Ubuntu Gutsy Wireless Help

Also, in case it matters. With the Edimax card, I set my router up for

Security mode: WPA-Personal

WPA Mode: WPA2 (AES(CCMP) cipher)

I am sorry - but this is just not a practical guide for getting wireless working on Gutsy. Asking any user to rip out the networking configuration “guts” of “gutsy” is just plain silly. I know their are legions of hard-core linux power users who will fight this applet til their deaths, but the simple fact of the matter is it keeps getting better and better with every release. I have 3 laptops here configured with various flavors of *buntu at various time and gutsy with network-manager has configured all their wireless adapters like a champ. A prism card, a airo card, and an Intel card with WEP or WPA - all fine.

HOWTOs like this are counterproductive. I wonder how much further along some linux distros would be if people didn’t try to “gut” them everytime a problem came up and, instead, applied that same energy to improve their areas of concern.

Sorry for all the “gut” references. Seemed appropriate.

- Jeff

I have a Broadcom chipset in my laptop (ASUS A6Rp). I could use it in Feisty with a script install of the firmware. The link for this is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=197102.

With Gutsy I used the Restricted Drivers Manager to install the Broadcom firmware and it works perfectly with Network Manager. I am currently connected to a WPA protected network as I write this. It is “eth1″ on my system.

Hope this feedback helps someone,
Hamish

Jeff: Surely I missed something? Removing NM is a good thing, as it is unreliable and not something that is well developed. As for refering to it as ‘guts’, that is a bit like saying a seat cover in a car affects how it runs. Using the recommended card - this works.

Hamish: Glad that Broadcom is working for you.

Jeff: Either way man, great feedback nonetheless. :)

Matt,

I am just curious. Have you tries to use the default network manager in the system tray?

I couldn’t get older versions of K(U)buntu to work with WPA on a supported RT2500-based PCI card, but Gutsy worked. All I have to is to right click, in my case of using Kubuntu, on KNetworkManager, choose my wireless access, then enter the WPA passphrase and I am connected.

Wicd would be an option if the default doesn’t work.

In my experience, a great effort has been done in Gutsy, to make wireless support much better than it was in Feisty. In fact the last update to network manager (NM) was made 2 days before final release. I would therefor suggest, that you encourage the users to try out NM before just discard these efforts.

I know there still can be some wired network cards, which still doesn’t work with NM - and they may work with wicd. But if the netcard is recognized and a correct driver is loaded by Gutsy, then there i a good chance, that NM will work correct with the card - be it WPA, WEP or none secured. I fact wicd doesn’t carry any drivers, so this won’t help on a driver malfunction either.

Wicd is a great application, but will probably never become as well integrated in K/Ubuntu as NM is.

IMQ: Absolutely did - and it worked for two days in the RC before release. Then came an update - back to square one. It sees it, but will not connect to it.
NM is attractive and very well integrated. But it appears to be this integration that is causing so much flakiness.
Cris: The new wifi stack is AWESOME, no question and I have written entire articles to this end praising Gutsy on this. NM worked with a previously working chipset for two days - period.
Wicd not which caring drivers I use is why it works - it only does what the kernel allows. Definitely not as friendly or pretty. And as stated in the video, it is a second choice when NM fails. Also stated, if NM works for you - awesome. :)
And I agree 100% that NM provide solid roaming and integration, but a workable solution had darn well better be more readily available as NM has a horid history (Ubuntu forums anyone, even in Gutsy) of failure, despite some honest hard work going into it. I want NM to be more reliable, but it’s just not.
Both: Thanks for the great feedback, folks.

You said prism does not work…. However it is actually quite easy to set up. (as long as you mean prism2 too. I use a NETGEAR MA111 usb adapter. However there is support for almost all prism chipsets) Once you install your OS and reboot just install linux-wlan-ng (it comes with the distro but is not installed by default) then add
“wireless_mode managed
wireless_essid your_essid”
to /etc/network/interfaces under the wlan0 entry.
This works on feisty and on gutsy (though it seemed to be weaker on gutsy.)
Next just install wireless assistant or kwifi so you can detect and connect to any wireless network.
It kind of sounds like a lot, but its really not.

Kory: Nah, this is quite reasonable - great tip! ;)

Wow, exellent stuff!

