2 little probs with wireless [solved]

[Elleni]

I have a netbook (~x86) with up to date gnome3.4 which works quite good, wireless and everything, but there are two little probs with wlan, that I'd like to fix.

Now I don't know wether this is related to NetworkManager itself oder gnome/udev specific or openrcspecific:

- When I unplug AC-Adapter and it's changing to battery mode, the network connection icon from gnome 3 is disapearing. When I replug AC-Adapter the gnome network icon appears again. So I have to reboot with battery only to make it re-appear to be able to connect to wlan on battery.

- When I deactivate the wlan via hardware button, and restart, system hangs at booting, and it only boots fully to gnome shell, when i reactivate wlan by hardware switch before Network Manager is getting started.

I will try later today, if the same thing happens with kde or xfce started instead of gnome3.

Has anyone an idea how to fix this or a hint to put me into the right direction?

Anyway I have to admit that I love this distro and am soo thankfull to everyone making gentoo possible. Great Job!

[audiodef]

I don't know if you're willing to try this, but the first thing I would do is try something not-Gnome, something more light-weight such as LXDE or XFCE (or Blackbox, Fluxbox, Awesome, etc.). The idea is to see whether Gnome itself is the problem (I suspect it might be, in which case you'd file a bug report to Gnome).

I would recommend emerging LXDE or XFCE and seeing if you continue to have these problems (you don't have to un-merge Gnome for this).
_________________
decibel Linux: https://decibellinux.org
Github: https://github.com/Gentoo-Music-and-Audio-Technology
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/decibellinux
Discord: https://discord.gg/73XV24dNPN

[Logicien]

Hello,
if you deactivate the wireless card via the physical button and than you boot, if the network is configure to activate wlan, it can have trouble trying to finish successfully. I never touch the wireless button, I only use the rfkill command.

If you have laptop-mode-tools installed, it can try to economise energy by deactivating the wireless card on battery, or something else do it. It can be Gnome or not. Booting in the console do not start Gnome process. Have look to the current process. It should tell you what do what in background and foregound you do not realise.
_________________
Paul

[Elleni]

Hi, and thanks for helping me.

Audiodef, having kde-4.93 and xfce installed, I will try those two DE as soon as I can have my hands on the netbook when I finish working, and report back.

Logicien, that's what I am thinking too, that something (NetworkManager?) is not succesfull and thats why system cannot finish bootprocess. Is this normal behaviour of NetworkManager and am I supposed to never actually deactivate wlan by hardware button, or is there some misconfiguring I may have done to cause this behaviour? (I will check if I see something in some NetworkManager/udev/openrc config file )

Also I will try your suggestion without having x started at all and see what happens then.

[Logicien]

A rule is not having more than one application controling an hardware. If you use NetworkManager, be sure that no script like net.wlan0 start at boot. Only networkmanager script should be start. By trying several scenarios, you can find how to work without problem. Probably more precise configuration will resolv your problems.
_________________
Paul

[Elleni]

I already had removed all (net.eth0 and net.eth1/wlan0) but net.lo (i think, i read net.lo is needed for loopbackdevice?) from any runlevel when configured NetworkManager as suggested in the wikis and also added !net.* in rc.conf to prevent openrc/udev of controling the devices. I even deleted the symlink of net.wlan0 (or was it net.eth1) but I did not delete net.eth0 from /etc/init.d/ - but I will doublecheck and report back.

In anycase its small probs as I can workaround the two things by

a) rebooting if needing wlan on battery
b) not deactivating wlan via hardware switch button

Nevertheless it would be cool to find the error, so I'll have a look at your suggestions and come back asap

[Elleni]

After having had the same results with kde, xfce4 and without X at all, I started thinking that the "missbehaviour" must have to do with the runlevels.

I found the reason, why the network applet was disapearing when unplugging ac-adapter. It was because in battery runlevel there was no NetworkManager, and when I added it, this was imediately solved..

While re-checking services in all runlevels I also discovered that I had missed net.eth0 in battery runlevel too, so I deleted this one too.

Now I also can switch off wireless with hardware button, and system still boots without hanging on NetworkManager service, but I discovered one thing.

In gnome 3 I have to first deactivate wlan on the aplett on the uper, right corner and afterwards I can switch it of with the hardware button. This way system boots normally, but when leaving the wireless applet enabled, and directly switch wlan off with the hardware wireless button, on the next boot the system hangs on NetworkManager setting again. Also gnome shell freezes, when I try to enable wlan on the network applet while physically deactivated wlan. I dont know wether this is a normal behaviour, but I can life with it, question is only, if this is "normal" behaviour of gnome or if it is a bug and I should report it somewhere.

Anyway mit two little probs are solved, so thanks again for putting me into the right direction.

And thanks to all who make gentoo, what it is. A great distro!