WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

adamk33n3r · 2015-01-08 02:32:50

I am currently trying to install Arch and I am following the Beginners' guide. I came to the part to connect to the internet and as I don't have an ethernet port I decided to connect via WiFi. In that part it says to run wifi-menu. I did this and it said no networks found. Long story short I had to use rfkill to enable the wireless card. When running wifi-menu again yay it shows networks! I click on my network, which is open, name the profile, and it says connecting failed. What to do, what to do...I am at a loss.

circleface · 2015-01-08 02:53:40

Try the manual way at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … nual_setup and see if you get some more helpful error messages. This way you can tell exactly where the connection is failing.

adamk33n3r · 2015-01-08 04:00:31

So I did try that stuff and it didn't work. I later reimaged my USB and just tried it again, the manual way, and it worked. I don't know if wifi-menu will work now but I don't want to touch it I don't know if it was the reimage that fixed it or maybe a different order of commands. I did have an issue with the previous image not loading correctly so that may have been my problem all along. Thanks for your help and I am ready to become an Archer!

stevepa · 2015-01-08 16:46:09

adamk33n3r wrote:

So I did try that stuff and it didn't work. I later reimaged my USB and just tried it again, the manual way, and it worked. I don't know if wifi-menu will work now but I don't want to touch it I don't know if it was the reimage that fixed it or maybe a different order of commands. I did have an issue with the previous image not loading correctly so that may have been my problem all along. Thanks for your help and I am ready to become an Archer!

My longstanding procedure is to only use wifi-menu, versus some other DE supplied network tool. The files it reads are in /etc/netctl and are easy to manage and understand. I do not use systemd to bring interfaces up or down. Also, I just use 'dhcpcd <Ethernet interface>' when needed. I also like to explicitly control what interface my system is connecting to.

All works great.

The experience of walking through the manual technique of connecting to wireless networks using the wiki was extremely valuable. I am by no means an expert, but with wifi-menu, wireless has been crossed off my trouble list.

Hope this helps.
Steve.

williain · 2015-01-08 18:39:01

Personally, I've had success using the configuration generated by wifi-menu, but modifying it to use a static IP address. After wifi-menu failed, IIRC I used 'netctl start [profile]' to start the generated profile and observe the errors which suggested it was having trouble using DHCP to get an IP address (or I may have had to use 'netctl status [profile]' to see them, I forget), then just tweaked the file using vi and got it to work (hurrah for the Arch way!)

Now I use systemd to bring it up at boot, as I mostly use that machine without a display connected, and ssh in to it. Touch wood, that's always worked for me (except when the router has crashed, then I need to hook up the display and manually connect, but thankfully that's relatively rare)

stevepa · 2015-01-08 21:24:58

williain wrote:

Personally, I've had success using the configuration generated by wifi-menu, but modifying it to use a static IP address. After wifi-menu failed, IIRC I used 'netctl start [profile]' to start the generated profile and observe the errors which suggested it was having trouble using DHCP to get an IP address (or I may have had to use 'netctl status [profile]' to see them, I forget), then just tweaked the file using vi and got it to work (hurrah for the Arch way!)
Now I use systemd to bring it up at boot, as I mostly use that machine without a display connected, and ssh in to it. Touch wood, that's always worked for me (except when the router has crashed, then I need to hook up the display and manually connect, but thankfully that's relatively rare)

That is a good use case for systemd: headless. Wifi-menu has been really good for me, however once in a while, I have had to delete the netctl entry and rerun wifi-menu to make a working one. Note sure why.

In the case where your headless box will not connect to the network, I would like to play with using a serial connection to the headless box. I guess it would be an USB to serial connection. On the R Pi and BBB, I used a funny little USB to serial pigtail like thing, with 'screen" I think it was. Worked really well I thought.

williain · 2015-01-08 23:50:23

If you want to find out exactly what's changed, it's pretty straightforward to let wifi-menu create a new profile, then diff the two.

I guess I could bring my old Psion 5 and serial cable out of retirement for a little light maintenance. If I needed to build it out of readily available tech, I might go for a r-Pi type board connected via null ethernet, with everything static-IPed.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-08 02:32:50

WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#2 2015-01-08 02:53:40

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#3 2015-01-08 04:00:31

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#4 2015-01-08 16:46:09

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#5 2015-01-08 18:39:01

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#6 2015-01-08 21:24:58

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

#7 2015-01-08 23:50:23

Re: WiFi will not connect even though it can scan

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