I’ve been trying to get the wifi on a Dell Inspiron 1720 to work with Gutsy for the last two days. After I found this article, I had it actually up an running in no time.

One small error though, the ‘w’ in ‘/opt/Wicd/tray.py’ shouldn’t be capitalized :)

/opt/wicd/tray.py , not /opt/Wicd/tray.py . Captilization matters!

I found that the Free Software Foundation has a list of right out of the box wireless models that will work.

http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/net/wireless/cards.html

I try finding from my vendors these cards and post them for sale for users.

Swen and Jad: Thanks, ya, I had copied it elsewhere and it was capped. Did not catch it myself, thanks for catching this. ;)

Four laptop computers, six wireless cards and NONE work on wireless in Gutsy whereas they all worked in Fiesty out of the box installed. Sorry guys, this tutorial is not ‘counterproductive’ as someone suggested, it is necessary for a lot of people. Realistically though, the release is incredibly flawed for wireless and hopefully we will see a intermediate release fixing the wireless fiasco.

I have a Foxconn WLL-3350 with the rt2500 chipset. The only way I got this working on Feisty was with NDISWrapper and disabling network-manager. Last night I did a clean install of Gutsy, though, and I actually get a connection with the card through network-manager, but it is SLOW. Before upgrading, I could consistently download around 280KBps, but now it won’t go above 30-40. Anybody else having this issue? I have looked into this some, and I read in launchpad that this is some sort of bug, and using SerialMonkey’s legacy drivers should do the trick, but I am having trouble getting the drivers compiled and everything.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tom

Tom: Standing close to the router as to make sure it is not a signal issue, take this for a test drive on a hunch:
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/linux/2007/10/24/ubuntu-gutsy-internet-help

I suspect it could be part of the problem. If that’s not it, hit me back here, I have one other thing via the router that can help, too.

I’d also suggest looking to into Wicd, as it has been proven to be much more consistent with wireless, especially the new beta with RT based cards. :)

Matt,

My router is a Buffalo WHG-125 (something like that, but it is maybe three months old) running dd-wrt, with the OpenDNS servers set. I will take a look at that IPv6 issue and Wicd when I get home, though. I know that it isn’t a signal issue, however, since right before the upgrade I was running fine, then as soon as I upgraded, the performance diminished, which leads me to believe it is a driver issue. I also have a laptop that was sitting right next to the desktop that was getting the usual speeds, as well.

I will let you know what I find out.

Thanks again,
Tom

Tom: No problem.

If NM is telling you that you are connected, then you might want to play with the idea of disabling OpenDNS for testing also as this has provided me with mixed results sometimes. OpenDNS started off strong, but in some areas can be problematic over time.

Something that actually improved my wireless through-put to some extent was to go into my router’s advanced wireless settings and locate RTS Threshold :

It’s set to 2346 by default generally, I tweaked mine down to 2046 - no less, no more. :) Again, that for an issue of wireless interference though.

Its not counterproductive to post a workaround to a well established known flaw with wifi in Ubuntu. NM is nice — if it works — if not, then your pretty much up the river with no paddles. Wicd does work for some (not for me), but I think it should at least be available as an alternative in Ubuntu should NM fail. Its not like uninstalling NM would cause any real damage to your system; the fix is just a reinstall away if Wicd doesnt work out. Anyway, nice tutorial.

Dave: Thanks! ;) There are more here and coming. I am testing two USB RaLink wifi devices now. Looks like RT2500USB is the common driver, will keep everyone posted. If successful, this will be an out for those with notebooks using the new cardbus replacement ExpressCard, as nothing I know of works well with any ExpressCards - hence why USB may be the only out for these folks. Stay tuned and subscribe to our RSS feed in Firefox. :)

Had a chance to play around some yesterday, but no luck. I tried using Wicd 1.3.1 and 1.3.4, and I am getting around the same speeds as I do with network-manager. For some reason NDISwrapper says that the original driver is invalid, even though it worked in Feisty, I will have to check if there is a new driver online or anything for it.

I tried those tests for IPv6 problems, but those weren’t the case either, so I am pretty stumped. I will play with it more later, though.

