Wireless does not connect after upgrade to 13.10

[ianp5a]

I am trying to reconnect to my home router (fritz.box). Before the upgrade from 13.04 it was working fine.
My other PC (Xubuntu) and my smartphone are still connecting ok. The wifi manager shows a list of available routers nearby including mine.
The upgrade took over the connection and tries to connect then shows the 'not connected' icon. With no error message.
I removed wireless security on the router. That made no difference
I deleted the 'connection' kept after the upgrade and picked my router from the list which created a new connection. That didnt. help.
This is a 64bit newish PC with ASUS motherboard and ASUS PCIe wifi card.
Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8178] (rev 01)
With my Android smartphone connected via USB cable I can connect to the internet via the smartphone Wifi using the Network manager. instead of showing a wifi connection (which is the problem) it shows the mobile phone connected.

is there anything else I can check? Thanks

description: Wireless interface
product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 50:46:5d:ae:70:b8
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=3.11.0-12-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:18 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:f7c00000-f7c03fff

[ianp5a]

As there does not seem to be a solution I have found a workaround. I am booting into a previous kernel. In this case 3.08. Not the faulty 3.11. Now the Wifi works again.
I edited the /etc/default/grub file to make the boot menu visible. There you can choose another kernel to boot from.

Now i have a new question, I want kernel 3.08 to be the default boot kernel. However the grub menu has 2 levels. Kernel 3.08 is on the second menu so I dont know how to find the menu number.
This link shows how to choose the default on a single menu. So it does not help.

Is there a GUI tool to make this easy? This thread did not help either.

[GreyGeek]

mmm... that GUI tool should have worked.
Kate is a nice "GUI" tool. Use

kdesudo kate /etc/default/grub

and change

GRUB_DEFAULT=0

to the indicate the kernel you which to load automatically. It is zero indexed so the top kernel in the listing is "0".
Save the change and then run

sudo update-grub

[ianp5a]

That is not working if the initial grub menu does not contain the item I want as default.

Manually I first have to choose Item 2 Advanced Options. Then a second menu appears where I choose Item 5. I have tried various numbers but it does not get anything from the second menu.

Looking in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg does not offer much help. As it seems to be a complex program with multiple brackets everywhere. And not a simple list of menu items.

I tried to use 'kde-config-grub2'. But I couldn't get it to run. Maybe it didn't install? It wasn't in the software centre. Very depressing.

[dequire]

Try using the Muon Package Manager to install kde-config-grub2. It's there in the Universe PPA.



More about the application here: http://www.bluemintlinux.com/2013/10...y-default.html

Like the article says, it should definately be installed by default.

[ianp5a]

Thanks. I tried Muon first. It didn't find it. It seems worth getting it to work though. Why is it all so complicated?

Edit: I just re-read your post. I tried Muon software Manager. I had assumed it was the same as Muon 'Package' Manager. I didn't realise they were different things. I will look into the package manager as soon as I get home.

Edit: Got it now. And testing...

[ianp5a]

'kde-config-grub2' fails to make any change in the booting. I'm trying to make the grub menu appear for a few seconds. And also the default to be the previous kernel. These changes are saved with the config program and appear next time it is started. But it does not have any effect on the boot menu or the boot porcess.

[geoaraujo]

Are you using proprietary drivers for wireless internet connection? It seems that the one built in the kernel works much better now. So, if you're using proprietary drivers, it might help if you remove them. I did that and now my wifi experience improved a lot. Check this thread.

[dtr]

When I was testing 13.10 during the beta phase, one update caused my wifi to be turned off. I ultimately had to enter the bios setup during boot-up and reset it, as nothing else I tried worked. Might be something you may need to check.

[ianp5a]

Are you using proprietary drivers for wireless internet connection? It seems that the one built in the kernel works much better now. So, if you're using proprietary drivers, it might help if you remove them. I did that and now my wifi experience improved a lot. Check this thread.

No. I just did a 13.04 fresh install where the wifi worked fine. Then the 13.10 upgrade that killed the wifi.

When I was testing 13.10 during the beta phase, one update caused my wifi to be turned off. I ultimately had to enter the bios setup during boot-up and reset it, as nothing else I tried worked. Might be something you may need to check.

Booting into the previous kernel allows the wifi to work again. So it cant be switched off in the bios. But thanks.

[ianp5a]

'kde-config-grub2' failed to make any change in the booting which is a problem if the grub menu does not appear.
Further research showed the Realtek RTL8188CE chipset has a history of problems.

So I replaced the card with a TP Link TL-WN881ND 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter. This now works fine. I wish I had discovered that at the outset.

This is not a solution. This is a workaround. Buying and changing the card did not take long or cost much. Attempting complicated things, and being without wifi/internet, cost months.

[GreyGeek]

You might want to try the 3.11.9 kernel or the 3.12 kernel.. (The 3.12 kernel requires the libc6 version 2.14. You may have the 2.13 version installed.)

[ianp5a]

Thanks but attempting that would just add to my horrible experience. And I have no idea how to do it or what libc6 is.

Anyway I already bought new hardware to get me out this mess. And I thought it would be worth letting others know.

[Feathers McGraw]

I have a very similar problem. I don't want to hijack your thread, it's more just a +1 and may help to pinpoint your problem.

I have 13.04 on one partition, and 13.10 on another.

On 13.04, I can use both the FOSS driver (included in the kernel?) for my wireless card and the "Broadcom STA Wireless Driver" from Jockey / Additional Drivers. Both work fine.

On 13.10, there doesn't appear to be a FOSS driver (the proprietary one is installed by default and if I disable it it just re-enables itself). The proprietary driver doesn't work, I can see the network but I get stuck attempting to connect.

I was assuming my hardware is just old, and that the FOSS driver isn't in the kernel any more, but perhaps it's something else, seeing as your hardware is fairly new.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...rom-the-kernel

I'll be watching with interest!

Feathers

[ianp5a]

Hijack away!
Wifi hardware is cheap. So for those who do not have any success, or find it uninteresting, new gear is the solution.