Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect

[PattiMichelle]

I'm trying to be a good girl and search before posting , but I couldn't find this one... My WiFi (KNetworkManager tray applet) disconnects after hours of non-use - the problem is I can never get it to reconnect without killing KDE. I have this exact same problem with OpenSuSE11.4 (triple-boot laptop) but in OpenSuSE, there is an option to "disconnect from access point" - so I can disconnect and reconnect.

I might mention that normal connection involves giving KWallet my password, but whenever I try to reconnect after it has disconnected itself, KWallet doesn't show up, just the KNetworkManager password asker thingie window...

THANKS!!
Patty

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect

That is a frequent complaint with Lucid Lynx (10.04), which is what I am using. Many who use Maverick (10.10) and Natty (11.04) claim that KNetworkManager works OK on those two distros.

To solve that problem I installed the following packages:
python-urwid
python-wicd
wicd
wicd-cli
wicd-curses
wicd-daemon
wicd-gtk

And completely removed the following packages:
modemmanager
network-manager
network-manager-openconnect
network-manager-openvpn
network-manager-pptp
network-manager-vpnc
knm-runtime
network-manager-kde
plasma-widget-networkmanagement

(Doing it the other way around will get you disconnected from the internet without a way to reconnect using the wifi. You'll have to run an Ethernet cable from the back of your wifi to your PC in order to make a connection.)

Then I rebooted.

When the system came up I did "sudo apt-get autoremove" to clean up unused libraries from the system.
Then I chose wicd from the menu and setup my wifi connection. That usually make the connection but the system tray wicd icon doesn't appear in the system tray until the next boot.

I prefer wicd because KNetworkManager requires KDE to be up before it can run. Wicd does not. The network is running when KDE presents the desktop and desktop applets which need the internet have it available when they are installed. All in all, the KDE desktop loads somewhat faster when the internet is ready and waiting. Also, wicd-curses give an nice console interface that also works independent of KDE.

[PattiMichelle]

Re: Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect

Well, it works *almost* OK on 10.10... I think it would be fine if it had a "disconnect" and "connect" buttons. I think the issue is timing out of the wifi when it sits unused for a couple of hours, but in Kubuntu, I can't reconnect. Oh, wait a minute - I found a little tiny 'x' button in knetwork - it disconnected and reconnected when I clicked it. Maybe that's the fix I was looking for

Thank you very much! I'll give your fix a try. Have a great week Patti

EDIT: BORK! It turns out that the little tiny 'x' button disappears when there's a network problem!! So there is no way to manually "recycle" connections upon errors. So you're left with no "connect" or "disconnect" buttons. The closest thing is a "connect automatically" checkbox - and who knows *what* that does. Very poor UI for this particular situation.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect

You too!
(BTW, checked out your web page and list of patents ... VERY impressive! When you said you were a rocket scientist you were not kidding! 8) )

[PattiMichelle]

Re: Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect SOLVED

Darn - why do these things always take me so LONG to figure out? It turns out that if I don't have a reconnect button on my wifi (I guess the connection timed out??) - I can always uncheck the Enable Wireless checkbox and the re-check it. That resets everything. KOOOOL!!!!!!!!!

(saves me from having to stop all my applications and reboot! KEWWWLL!!!) HAPPY

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wifi disconnects & won't reconnect

I've used both KNetworkManager and wicd. I've found that both will occasionally drop the connection, but in an unusual way. To illustrate, I may be browsing (FireFox, Konqueror, Chrome) without trouble, but suddenly the next link I click fails to bring up that page. The little circular bubble ring spins and spins but nothing happens and there are no 401 messages. I open a Konsole and "ping google.com" to test my connection. The ping doesn't return any packets, but the system tray indicator says the connection is still good -- a vertical green bar. Hovering over it returns a bubble saying I am connected to my wifi at 100% and shows my local IP address. So, my gui displays are telling me I have a connection, but I can't connect and the ping command returns nothing.

I click on my wicd system tray icon, bring up the connection gui, and click the disconnect button. My browser immediately displays a 401 page and the wicd icon goes gray. I click the connect button and it immediately negotiates a new lease and my browser and email come back to life.

I've also found that if I turn my wifi off every night I will get a LOT of these disconnects the next day, but if I leave it on I may encounter only two or three. Even though my wifi is relatively new it leads me to suspect that it may be a wifi problem.