Tom

Tom: Did you blacklist rt2500 before using the NDISwrapper and Windows driver? I have heard that NDISwrapper support is pretty poor in general and this seems to attest to that, at least in Gutsy.
Considering how I had rt2500 working in previous releases without NDISWrapper.
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/linux/2007/06/12/ralink-help-for-ubuntu-feisty
So perhaps it’s time to send NDISwrapper on its way as I know for a fact that rt2500 (assuming this is PCMCIA, not USB) works on both Feisty and Gutsy.
If you are willing to give it a try, use this.
http://tinyurl.com/2jndks
After making sure you both removed the old driver (even if it seems not to be there) and NDISWrapper itself. Let’s try this again.
In a terminal paste this and hit enter:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
Make sure nothing relating to rt2500 is showing up there. With Wicd installed, as NM will fail with anything RaLink, even with its updates, reboot and then do a iwconfig to see what the card assignment is - wlan1, wlan2, ra0, ra1, whatever. Use this in Wicd, testing with wep and wpa off.
Still no love? In a terminal, paste this one at a time.
sudo ifconfig wlan1 down
sudo ifconfig wlan1 up
Again, wlan1 is representing what iwcofig told you. If this works, I will make you a script to get it running for you without doing this with pasting every time. :)
There is simply no reason why a rt25500 should need NDISWrapper, tested four cards with it, never needed it.

Now I am really stumped. NDISwrapper is gone. I installed Wicd 1.3.4 and removed network-manager. Wicd had no problems connecting to my network. My service is 3Mb/768Kb DSL. In the past, I would generally get download speeds of around 2.7 and upload of around 660…so not too bad, considering the signal is traveling through an old apartment with 50 layers of paint. I changed my router settings to increase my transmit power from 28mW to 50mW and lowered the RTS threshold by 300, just like your other post. When I rebooted and attempted a speed test, the speeds look good for about 5 seconds - I was getting near the 2.7. Then, they just plummet. The strangest part is that only my download speeds are affected, not the upload (which is still uploading at roughly 650Kbps.

This is really screwy, and I am considering jumping back to Feisty, but if only Gutsy weren’t so pretty and smooth….

Any thoughts on why only the download speed would be affected and not the upload?

Tom

Tom: Based on what you are telling me, I would still like to see a test standing directly in front of the router. It’s time to test the router vs the distro, it’s basic old school troubleshooting. Used to run a repair business and I am not convinced that the distro is at fault just yet. It’s certainly possible, but I am seeing things consistent with a failing router or possible EM interference that was not there before when running Feisty.

Two things to try:

1) stand in front of the router, see if speed improves.
2) hookup a LAN connection and run a speed test from this site.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

If you see a signal spike, leave the notebook in the room, come back later and see if there is a speed decrease. Never assume anything, always make darn sure. If the speed is still dropping, then run the LAN speed test. If that sucks as well, could be your DSL (modem) or your router, not the distro.

Now if both pass the test, then your card is just not playing nicely.
But I bet my bottom dollar this time it is hardware or interference. You may wish to bring that RTS back up for the tests, too.

Tom: Something that happened to me with the rt based cards that might be relating to your problem on Ubuntu, especially with the new drivers - heat.

My rt61 card starts to get hot and things slow to a screeching halt. Slowly, but it happens. I added a cooling pad:
http://www.xoxide.com/vantec-lapcool3-lpc-401.html

Made a world of difference in the performance of my notebook all around.

Hi. I came across this post after months of trying to get wifi working with an ra61 driver on a pic card with my desktop.

I uninstalled the gnome stuff and installed wicd only to discover that although the router was detected fine and my ssid and password were correct it would just not connect after trying to get a dns address.
After a couple of days fiddling including turning off all encryption I managed to get this working my removing wicd and putting back gnome network tools. Still not working but I noted that I have mac filtering setup for my wifi enable phone and the address for my wifi card was listed as discovered but not added to my “allow” list.
I tried this and discovered network tools now had no problem discovering my card and allowing me to confure it but still unable to connect.
OK,try again with wicd and it worked !
I unplugged my network cable again as now the icon showd a connection thru wifi and still working,but trying to disconnect and re-connect failed unless I rebooted.
Move my router back downstairs and tried to connect and it wouldn’t.same as before. BUT iwconfig wlan0 down and then up again game me a connection at about half of what I had when connected via cable. No icon showing though and so put it back in the bedroom and back onto to wired connection and speed back up.
Now if I reboot it seemd I can get a connection if I use a terminal command and then all internet stuff if working but icon does not show network connected. Still says Not connected if I hover mouse over it. Howver I tried ifdown again and then wicd on its own.
It has connected but still not showing in tray icon as it had the first time I got it working.
Any ideas what I’ve screwed up. I can live with fiddling around t get it working when I reboot but I am trying to get wife and kids using this more and so would like it to set up automagically. I have the service set up with /opt/wicd/tray.py so don’t see why it shouldn’t work

Ray: Totally understand the frustration, hoping to help people through it. Let’s start off here first.

1) What card are you using? Contrary to the hype about Ubuntu and Broadcom support via NDISWrapper, it’s success rate is a joke. So if you are using an integrated card (likely Broadcom, hopefully Intel), this would be your first issue.

2) Goto Applications, Accessories, Terminal. Assuming you are not using USB wireless, type this exactly:

lspci

Using your mouse, copy and paste all the results here in the comments so I can see what card you are using.

3) Wireless cards from big box stores are no go if we want better Linux support. As this video explains, using integrated wireless (unless it’s Intel) and Best Buy type wifi cards is a long, painful process that will waste immense amounts of time.

If using PCMCIA slots, invest that $20-30 bucks into a card that works - it’s simply a matter of saving time.

For now though, post the results of the command I requested above and I will further advice you from there. Unlike you will find elsewhere, I value your time over ‘troubleshooting’ something to death. And often this means reffering you to a working product vs screwing around in an effort to save a few dollars. ;)

For the cards that actually work, see links in the post.

Great alternative to NM! I was so pissed about the fact that Gutsy used wext for my atheros and getting no connection at my session start… Wicd works fine for me, Static IP+WPA2. Thanks for the info :-)

NiTTaKu: I hear you about the love with a static IP, it does make life with things like VNC much easier. :) Thanks for the feedback.

uninstalling NM was the best thing I have done for this load. I am able to switch from wireless to Wired in seconds versus 5 to 20 minutes depending on how NM wanted to play. Wicd thank you!

Perhaps the way to get wireless working in Ubuntu is to remove the Broadcom card and install an Intel wireless card ($24). Am I the first to suggest this fix?
I think Wicd is kind of slick, but it didn’t really get my wireless working well, the issue is deeper. I used bcm43xx-fwcutter, not Ndiswrapper.
The speed went up and down constantly, 347kbs to 0kbs and in between.

Kim: If you can remove the card (assuming its internal), replace it with a verified to work Intel card, this would be a good idea. But again, I’d want to be darn sure that the Intel card worked. Most do, but there were some bugs with some out of the gate with the release of Gutsty, so double check that chipset before buying. :)

This suggestion didn’t cut it for me. I don’t think Network Manager is the problem. I did finally get my older prism2 card working again. Here’s what I had to do:

http://devinvenable.blogspot.com/2007/11/wireless-problems-upgrading-ubuntu-to.html

How would I check the Intel card? I just went and bought it.
My two cents: The whole point of a laptop is wireless connectivity. Who cares about Compiz when Ubuntu doesn’t work with wireless well? The priority is completely backwards.

Devin: As much as you would not want to hear this, linux-wlan-ng is available on the CD, also, without going this far with it.

sudo apt-get install linux-wlan-ng

that will prompt for the Gutsy CD, you insert it, hit enter and you are done - tested on two very old Prism cards after one of the comments above pointed it out. ;)

Kim: Yes, going out and purchase products generally built for Windows will give you the results that generally happen to most Ubuntu users - frustration and confusion.

This is not the fault of the end user, it is the distro’s refusing to be very clear about what works and where to find it. I would also agree 110% about the priority regarding Compiz vs wireless being backwards, no question there.

I would not worry too much, Intel has been a big Linux player with wireless and chances are solid it should work fine. What card is it exactly? I suspect it will work fine, Intel is a Linux supporter. :)

For everyone else out there, remember - I linked to a couple of known to work as-is cards above - look for them. And for those dealing with no PCMCIA slots, I just tested two more Edimax USB dongles for wifi - both work great, will be posting the details later today with links.

Remember, if you goto a big box store (BestBuy, etc) after reading this, I have no pitty for you because you have been warned. Many hardware manufacturers have worked hard to provide linux support to the developers, morons like Linksys, DLink and other wonders of the Windows world not only do not give anyone the needed info, they make it even harder by using revision numbers on the same model of card(s). Supporting this is just supporting the problem.

