Network Management - probably pebcak needs sorting

[Thomas Janssen]

2010/3/8 Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com>:
> On Monday 08 March 2010 13:14:19 Martin Kho wrote:
>> > On Monday 08 March 2010 11:21:21 Martin Kho wrote:
>> > > > On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 8:02 PM, Petrus de Calguarium
>> > > >
>> > > > <kwhiskerz at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > > > If I am not mistaken,, you have either
>> > > > > knetworkmanager or NetworkManager-gnome
>> > > > > installed, not both.
>> > > >
>> > > > You can have both installed without a problem. If you have both you
>> > > > get a warning (get asked?) from knetworkmanager that another applet
>> > > > is running and if you want to use it or not in the future. So, one
>> > > > is always working.
>> > >
>> > > Hi,
>> > >
>> > > Aren't both knetworkmanager and NetworkManager-gnome more or less
>> > > front-ends to NetworkManager? So if the network doesn't work, it has to
>> > > be NetworkManager that didn't detect the network-card, or did set up
>> > > the interface wrongly. Are there any error messages in
>> > > /var/log/messages?
>> >
>> > Messages appeared to be saying that the cabled connection was OK, but the
>> > wireless connection was disabled by 'killswitch'.  Since the hardware
>> > switch is in a position where it can get knocked off, I played around
>> > with it until Messages accepted that it is on.  However, when I got the
>> > authentication dialog there is no entry possibility for WPA!  This is
>> > definitely a regression.  I've had WPA with knetworkmanager before, I'm
>> > sure.
>> >
>> > Oddly enough, ifconfig says it has an ipv6 address, but no ipv4 address.
>> > Meanwhile, the icon on the systray still tells me that the network is
>> > disabled.
>>
>> Hi Anne,
>>
>> Just a silly question. You don't - still - have the kde-plasma version of
>> knetworkmanager installed?
>>
> Seems that I do.  I installed it and never got around to sorting it out.  I
> think that maybe the tray icon I'm complaining about is from that.  OK - so
> removed the plasma object - the icon remains.  I'll try a reboot in a moment
> to see whether the network activates properly.  Funny, though, in the past
> I've always been able to see the cabled connection even if the wireless one
> wasn't available.

The networkmanagemnt plasmoid does right now nothing except popup a
message that it's deprecated in favor of the systray applet. Doesn't
matter if it's installed or not. I guess the worst thing that could
happen is that it makes plasma-desktop crash. Well, that would
actually be bad ;)

> In desperation I installed every tool I could see to help troubleshoot this.
> wlassistant tells me "Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No
> such file or directory  CONNECTION FAILED".  If things don't work after the
> reboot I'll see whether it's still getting that message.

Do try the NetoworkManager-gnome (nm-applet). I had a different
problem, not solvable with knetworkmanager, but with nm-applet.

-- 
LG Thomas

Dubium sapientiae initium