Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

[beeswax]

Hi, a new user making his first post on this forum. I just finished migrating from XP to Kubuntu 7.10, and have pretty much got everything working. Alas, today I was hit with the known, dreaded, and apparently unfixable (no solutions in the ubuntu bug forums) KNetworkmanager wireless bug--my networks have suddenly become inaccessable through KNM. The card is working; running scan in console shows the networks and Wireless Assistant/Wifi Radar both work fine.

Trouble is, I really liked KNetworkmanager. For the 72 hours it was working, it worked great. I don't like having to run separate, password-protected utilities to access the internet; it's silly and troublesome. Is there a utility that can replace KNM as far as wired/wireless switching and network detection, and that I can set to autorun at startup? (Yeah, I'm a newbie, I haven't figured out where that script/menu is yet. Soon, soon...)

[trancen]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

I had this issue after I upgraded to gutsy. So after searching I couldn't find anything and was playing around and found that my 'interfaces' file was the issue. I restored the backup file and my wireless option started to work again. Here is a copy of my interfaces file found in '/etc/network/interfaces'

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
#iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth2
#iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
#iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

[sqlpython]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

So after searching I couldn't find anything and was playing around and found that my 'interfaces' file was the issue.

and unfortunately you will probably have to restore or modify it again and again. This is the Bug and the interfaces will keep changing based on useage especially if you change locations (ESSID) and/or plug in a Wired Cable..
I have to alter mine probably 10 times in 3 months.

So, I continue to use Wlassistant and alternate between that and KNetworkManager. Overall day in and day out Wlassistant is more consistent.

Good Luck.

[rraiman]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

OK, a good readme on how to switch from knetworkmanager to wlassist would be a help

[Weylin]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

I've had pretty good luck with WICD - http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

The directions for creating the tray link do not work for KDE though. Instead, you have to create a desktop item.

To do that create a file in your /home/<username>/.kde/Autostart/

kdesu kate /home/<username>/.kde/Autostart/wicd.tray

Add the following contents to that previously empty file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Wicd
Exec=/opt/wicd/tray.py
Icon=
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

I restarted X at this point just to force it to reload.

[elabranche]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

Trancen trick with the /etc/network/interfaces reconfigured worked for me.

For some reason, it was all screwded up, and only when I tried to "manual configure" the knetworkmanager.

Thanks TRANCEN

[NoWorries]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

I also like others have had trouble with the Wireless connection. I experienced this when I was testing the alpha releases and nothing has changed since then. What I do to overcome my problems is to install Gutsy with the Ethernet connected to my Notebook which is an ASUS F3Jr. After getting all the updates, I then shut down, remove the Ethernet connection and power up again.

Once the desktop is up, I then right mouse click the KNetworkManager icon where the wireless network is listed for my Netgear wireless Router. I then left mouse click on the wireless to connect to the wireless router, and enter the password which also is stored by KDE Wallet Manager. This then connects to the router. After doing this, the iwconfig command shows eth1 as the wireless with the IEEE 802.11g. The file /etc/network/interfaces only contains:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
address 127.0.0.1
netmask 255.0.0.0

I have found that if I change any of the wireless connection settings with KNetworkManager, this connection is broken and I cannot get it back again. I then reinstall Gutsy. As you can well imagine, I have done this many times. So my rule is now to not change anything related to the wireless connection once it is working.

I do not know if this problem exists with the Gnome desktop, but I get the distinct impression that KDE plays the second fiddle to Gnome with the ubuntu development team.

[drjoewebb]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

the best replacement utility i found was kubuntu 6.10 which was the last *ubuntu version that connected well

this kind of stuff and the workarounds posted in this thread can't be tolerated if *ubuntu wants to be a desktop of choice beyond expert users.

[GS2]

Re: Hit with KNetworkmanager wireless bug--Is there a good replacement utility?

Don't bother with the 'utilities'. To be honest, I much prefer editing the files myself

Just edit the afore-mentioned /etc/network/interfaces file. Then do:
/etc/init.d/networking restart (as root or sudo)
or if I just need to get a new lease:
dhclient eth0 (where eth0 is network device)

Interfaces file should have an entry for every device you have, before editing always back-up !