Hi Matt

Just found this post. Very interesting reading and some comfort to see how many others are struggling trying to get wireless up and running in Gutsy. I am interested in your comment regarding the Gigafast WF728-AEX PCMIA card not working in Gutsy. I have tried NM, Wlassistant, and Wicd. They all detect my wlan without any problem, but none of them connect. Ocasionally I can get a connection when I turn WEP “Off” and go unencrypted, but even that is not consistent. I’ve put it down to problems handling WEP. I’m using a 128bit hex key. Do other types of WEP key/passphrase give better results?

Tronster: Insert your Gutsy CD, in the terminal, paste:

sudo apt-get install linux-wlan-ng

Then paste:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

It’s an older card, so will only work with WEP I believe. May or may not work with NM, but I use Wicd anyway as it is independent and with the right information provided, works every time.

Tronster: Wait, looks like you already had it working. I never bothered using it long term with WEP as it is as about as safe with MAC filtering really. WEP will keep ‘granny’ out, but the same kid that can spoof a MAC address can easily crack WEP. Just try filtering the MAC, that’d be my approach.

That or spring a whopping $27.99 for a MIMO card with working WPA.
http://www.microbarn.com/details.aspx?rid=101515

Just remember that if you router is using Super G, turn that setting off and you will be fine with that Edimax card, should wish to use it.

My old Prism cards are currently used only for Prism testing as they are rather dated.

All: If when using Wicd you notice that it does not give you green bars for signal strength, do not worry, it’s not to be taken seriously.
It appears to be a cosmetic bug. Also, unless Wicd clearly says you are not connected, you are in fact connected just fine, so not worry if the icon next to the clock says otherwise. :)

Matt

I’ve been playing around again. Using KNetwork Manager I’ve discovered that if I disable WEP I can connect to my router with no problem. That’s consistent with my experience in trying to connect to open wlan elsewhere. However, if I then enable WEP I can immediately reconnect, but if I then remove my card and try to connect again, no dice.

So I installed Wicd as per your advice above. With WEP disabled I can connect without problem. With WEP enabled, no dice. Since both KNM and Wicd are WEP compatible, I just cannot get my head around the problem I am having connecting to my wlan. MAC filtering is disabled.

Do you think installing linux-wlan-ng as you have suggested would help?

Tronster: If memory serves, that card is using a Prism chipset? So linux-wlan-ng would help. But if it is already connecting without WEP, then you really do not need it.

Again though, I cannot state loudly enough that WEP is as ‘effective’ as basic MAC filtering. Because at least with MAC filtering, be it no substitution for WPA by any stretch, the user is left not knowing why they cannot connect versus being given a challenge of spending ten minutes to crack your WEP key.

My advice, if on a budget and buying a better card is not an option, us MAC filtering. Otherwise, it’s really time to upgrade that card. :)

^^Meant use MAC filtering over WEP

Hi Matt

I’m going to order a MIMO card today. Now that the Canuck dollar is worth US$1.07 it should be a great deal!

Thanks for your insights.

Tronster: Used to live in Bellingham, WA (close to Van in BC), I have heard all the great buzz - our lucky neighbors to the north. :)

Just remember, you have to be VERY careful to order the recommended card as some random MIMO card is not going to cut it.

It needs to be an Edimax EW-7608PG. ;)

Tronster: Also remember this bit:

All: If when using Wicd you notice that it does not give you green bars for signal strength, do not worry, it’s not to be taken seriously.
It appears to be a cosmetic bug. Also, unless Wicd clearly says you are not connected, you are in fact connected just fine, so not worry if the icon next to the clock says otherwise. :)

Basically, the icon sitting in the tray will make it appear as if you are not connected, this is not the case and rebooting, you will be connecting automatically. :)

If you have any hassles with US to Canada shipping, let me know, I think there are some re-mailing services here in the States that might be able to help.

I was having a problem with WPA a D-Link atheros-based wireless card under Ubuntu 7.10. It appeared to connect during boot, then disconnected prior to login. I had to manually run “sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart” to bring it back up after login.

Installing wicd solved my problem.

For the record, this thing just SAVED MY BUTT!

