FIXED - I hope!! Laptop wireless problem
On Saturday 02 July 2016 01:15:27 Lisi Reisz wrote:
> The built in wireless on the Dell Inspiron 9300 suddenly stopped working.
>
> Having poked around a bit with wicd and network-manager (not
> simultaneously), I am checking whether the problem is sudden hardware
> failure. I plugged in a USB network card.
About half way through the saga I unplugged the external network card because
it was muddying the waters.
I cannot say which bit of the saga worked. Probably all of it, and I can only
advise anyone with a similar intractable problem to follow the thread. I
could not see how it could be software, but .... Deloptes and Brian both
thought that it was software, so that had to count with me. They were, of
course, right. They were likely to be right. Experience coupled with
instinct counts.
I have glossed over mentally the fact that the Debian network-install CD
didn't succeed in connecting. I have, for now anyway, accepted that I don't
know why that was: I have no experience of doing net-installs over wireless.
I have always used a wired connection for installation. Ubuntu, as I feared
when it was suggested, was a complete dead loss. Ubuntu-MATE after 4 HOURS
had still not succeeded in booting, though it was still ploughing on.
The last few things I did were:
Change the SSID and password of my wireless router/connection point.
Use Brian's method for manual connection, and go back to NM, which could
suddenly consistently connect (though it still couldn't, before that
particular manual connection).
Give up trying to get NM to set DNS servers. Setting them manually worked,
and that would probably have been where I left it if it had been for me. But
I needed a consistent fully working automatic wireless connection with
functioning DNS.
So, for, I think the third time on the saga, I fully purged my network manager
(at this point NM) and installed the other one (in this case wicd – which had
been uninstalled in the first place because it wasn't working).
I now have what appears to be a fully functional connection and shall be
restoring the laptop to its owner.
Thank you all for all your help, especially deloptes and Brian.
Lisi
Reply to: