After struggling for several days to get wireless to work on my Acer Aspire 3100 laptop, I finally have succeeded. I installed wicd, and after getting past problems with Python versions I got wicd up and running. But it took quite a while longer to actually get the wireless working. The critical step was in jiggling the wicd preferences (accessible from the wicd client screen). The default wpa_supplicant driver is ndiswrapper, but if your wireless card is already supported by Linux (and most of them are these days), then that must be changed to wext.
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Re: wicd wireless success!
I think people will find your tip useful if they're troubleshooting wicd. But just to give a bit more information, when I installed wicd it didn't default to ndiswrapper: for me it defaulted to wext, so I had no trouble from the start! -
Default for wpa_supplicant
I wonder why we got different defaults.Originally posted by olembeComment
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More problems solved
I just did a reinstall of the entire system (Jaunty with KDE 3.5 remix), so that meant that I also had to reinstall wicd. I encountered a number of problems with that before I even got to the point of using wicd, but I've finally got my wireless up and running. Perhaps these further discoveries will be of use to someone. Here's the sequence of problems I encountered (as well as I remember it) and the way that I solved each:
1. Initially, I had no net access so I had to use another computer to retrieve anything. I retrieved the .deb package for wicd using the links at http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/all/wicd/download, put it on a memory stick, and copied it to my desktop. To make things easier later on, I executed sudo su in my shell so that everything had root privileges.
2. Since wicd is incompatible with network-manager (which wouldn't work for my wireless setup and has a generally bad rep), I had to remove network-manager. I then installed wicd:
The install failed, but had side effects necessary for Step 3.Code:dpkg --remove network-manager-kde-kde3 network-manager dpkg --install ~/Desktop/wicd_1.5.9_all-1.deb
3. Next, I had to remedy some bad locations of Python-related stuff:
4. Now I repeated the install of wicd:Code:mkdir /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/wicd cp -s /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/wicd/* /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/wicd
5. In order to make it possible to install the wicd user interface, I had to edit the file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/wicd.conf to solve some permission problems. I replaced the three "deny"s by "allows" -- which might have been overkill, but I was desperate. Perhaps someone else here can come up with a safer alternative.Code:dpkg --install ~/Desktop/wicd_1.5.9_all-1.deb
6. Finally, as an ordinary user I called wicd-client. That gave me the user interface.
7. Finally, to enable the WPA-PSK wireless connection, I used the client and its drop-down list under the network entry, with the advanced settings, to enable encryption.
Note that none of the steps except the first required any net access--which of course I didn't have until I was done. I hope all this information is useful to someone, and I encourage others to improve on it.
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Re: wicd wireless success!
i installed and am using WICD on my mini-notebook (Acer Aspire one). Network manager did not connect me to the internet - either wires or wireless. I installed Jaunty with KDE 4.2.The command I used to uninstall Network manager was:
sudo apt-get remove network-manager-kde
and then
sudo apt-get remove network-manager
I installed WICD with the simple "sudo apt-get install wicd" command in the konsole. WICD defaulted to wext and all works well!!
BUT
I work in two different network environments. At home I have a network setup that requires a static IP address. At work we use a dhcp connection. In both environments I can connect either wireless or wired.
My problem with WICD is how to set up the manager that I can enter either environment without having to reconfigure WICD every time I move from home to work & vice versa. I haven't found info anywhere on how to do this,
Any ideas?
TIA
ErrolComment
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Just a guess
It should be pretty quick to bring up the wicd manager by clicking on its icon in the system tray and from there to select the appropriate connections for your current environment. But that's just a guess.Comment
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Re: wicd wireless success!
I would expect that once you have created entries for each access point, they will become available when that access point is found, probably even activate before login. I have not had the chance to try this yet though. If you do I would like to hear the result.
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Re: wicd wireless success!
I'm not quite sure if I've solved my problem (of static & dhcp configuration) for WICD but here is how I work (meanwhileOriginally posted by errol
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On WICD there is the possibility of adding different setups for wired connections. I built a connection for the static address AND another one for the dhcp connection.
Where WICD shows the wireless connection, the possibility of adding another connection doesn't exist (at least not on my installation). What I do is enter the static address each time I am at home and want to use a wireless connection and when I am at work I then delete the static address and I am then connected dhcp.
Not a very efficient way of working. If there is another way of doing things I'd like to hear it.
What happens to somebody with two or more static addresses in wireless? As I said in the "wired" mode one can add connections, in wireless not.
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Re: wicd wireless success!
I think that with wireless you can configure each access point as it come up and tell wicd if it should reconnect to that access point automatically, Then when wicd finds an access point it has a connection for it brings up that connection.
Wired is different and I think you can create profiles in wicd. When I look in Preferences in wicd it has a "Wired autoconnect setting", one of which is "Prompt for profile on wired autoconnect".
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Re: wicd wireless success!
mando_hacker That's exactly what happened!! I set up the static address at home on the wireless WICD. When I change location the wireless through WICD finds the correct connection - whether static or DHCP. Obviously as you said unlike wired, wireless "finds" the correct connection.
I am now a happy network user with all my connection problems solved.Comment
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