essid gets reset when some gui wifi tool is run

[Ludo]

Hi guys,

I got my Belkin USB wireless card running (the rt73 version) with ndiswrapper. I can connect to my wireless router, but therefore I have to supply my essid, since I don't broadcast it (currently that's my only security wall). This works fine with 'iwconfig wlan0 essid on' and then 'iwconfig wlan0 essid <my_essid>'.

However, from the moment I start some gui tool to configure networking (wlassistant or the network settings from kde), my essid gets reset to any/off. By no way but rebooting, I can set it to 'on' and my essid name again.

Any clues?

Thanxs a lot!

Ludo

[sky]

Re: essid gets reset when some gui wifi tool is run

Hi,

Sorry I don't know a lot about gui interfaces for network, I'm always prefering to configure by editing the file /etc/network/interfaces...
I think you should just add the following line under your interface in this line and it should be ok...

kdesu kate /etc/network/interfaces

after line like this :
iface <your_interface> inet dhcp
Add one like this :
wireless-essid <your_essid>

And then try to play with gui, I think it should work...

Cheers

[Ludo]

Re: essid gets reset when some gui wifi tool is run

Hi Sky!

Thanx for your help. I've added the line in the interfaces file, which enables me to do a simple 'ifup wlan0', instead of iwconfig, followed by dhclient, but...
it seems I have drawn conclusions too early. Not only does this happen when I launch a graphical configuration application, it also happens after some time has gone by (with the wireless-essid <my_essid> in the /etc/network/interfaces file).

My essid gets reset and turned off, and by no means I can tell the card to put it back on my essid. I have read a similar issue somewhere on the kubuntu forums, where the solution was to turn off power management for the USB card, but iwconfig tells me the power management is already off.

Further ideas?

Thanx for your help.

[sky]

Re: essid gets reset when some gui wifi tool is run

For me it looks like some troubles with power management on the card, no ? I think you should look in this way... I will try to find something but I will not be really available before this week end, sorry

Good luck

[Ludo]

Re: essid gets reset when some gui wifi tool is run

Well, I've been looking at the dmesg output and I saw some dma error messages. I still have to google for the exact error message, but I haven't had the time yet. I also noticed that I can't change any parameter of the wireless USB card after it starts going crazy.

Ludo

For me it looks like some troubles with power management on the card, no ? I think you should look in this way... I will try to find something but I will not be really available before this week end, sorry

Good luck