type

sudo NetworkManager

Now make sure (by right clicking the NM icon) that wireless is enabled, if so, simply left-click the icon to select a nearby network or specify by selecting 'connect to other wireless network' and fill out the information required (encryption type, SSID, TKIP key, etc)

*EDIT* According to snowboard975 and this post an error can occur with the icons preventing NetworkManager from loading display the error:

The NetworkManager applet could not find some required resources. It cannot continue.

this is fixed by running:

sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor/

Everything should work now.. once you get it going it is pretty reliable, at least for me. Good luck!

[m.musashi]

Nice how to. Thanks for doing this. I'm sure it will be useful to a lot of people wanting to use this.

I'm still trying to figure out how to add the icon back if it's deleted. Not much luck yet.

EDIT I found it. It seems I managed to delete the notification area. For anyone else that has this problem, right click the panel and choose add to panel. near the bottom of the window that opens is an option for "notification area". Add it and you will be set for not only NM but other notifications.

[snowboard975]

According to another thread ( http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...59#post2043859 )
The following code could solve a problem where Network Manager won't start.

sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor/

I think the addition of this material to the HOW TO will be beneficial for many users who are suffering from the problem as I was.

[featherking]

@snowboard975
I have updated the how to with your post just in case someone has that error

I posted this how to a while ago and never saw it actually get posted! Lo and behold, here it is! i apologize to anyone for not being around to answer questions!

*SUBSCRIBED*

[Falkon MX-5]

Thanks! This is EXACTLY what I needed. Before I was using my own setup with wpa_supplicant, and it didn't like to play well with hidden SSIDs. Network-Manager works just fine. Your how-to worked with XFCE btw.

[featherking]

@Falkon
Glad you got it working! I always thought there were a ton of NetworkManager how to's, perhaps i was wrong.. At any rate congratulations!

[Rhesuso]

Thanks so much for this! It just worked - I've been wrestling with my wireless connection on and off for months and going about it in completely the wrong way. And it turns out the solution was really simple.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

[featherking]

@Rhesuso
Yeah its really not too bad to setup, im not sure why they cant make it more automated. like having it edit the required files on install. But hey, i dont write programs i just use them! again, congrats!

[Viper Daimao]

I had this working perfectly, but am now having some problems. I'm not sure what caused it, the last changes I made were uninstalling beryl. I upgraded to edgy, but I think it was working after that. I am on a dell inspiron 6000 with intel wireless. I have a linksys wireless router using WPA2, AES+TKIP.

I unplugged my cable modem and put the computer on standby and went to work. I come home start up the computer, and it doesn't connect of course. So I plug the modem back in, but can't get it to connect. The little balls never turn green, stuck on waiting for the shared key. I restart the computer, Restart the router and modem. Still wasn't connecting. I could connect to other networks alright, so I turned off the encryption on my wireless signal, and could connect fine. Then did WEP and it worked, then WPA, then WPA2 and both worked.

So now it works, but it doesn't work automatically. When I start up and sometimes when I come out of standby, it doesn't connect to my network. To get it to connect I click on "connect to other wireless networks" and enter in my networks information again.

Also, dunno if this is related or not, but after upgrading from dapper to edgy, I started having to enter my passkey twice. I think it expired at some point too, and I entered in the same password.

Any help would be appreciated.

[featherking]

@Viper
Ive never been able to get anything on my computer to work after coming out of standby. Having said that, i have heard about the 'entering your password twice' problem. It seems there is a package that sticks out in my mind called like pam-keyring or something. It is something someone created so you dont have to enter your password at all.

Perhaps if you could install this package your NetworkManager would auto-connect, because you wouldnt have to enter your password at all? Here is a How To that I found searching the forums. Check it out and see if that solves your problem