A problem arises from the Wi-Fi connection method. It is essential that when you set select an access point that the system then connects. However, at present, the system requires re-booting first. This is illogical and makes it impossible to connect where there are several access points of similar strength. I note that with Mandriva I can always connect without re-booting so why is that we cannot do so with Mageia The outcome is that we cannot connect to an unencrypted access point. This is totally repeatable (verified in one particular company situation) The problem needs to addressed with great urgency as this spoils an otherwise excellent distro.
Priority: Normal => HighCC: (none) => desmond.armstrongTarget Milestone: --- => Mageia 3
Are you using NetworkManager or Mageia's tools?
CC: (none) => mageia
I am simply using the standard Mageia tools. I go through the Mageia CC or simply right click on the globe icon but the results are the same we have to re-boot, there is no possibility to connect to an unencrypted access point. This problem only arises where there are many access points, all of similar strength. If you know of a work round I would like knowledge of that. I will be on the particular site in two weeks time so I will have chance to try again, with whatever patch or workaround is available.
I would try with NetworkManager. It might not help but you never know, I've seen cases where it does help. Which DE are you using?
I am using Gnome 3 in classic mode. I am not sure what you mean by Network Manager. Is there some module that I should install? I will try again with Mandriva 2010.2 and with Puppy in two weeks time.
I don't know if Gnome 3's classic mode has NetworkManager's applet built-in like normal mode has but if you have there one extra icon to control network then it probably has. Anyway, you have to configure your network device so that it is controlled by NM. After that reboot your system and try to configure wifi with NM's applet.
We have something called VPN in the network icon (two computers) and the other icon is a globe. I have no experience of VPN so have no idea if we might be able to configure that. Certainly as I go through that I do have options for the Wi-Fi but don't know how to proceed. Whatever we do I will report back aftr my meeting in that venue where there are loads of unencrypted access points. The security there is through the browser and we enter a key they provide us with to enable the connection. But this all depends of getting the connection in the first place they probably record my MAC address. I will have the two computers with me, one running Mandriva 2010.2 which I know works and the other running Mageia 3.
I am thinking that there may be an issue around the roaming method. The point being that one should be able to roam without any difficulty, certainly there should NEVER be requirement to re-boot. So certainly one should be able to connect to the unencrypted without problem.
Next installment:- I was in the Royal Brompton Hospital this afternoon and I tried, without success, to connect to the unencrypted Wi-Fi. I note that the strength of two Wi-Fi Access points was 57% and 60%. So, now I tried using Puppy and yes, it connected without any problem, but then it did not require re-booting. I shall have opportunity to do more tests next Wednesday, 17 July and shall report back on that. So, I seriously question why, when the system is built on Mandriva, why this serious problem?
We forked almost 3 years ago. Things have changed since then..
Yes, we forked some 3 years ago. With the Utmost Respect we do have a Broken module here. Doing some more tests, I bring up drakroam and find:- on Mandriva 2010.2 I find the present connection and various access points with the neighbours. on Mageia 3 it shows only the present connected access point. Next I go through the procedure to connect (the present access point) and:- on Mandriva 2010.2 it brings down the connection and then brings it up again. on Mageia 3 it brings down the connection but does NOT bring it up again. The ONLY way to reconnect is to re-boot. I was again in the Royal Brompton Hospital this morning and find 5 unencrypted access points with relative strengths of 83%, 79%, 64%, 56% and 33%. The SSID for all is RBH-Guest. Of course using Mandriva 2010.2 I can easily connect. Using Mageia 3 it is impossible to connect to any of those points despite many re-boots. I think that I have identified the faulty module as drakx-net. I stress that this is a very serious breakage which must be fixed. At the moment I have two identical Netbooks, Asus eee901, the one installed with Mandriva 2010.2 and the other with Mageia 3 so I can make some comparative measurements. Basically the issue is the inability to roam, and I am very puzzled to be apparently the first to identify this problem. Fundamentally; 1/ there should never be a need to re-boot when selecting an access point. 2/ we should be able to roam freely across access points.
Source RPM: (none) => drakx-net
Assignee: bugsquad => mageia
Version: Cauldron => 3
I have done some more testing. In one venue we have two SSIDs, namely 'clear' and 'Clear guest' There are some 20 access points for each. The relative strengths vary from 94% through to 32%. Of course, it is impossible to connect Mageia 3. Because the connection fails and re-boot is required we don't know what access point it is now going to try (and fail). So I tried other distros, namely Mandriva 2010.2, Rosa-Marathon (fork of Mandriva), Kororaa, Debian Mint (Mate) and Puppy all connect without problems. These do, as they should, work without reboot being required. I think I identified drakx-net as one of the modules involved in the Wi-Fi connection but can somebody tell me the names of the other modules and then perhaps I can try those from Cauldron?