I had Gutsy up, everything was great, suddenly Network Manager “blew up in my face”. Damned if I know what happened but all of a sudden I lost ALL network connectivity, wired or otherwise. WTF? I soon realized NM wasn’t even there anymore. OK…booted with a Fiesty LiveCD, got to this site, got ahold of the WICD .deb files and stuck ‘em on an external disk, rebooted in my poor crippled Gutsy, loaded WICD and presto, I’m online again.

NETWORK MANAGER ISN’T STABLE. It’s a mess waiting to puke on you. At a *minimum*, grab the wicd .debs and keep ‘em around in case this happens to YOU.

Jim March

Jim: Good stuff, glad it worked for you. :)

Let’s see your wireless isn’t working so…

1) Rip out all the networking tools

2) Download new tools without a connection

3) Kick yourself for being so stupid.

Ronin: No, no. Living in denial of what actually works has done a MUCH better job. Because downloading a Deb package from a friend’s PC takes entirely more time and skills than screaming at network-manager for failing with yet another release. ;)

As for a simple apt-get remove being a “rip out of networking tools”, it is a lot better than the people wasting HOURS and sometimes days with a networking tool that still needs some time in the oven.

It’s very simple, network-manager either gets it right or continues its fine tradition of sucking its own backside.

I did the minor “surgery” on the Dell D600 laptop. Switching the Broadcom wireless with an Intel Pro Wireless 2200 BG card was not difficult. I had two tools: a small philips head, and a chopstick that has a small point for poking or prying if necessary.
The Intel card gives me great wireless.
I did have to turn the card on. On my laptop, this is two keys held down at the same time, the “Fn” and F2. I held them down hard for a couple of seconds.
BUT. I think that the Wicd and the network don’t work perfectly together.
I can open wicd, it sees a signal, etc. and cannot connect.
So, I must go to System>Administration>Network and then select wireless and choose the signal that is whichever coffee shop I am testing it in.
This is obviously a little clunky.
But, the wireless is super and this was the best $24 I ever spent.
The Intel card’s firmware and drivers are already in Ubuntu 7.1
Go Intel!

Great suggestions Matt!
I used network manager (both in Ubuntu and Kubuntu gutsy) and had problems when changing locations with my laptop. I changed to wicd and now everything works great. I have a HPdv6000z with ndiswrapper and a broadcom chipset.

I still have one problem however. When conecting to a wired conection, I have trouble to set two IPs, one for the internet and one for the local network where I have printing access.
Any ideas on how to set two IPs (i.e. et0 and et0:1) in wicd?
Many thanks.

A_Berger: Off the top of my head, not totally sure which is simplest solution, will see about doing some research on this.

Jeff: I have an airo card in an IBM R32 laptop, and Network Manager was clueless for me. The airo module is supposedly rock solid and supports almost all the wireless extensions, but under Network Manager, I could only connect to a neighbor’s unsecured network, not either of our family’s two wireless routers running WEP.

I installed Wicd as suggested here, and things worked flawlessly the first time. Removing the guts of gutsy isn’t silly if it makes your hardware work. Granted it would be nice to get things to work out of the box, but if someone else says something they tried worked for them, and if you have enough knowledge to try it, and it works, then what’s silly about that? ‘apt-get remove’-ing two packages and installing a 3rd party deb isn’t a very big move.

Summary: Thanks Matt! This worked for the FIRST TIME. You rock.

One question (if you’ve read this far) How can I find out what the actual key my card is using is? I can ‘iwlist eth1 keys’ and see what key number (1-4) is being used, but I want to see the key itself.

Ben: I should know this, but don’t as I don’t use WEP, just WPA. Sorry and thanks! ;)

Ben: Make sure you use sudo otherwise you can’t see the keys!

sudo iwconfig eth1

or

sudo iwlist eth1 keys

After executing the command

sudo apt-get remove network-manager-gnome network-manager

my network stopped functioning, so I couldn’t go to the Wicd download page.

This may be a silly question, but is the network even supposed to work without the network manager?

Jalve: Generally, you will want to have Wicd downloaded to a CD or a USB Flash drive - even better, download the package first, then uninstall network-manager.

No idea about a wireless network working without NM installed, however going into network setting and setting your LAN connection to DHCP ought to be fine.

Just remember, do not try connecting to a wifi network with your Ethernet cable plugged in, it will only lead to frustration.

