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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:06 am    Post subject: Setting up wireless network in Gentoo: Reply with quote

Hi guys,

Today it has completed 4 weeks of me trying to correctly configure my wi-fi in recently installed gentoo.
I am absolutely frustrated and I need help. I simply can't do this by myself. The Gentoo Documentation for wireless networks (I mean, I read ALL gentoo network guides) is seriously lacking. I did a stage 3 installation following the guide step by step. I even finished installing KDE but I simply can't make my wi-fi work. And no, it's not a hardware problem because a Knoppix LiveCD works flawlessly (although sluggish slow; reason why I decided to compile gentoo).
Well, let's start. The first thing I did was to configure the kernel. My first problems happened there because the driver for my card is experimental. Doing a lspci -vnn, I got the following device number: [10ec:8176]. I configured the kernel to use the rtl8192ce driver that was supposed to be compatible.
After that everything was messed up because I tried everything. Networkmanager, wicd, wpa_supplicant. Neither one help me connect to my wireless card. Currently, my /etc/conf.d/net was overwritten by NeworkManager. Currently there is only:

wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dwext"
dns_domain_lo="holyland"
config_eth0="dhcp"

The /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf is empty.

I was having problem finding the wlan0 so I created a symbolic link from net.lo to it (ln -s net.lo net.wlan0). The command net.wlan0 start returns:

* Bringing up interface wlan0
* Starting wpa_supplicant on wlan0...
* Starting wpa_cli on wlan0...
* Backgrounding...
* Warning: net.wlan0 has started, but is inactive.

In the KDE network settings I can't see the wlan0 interface, although iwconfig shows it correctly.

Help.

Thanks,
Nelson
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The Doctor
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Did you install the firmware?

I haven't checked to see what your card requires, but most require some kind of firmware that is separate from the kernel driver. (Don't ask me how many months it took me to realize this)
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BillWho
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nelsonwcf wrote:
The /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf is empty.

If that's the case then you're not going anywhere. Network manager would probably be best with KDE. You should unmerge all the others.

Enter the output of lspci -n here to check if you have the correct kernel setting for your wireless.
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Since installing gentoo, my life has become one long emerge :)
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chithanh
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For modern wireless drivers, -Dnl80211 is preferable to -Dwext.

To generate wpa_supplicant.conf run
Code:
# wpa-passphrase [your ESSID] >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Then enter the WPA PSK for your wireless network.
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BillWho: I already unmerged everything and emerged only Networkmanagement (KDE widget for NetworkManager). WPA_Supplicant and NetworkManager are emerged again as dependencies. I already checked the lspci -n site below and everythings checks.
The Doctor: Basically, I didn't install the firmware but it is already working (looks like my drivers doesn't need a standalone firmware).
Another important information: Sometimes the Network Settings in KDE can get some wifi connections, but every time I try to set it up, it doesn't connect. When I try to connect though, my computer starts to show quick hangs (I can notice that because the mouse hangs at every about 5 seconds hangs for maybe 0,5 s in fact).

Edit: In fact, those hangs doesn't happen only inside KDE; they also happen in the console and I can notice because the keyboard hangs for 0,5s when I am typing. When I kill the processes wpa_supplicant and wpa_cli everything goes back to normal.


Last edited by nelsonwcf on Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:27 am; edited 1 time in total
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chithanh: I already changed the -Dwext to -Dnl80211. Nothing changed.
After I emerged networkmanagement the wpa_supplicant.conf is being managed by networkmanager (the old file was completely ovewritten by one that has some comments from NetworkManager). Should I still run the wpa-passpharase ? Theoretically, shouldn't networkmanager manage everything ?
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The Doctor
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Basically, I didn't install the firmware but it is already working


I beg to differ. Your computer sees the card. That is not the same as being able to use it. Install the one posted below and see what happens. You really don't have anything to lose there.

I had the same thing happen. I could see the card but not use it.

