Arch Linux

Cuddles McKitten

Member

Registered: 2009-09-29

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] NetworkManager/connecting to computers on same network

I have an old computer whose graphics card has seen better days.  For some reason, if the graphics are initialized with less than about fifteen minutes of uptime, the screen displays garbage and the CPU locks up.  This isn't a problem, since I don't boot into GDM and can just use the terminals.

My problem is that the standard Linux network module lets my computer connect to the internet, but not anything on my network.  I can't connect to network shares, my HTTP server, or even give/receive pings.  However, when I do enable NetworkManager and wait long enough to start up GNOME (and get lucky enough for my screen to not decide it wants to simulate a mescaline overdose), Samba and the rest works quite nicely.  My question is: is there anyway to either get NetworkManager to connect on boot and/or from the terminal or is there something I can check with my normal network config that might be causing problems on my home network?

Potentially important information:
-The computer in question has both an ethernet card that I don't use, a bluetooth card that came with the computer (disabled), and a 802.11b wireless card which is what I use to connect.
-I have the ethernet card set to a static IP, but the wireless card uses DHCP to get an address.
-The network uses WEP encryption

Last edited by Cuddles McKitten (2009-10-04 17:04:28)

LeoSolaris

Member

From: South Carolina

Registered: 2008-03-30

Posts: 354

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager/connecting to computers on same network

My $0.02 worth:

Try wicd as a replacement for NetworkManager. It has a curses based interface (along with a graphical one) so it should be fully operational in CLI. You can add scripts to wicd to connect to samba shares after wicd connects.

By the way... if you're having that much trouble with your graphics card, when not disable composite (please tell me you're not using compiz!) and try a *Box? Usually they have less of a demand on the graphics card, so it might stay up longer. If you're using a desktop, just yank the card and use the VESA driver. Linux can run perfectly well without a graphics card of any kind.

Edit: By the way, welcome to the forum!

Last edited by LeoSolaris (2009-09-30 14:24:13)

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Cuddles McKitten

Member

Registered: 2009-09-29

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] NetworkManager/connecting to computers on same network

Thanks for the suggestion, Leo.  I tried wicd, but it couldn't detect any of my network devices.

After playing with my rc.conf a bit more, I discovered that having the ethernet card set up for a static IP while the wireless was set up for DHCP was the cause of the problem.  (Although I'm not entirely certain why I did this in the first place.  I thought I had a reason, but over the last couple of months I've forgotten what it might have been).  For some reason, when using the standard network daemon, the wireless card kept trying to go through the unconnected ethernet card for all LAN activity.  On the plus side, now I don't need NetworkManager or X11 to connect to interact with the LAN.

Last edited by Cuddles McKitten (2009-10-04 17:11:29)