Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

felixculpa · 2013-05-22 22:22:44

I have a tower set up as a media server. It was working fine until the power cord got disconnected while moving stuff around...This coupled with the fact that netctl refuses to connect simple wireless-wpa connections for me (lately) has resulted in me being cut off from the server. If I had a monitor I could manually set up the wireless network but I don't have a monitor. I was hoping to somehow use my netbook with a 15-pin male-to-male monitor cord as an external monitor so I could see what I was typing into it with the keyboard. I assumed this was possible but after digging around I could not find any such solution. So what should I do, go buy a monitor?

Last edited by felixculpa (2013-05-24 00:56:07)

boast · 2013-05-22 22:36:38

Did you try connecting and keyboard and hitting enter, or F1, or F2?

I'm assuming it is stuck in bios.

felixculpa · 2013-05-22 22:53:05

I should mention that a usb keyboard will allow me to type in commands, I can use mpc to play songs from mpd for example. So it must have logged me in correctly, so it is not stuck in bios. I have a usb wireless adapter plugged in and I notice that the light on the adapter is not coming on, thus no wireless connection. I need to get the wireless to turn on with but when I enter

sudo ip link set wlan0 up

and then enter the root password and hit enter, nothing happens, or something happens but I can't tell and the light still doesn't come on.

Last edited by felixculpa (2013-05-22 22:53:40)

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-23 00:10:21

Are you sure that your interface is called wlan0? Maybe somehow 80-net-slot-names.rules got removed from /etc/udev/rules.d? Maybe you could touch that file blindly, then reboot and try again?

Otherwise, you could see about moving the thing close to the router, slap an ethernet port in there, and stop netctl and then start dhcpcd.service.

Edit: I guess you could otherwise start learning about the accessibility tools for the blind... that is the talking tools.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-05-23 00:13:40)

felixculpa · 2013-05-23 00:42:26

WonderWoofy wrote:

Are you sure that your interface is called wlan0? Maybe somehow 80-net-slot-names.rules got removed from /etc/udev/rules.d? Maybe you could touch that file blindly, then reboot and try again?
Otherwise, you could see about moving the thing close to the router, slap an ethernet port in there, and stop netctl and then start dhcpcd.service.

Edit: I guess you could otherwise start learning about the accessibility tools for the blind... that is the talking tools.

I am not sure if the interface is wlan0 or not. Will creating the udev rule stop the network from renaming the interface? I never put that file there, and I was unaware of it's existence. I do have a router I can use to plug into it.

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-23 00:44:10

The router solution would probably be easier... that is as long as the router is set up. It doesn't even necessarily have to be plugged into the interwebs, it just has to be able to facilitate a LAN between you and your media server. Then you can find what the IP is of the server and SSH into it.

felixculpa · 2013-05-23 01:12:34

What steps would be entailed in going with the router solution? Plug in the router, plug in the ethernet from the router into the pc, plug in a second wire between the router and my netbook and then ssh into it?

Edit: Then I assume I would set up the network using the instructions here?

Last edited by felixculpa (2013-05-23 01:18:47)

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-23 01:37:53

Well, the router should be set up to be a dhcp server, so as long as you have the dhcpcd.service running (and you should probably turn off netctl), then the server should pick up an address. Likewise, this can be done with the netbook. I say that you need to make sure the router is set up because I have a couple routers which are in dumb access point mode, where the firewall and dhcp server is off. Any router with default settings should be okay though. Alternatively, you can simpyl connect your netbook up the router wirelessly.

felixculpa · 2013-05-23 05:59:18

I carefully typed in commands to create the

/etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-slot-names.rules

file. I then restarted the system and tried

sudo ip link set wlan0 up

and my USB wifi card light came on, indicating the wireless was working, and that the interface was now, for certain, named wlan0. Not sure where to go from here though. I tried entering

sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i <interface> -c <(wpa_passphrase <essid> <passphrase>)

very carefully, then

sudo dhcpcd wlan0

but nothing seems to happen. I tried ssh, pinging, and looking for it to show up under network shares in my file manager. However I found nothing, so there seems to be something wrong with either my wpa_supplicant commands or the dhcpcd command?

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-23 06:10:35

Try redirecting the output of wpa_passphrase into a file first. ie. wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> ~/temp. Then run wpa_supplicant using the ~/temp as the -c variable. I'm not sure this will actually make a difference... but worth a shot.

You should also make sure you disable/stop any possible services that might be running and connecting your network. These will definitely interfere with what you are trying to accomplish. In fact, anything that uses wpa_supplicant is certainly going to make your wpa_supplicant command fail. The dhcpcd on the other hand *should* simply pass the request off to the main process. In practice I have found that this is not entirely reliable.

felixculpa · 2013-05-24 00:55:07

WonderWoofy wrote:

Try redirecting the output of wpa_passphrase into a file first. ie. wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> ~/temp. Then run wpa_supplicant using the ~/temp as the -c variable. I'm not sure this will actually make a difference... but worth a shot.

I redirected the wpa_supplicant output into a file in my home directory, then used that as the -c variable, then ran dhcpcd wlan0 and then tried to ssh...and it worked! The problem was that this was a fresh install so there was no udev rules file keeping the interface names the same, I had to create that first.

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-24 02:08:30

Hey, I'm glad you got that working. I was kind of worried you might have given up when the thread went cold for a bit.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-22 22:22:44

Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#2 2013-05-22 22:36:38

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#3 2013-05-22 22:53:05

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#4 2013-05-23 00:10:21

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#5 2013-05-23 00:42:26

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#6 2013-05-23 00:44:10

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#7 2013-05-23 01:12:34

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#8 2013-05-23 01:37:53

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#9 2013-05-23 05:59:18

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#10 2013-05-23 06:10:35

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#11 2013-05-24 00:55:07

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

#12 2013-05-24 02:08:30

Re: Headless server is now disconnected (SOLVED)

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