EDIT I posted the wrong package. Edited to correct.
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Last edited by The Doctor on Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:30 am; edited 3 times in total
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chithanh
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When you use networkmanager, then the contents of wpa_supplicant.conf don't matter.

All wifi firmware you might need is included in the linux-firmware package.
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Doctor wrote:
Quote:
Basically, I didn't install the firmware but it is already working


I beg to differ. Your computer sees the card. That is not the same as being able to use it. Install this net-wireless/rtl8192se-firmware and see what happens.

I had the same thing happen. I could see the card but not use it.


No man, I can see all the SSIDs, not only card (I mean, I can succesfully scan the wireless networks). I can see the names, the channels, etc. I simply can't connect. Was this also your case ?
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The Doctor
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nelsonwcf wrote:

No man, I can see all the SSIDs, not only card (I mean, I can succesfully scan the wireless networks). I can see the names, the channels, etc. I simply can't connect. Was this also your case ?


What did I just say? I had the same problem with the same symptoms. Please don't assume that we don't understand your problem or that installing firmware is harmful. Its a reasonable thing to check. Honestly, if you knew what the problem was, you would not have posted. Getting help often involves doing the stupid stuff you never thought you needed or thought you already did.

All the GUI stuff should work with absolutely no configuration, which leaves diver problems or firmware.

EDIT: a quick google search reveals this topic and aslo sugjests that I am right to suspect firmware:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-897720-start-25.html
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Doctor wrote:
nelsonwcf wrote:

No man, I can see all the SSIDs, not only card (I mean, I can succesfully scan the wireless networks). I can see the names, the channels, etc. I simply can't connect. Was this also your case ?


What did I just say? I had the same problem with the same symptoms. Please don't assume that we don't understand your problem or that installing firmware is harmful. Its a reasonable thing to check. Honestly, if you knew what the problem was, you would not have posted. Getting help often involves doing the stupid stuff you never thought you needed or thought you already did.

All the GUI stuff should work with absolutely no configuration, which leaves diver problems or firmware.

EDIT: a quick google search reveals this topic and aslo sugjests that I am right to suspect firmware:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-897720-start-25.html


Well, the linux-firmware package is already installed. There is no net-wireless/rtl8192se-firmware, only rtl8192su and is masked (and the driver, at least, is not compatible - already tried when compiling the kernel). Sorry, I didn't mean to assume anything. In your post, though, you said that the computer could see the card but mentioned nothing about being able to scan the networks. Anyway, I just emerged the package rtl8192su. Nothing changed.

Okay, one more question: Someone in the gentoo channel told me that I had to ln -s net.lo net.wlan0 and then rc-update add net.wlan0 default. I am doing anything wrong ?
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chithanh
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

First of all, you need to decide between Gentoo net scripts and NetworkManager. Only if you use Gentoo net scripts you need to create/edit /etc/conf.d/net and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, and start /etc/init.d/net.*.

If you use NetworkManager, then you don't need any of the above. In fact mixing two wireless configuration methods will lead to them fighting each other so in the end nothing will work.
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The Doctor
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well kind of. Its true for command line networking. If you use a GUI you should not have net.wlan0 in a runlevel. You should actually black list it or delete it. In the short term, try running /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 stop and then retry you GUI connection. You may also want to restart it via the command line.
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chithanh wrote:
First of all, you need to decide between Gentoo net scripts and NetworkManager. Only if you use Gentoo net scripts you need to create/edit /etc/conf.d/net and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf, and start /etc/init.d/net.*.

If you use NetworkManager, then you don't need any of the above. In fact mixing two wireless configuration methods will lead to them fighting each other so in the end nothing will work.


I love you. It started to work after I disabled net.wlan0 from services. No lags, no hangs, no crashes in KDE.

Thank you everybody.

By the way, one last question: now that I am using networkmanager, do I have to have net.eth0 loading as services to work or can I remove it too ?
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The Doctor
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No reason to keep it. It could start misbehaving as well.
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nelsonwcf
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks guys! Everything is fine now!
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