You are not logged in.
Since this is my first post ever on the forums; I'd like to start off by saying that I very much enjoy my arch installation and I would like to commend the dev team for their hard work, dedication, and deliverance of a great product.
Moving on, my internet connection works MOST of the time (I would say about 19 out of every 20 restarts/cold boots do NOT have this problem), but every once in a while my internet connection will simply refuse to work. Whenever it does, network manager doesn't list any wireless networks (and I am certain that at least 3 are "never" down {I connect to them on different wireless devices when this happens}) and I am unable to connect to any wireless networks manually (meaning though network managers "connect though hidden wireless network"...button?).
When this happens I try modprobing ndiswrapper (does nothing), trying to restart the device via ifconfig, seeing if the device is actually listed under iwconfig (and it always is), then doing an iwlist scan on the wireless interface (and it always says the network is down). I am including links to pictures of me running the commands whenever this occurs.
http://www.geocities.com/youmember2001/iwconfig.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/youmember2001/ifconfig.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/youmember2001/iwlist.jpg
Relevant Information -
The name of the driver I'm running though NDISwrapper is rt73.inf. I got it from the instillation cd of my device.
When this happens the network manager applet does NOT ask me for a password to open the keyring (when my internet connection actually works, it does, ALL the time).
I am not sure I had this problem when I was using gdm to login, but I was having some weird problem where xserver would randomly crash and restart, so I switched to SLIM.
I've taken a look at the network manager wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Net … ager#Gnome) and tried to do what was in the section, "Automatically unlock keyring after login". Since I now use SLIM as a login manager, this has been ineffective, so I am not sure if the problem has something to do with arch, ndiswrapper, my device, or unlocking the keyring.
I dual boot my system (using Windows Vista as a secondary operating system) and use the SAME driver {remember, I use ndiswrapper} on Vista that I do on Arch. Windows Vista has never ever given me any type of problem with the device.
I've tried the device on multiple machines (even a Ubuntu machine {which installs its own version of the driver}) and it has never given me any type of problem on other machines (and the Ubuntu machine runs "around" the same version of network manager}.
I've followed the arch beginners guide in its entirety and I look at (and follow) the wiki guides for installing any new package.
I doubt it would matter, but network manager is set to automatically connect me to my wireless network, which uses WEP 128 bit encryption. I've heard random posts about ndiswrapper-ed drivers having a problem connecting to WEP encrypted networks.
When I installed arch and did not have a GUI installed; I experienced no problem at all with ndiswrapper OR my wireless device.
My system is currently up to date (as pacman reports)
Thoughts -
I keep thinking it is a problem with the keyring package...but I am not entirely sure since restarting always tends to solve the problem.
*****EDIT 9/8/09****
I had a random thought today, in my previous post, I had made the mistake of implying that I believed this was a software related problem (or a failing wifi adapter); although this is true, I may have been to hasty with a bad assumption. I had a random thought today that this could be related to some type of bad firmware on my system, or even possibly a failing USB port. I have switched the USB port I plug the device into, and plugged another device into it (to see if a USB eventually refused to mount), and will comment on that as time comes.
Last edited by venom101 (2009-09-13 05:10:36)
Offline
My apologies for the late replies everyone; I've had a tough class/work week.
After booting my system at least 100 times, I would have to say that I don't have the problem anymore (as far as I can tell). I'm going to dismiss it as a computer hardware/firmware related problem.
I ended up changing the port used for my USB device (and doing nothing else) and I haven't seen the problem sense.
I will edit with updates if I ever see this problem again.
Offline
fixed those ndiswrapper problems?;)
Offline
