From: Bernard [mailto:bdebreil@teaser.fr]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM
To: Stackpole, Chris
Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Stackpole, Chris wrote:
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebreil@teaser.fr]
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM
Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
[snip]
For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far !
The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi
working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running
on
Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL
box/router,
whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi
only
on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt
that
it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The
automated
process "network tools" has not given any success. I have tried to
insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have
done
on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no
result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that
is
supposed to switch the network ON/OFF.
If you have not used Ubuntu recently,
This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever
since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me
(used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is
that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root
password
[snip]
Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt.
I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though...
the wireless configurations are
/much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using "network
manager"; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the
clock
(looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it
has
found, right click to see the properties information.
I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a
"manual
config" (it also shows a grayed line "Cabled network". After awhile, a
box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system
has
been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to "manual config".
Once
there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works
there),
I clicked on "wireless connexion" and "properties". Once there, I
deactivated the "roaming mode" (I hope there is no confusion in the
translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once
that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front
left
of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another
trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I
deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it,
the
light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my
neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and
it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by
four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : "connection to
wireless network Livebox-46db (0%).
[snip]
0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right.
Post your hardware please and let the list look at it.
Have fun!
~Stack~