Yesterday I checked on a Netbook where I had installed Mageia 2 some time ago. The test that I am using is to 'Mangage Networks' and with that machine when I select 'connect' it brings down the Wi-Fi and then brings it up again (as it should) (and no re-boot required). But, of course, my Netbook also works fine there on Mageia 3 (after re-boot). So I am now reluctantly installing Mageia 2 on my Netbook and shall maintain that in Dual-boot (Mageia 2 and Mageia 3).
curious and curiouser. I get the same problems with my Netbook on Mageia 2 but I discovered drakroam. So here are the relevant results, firstly for Mandriva 2010.2 amd secondly for Mageia 3 (or 2) [desmond@localhost ~]$ drakroam got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS wlan1 got wireless event: <2>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE wlan1 got wireless event: <2>Trying to associate with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 (SSID='Penquins' freq=2442 MHz) wlan1 got wireless event: <2>Associated with 00:00:00:00:00:00 wlan1 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=28:10:7b:5f:de:00 reason=0 wlan1 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS wlan1 got wireless event: <2>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE wlan1 got wireless event: <2>Trying to associate with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 (SSID='Penquins' freq=2442 MHz) wlan1 got wireless event: <2>Associated with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 wlan1 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=28:10:7b:5f:de:00 reason=0 wlan1 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS wlan1 got wireless event: <2>WPS-AP-AVAILABLE wlan1 So this has connected after I right clicked and disconnected. *************************************************************** Reloading vnstatd configuration: [ OK ] Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : SET failed on device wlan0 ; Network is down. got connection status event: link_down wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys wlan0 got connection status event: interface_down wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING - signal 15 received wlan0 got connection status event: interface_down wlan0 got connection status event: connection_start wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS wlan0 got wireless event: <2>Trying to associate with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 (SSID='Penquins' freq=2442 MHz) wlan0 got wireless event: <2>Associated with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 wlan0 got wireless event: <2>WPA: Key negotiation completed with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP] wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 completed (auth) [id=0 id_str=] wlan0 got connection status event: link_up wlan0 got connection status event: connection_start wlan0 got connection status event: dhcp_request wlan0 got connection status event: dhcp_success wlan0 got connection status event: interface_up wlan0 got wireless event: <2>WPA: Group rekeying completed with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 [GTK=TKIP] wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS wlan0 got wireless event: <2>Trying to associate with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 (SSID='Penquins' freq=2442 MHz) wlan0 got wireless event: <2>Associated with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 wlan0 got wireless event: <2>WPA: Key negotiation completed with 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP] wlan0 got wireless event: <2>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 28:10:7b:5f:de:00 completed (reauth) [id=0 id_str=] wlan0 Carries on in this manner and never connects. I am wondering if there is some property of the wlan card which is causing problem so I shall try that next. Present wlan card is Ralink RT 2790 Replacement Atherous AR928X But symptoms just the same - what is there to try next?
I have been doing some more checks using other computers and sure enough this problem is only with Mageia. I have been trying to install the newer NetworkManager but am unsuccessful as there is dependency hell there. I am certainly extremely disappointed that no one has responded in any positive way on this problem, which, for me is a show stopper. I am certainly very disappointed that I must now use another system as, Mageia 3 is otherwise looking so good. Unfortunately I do not know enough to positively identify the module which is at fault. I do know however that there should never be a re-boot necessary to connect Wi-Fi particularly when the access point is unencrypted.
I have to admit that I am disappointed not to have had response. However I have been working away, with my Linux colleagues, and have found solution. Download and configure 'wicd' from https://launchpad.net/wicd/+download Now uninstall 'NetworkManager' wicd should be in the repositories as it is with Debian 7 So the problem is solved and it was an error in 'NetworkManager' Please, somebody mark as solved.
Source RPM: drakx-net => NetworkManager
Fixed by using wicd in place of NetworkManager
Status: NEW => RESOLVEDResolution: (none) => FIXED
(In reply to Desmond Armstrong from comment #15) > I have to admit that I am disappointed not to have had response. > Please understand that we are just a bunch of volunteers, doing this in our free time. There aren't too many of us, and our free time is limited. (In reply to Desmond Armstrong from comment #16) > Fixed by using wicd in place of NetworkManager Thanks for the feedback, Desmond :-D Our networking problems are being addressed in this Mageia 4 feature https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Feature:NetworkDrakToolsImprovements Desmond, do you remember whether you also had this problem /before/ installing wicd and with networkmanager *uninstalled* (so with just drakx-net tools), or did you never try? Unfortunately your workaround (installing wicd) doesn't count as a bug fix for us, so reopening this report. It might be a duplicate of another networking bug, though. We don't have a wicd package, but the upstream "motor" announced that he won't have time to work on wicd anymore https://answers.launchpad.net/wicd/+question/227789 so it might die. Assigning back to bugsquad, because it is unsure whether drakx-net is involved, too, and there is no NetworkManager maintainer
Status: RESOLVED => REOPENEDCC: (none) => marja11, pabloResolution: FIXED => (none)Assignee: mageia => bugsquad
I am very well aware that we a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers. And I include myself. I refer to https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706565 and here I take the point that there should only be ONE networkmanager and, while ifplugd is already installed why do we need networkmanager? I have now done much testing on a number of computers and always removing networkmanager solves our problem. Unfortunately I did not check originally if simply uninstalling networkmanager would solve the problem, as I was not then aware that ifplugd was already running. Now I know the solution I can move on with some confidence and re-affirm that Mageia 3 is a very capable and good distro. I don't know the involvement of drakx-net and to be honest I don't have the skills to properly understand the process but, what I do know is that by simply uninstalling networkmanager this insane problem is solved. For my part therefore I am not concerned about wicd but more concerned by the fact that by default ifplugd and networkmanager are BOTH installed and do clash, at least on all the installation that I have worked on. I am relieved that the solution turned out, from my point of view, surprisingly easy. So, somebody needs to take a look at this issue which I am incapable of doing, and seriously question the interaction which has caused me so much grief. And the point I take from bugzilla.gnome.org is that we should only have ONE networkmanager and I am quite happy just using ifplugd.
Thanks for the feedback, Desmond. There is bug 6675 about networkmanager and the drakx-net tools conflicting. I'll close this one as a duplicate, because no new information came up that makes it likely that this is a different bug, and because no new information is expected. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 6675 ***
Status: REOPENED => RESOLVEDResolution: (none) => DUPLICATE