Gutsy worked reasonably well until, after a few fixes that seem to have fixed the problem with menu bars freezing up, I reached a point where gnome-monitor wouldn’t run (everything else seemed to be working fine). I ctl-alt-backspaced to see if that cleared up the monitor problem and it did; unfortunately it “disabled” the wireless. A reboot gave no improvement, so I found another computer, googled and found this page, eliminated network stuff as suggested, got wicd (I used 1.31), put it on my computer, and all is well. Thanks.

Matt, I’m having trouble with my wireless connection using Gutsy as well. I can get on my network but every time that I power cycle my laptop, I have to go into the connection manager, change a setting then change back and retype the encryption password. Any idea what could cause this?

Thanks, Charles

Charles: Tons of variables, but I need more specific infro. What wireless device? Are you using Wicd, Network-MAnager or the manual network settings from the Administration menu?

Also, what do you mean “power cycling”? I think I know, but need a clear definition.

IMQ

[quote]I am just curious. Have you tries to use the default network manager in the system tray?{/quote]

Just wanted to thank IMQ for this - saved me hours scouring the forums!
;>)

Hey Matt,

thanks for the nice info..

Been trying to use NM since itcame out. Have tried and tried again with every new major release. No luck (and i’m on ipw2200!) with nm for my needs.

I still cannot:

- have wpa + fixed ip at one spot and dynamic wpa2/wep/public when roaming at other places
- NOT use dhclient (which s*cks imho) but dhcpcd
- have connection dependant scripts starting/stopping with connects

All of this can be done with wicd. Thanks!

ps: i’ll still try nm every now and then but atm it’s still unreliable, at least for me and most people i talk to.. and for now wifi-radar is gone as well :)

Hi Matt,

I cannot find anywhere in the UK that has an Edimax EW-7608PG card in stock. Can you suggest any other PCMCIA card (Edimax or any other brand) based on the RT61 chipset that will work with Gutsy and give me WPA encryption? I’m currently running a Belkin PCMCIA based on the RT2500 chipset with wicd on Gutsy, but I can only get WEP to work.

Many thanks.

Matt -

Any chance you can spend some phone time with me getting Gutsy to work with the Netgear 802.11n router I just bought? If I turn off security altogether, it works fine. But even WEP doesn’t seem to want to work. This is with my Toshiba A9 with the Interl 4965agn chipset.

Raymond: http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/#pid88169

Remember, do not try to compile anything, install any drivers from CD or do anything with NDISWrapper. Doing so, I can not vouch for any success. As always, try it with Network-Manager first, using Wicd as a secondary choice. Wicd will not clearly show you as connected despite actually being connected, so test with Firefox after attempting Wicd connection.

Art: I have been testing one of the Edimax Pre-N cards and routers and it is just not ready yet. Your best shot for that card, while quite advanced and not likely to work easily, is in this post.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=489997

Not much I could do over the phone short of this. Sorry. :(

Hi Matt,

The RT2561-based Edimax card that you suggested arrived yesterday but I have not been able to make it work for under Gutsy. Typing lspci shows that the card is being detected correctly. I had previously got rid of network manager and replaced it with wicd, but wicd was not showing that either of my wireless routers was being detected. Both ARE detected when using my Belkin RT2500 card.

I removed wicd and re-installed network manager. Under NM the RT2561 card is at least partly functional in that when I type iwconfig it shows the correct MAC for the router to which I am trying to connect.

I’m rather at a loss about how to proceed from here.

Many thanks.

The RT2561-based Edimax card that you suggested that I buy arrived yesterday.

However, I have not been able to make it work under Gutsy. Typing lspci
shows that the card is being detected correctly. I had previously got rid of network manager and replaced it with wicd, but wicd was not showing that either of my wireless routers was being detected. Both routers ARE detected when using my Belkin RT2500 card with wicd.

I removed wicd and re-installed network manager. Under NM the RT2561 card is at least partly functional in that when I type iwconfig it shows the correct MACs for both routers to which I am trying to connect. The problem is that I do seem to be able to establish a working connection to either. One router is WEP protected and I do get prompted to enter the passphrase when connecting using roaming.

I’m rather at a loss about how to proceed from here. Do you have any
suggestions? It’s supposed to work “out of the box” and I do have Gutsy
fully patched.

Many thanks.

Raymond: A few thoughts:

1) Stop using WEP - half of the people having issues with this tutorial are using this technology, despite it being completely dated. Not wanting to sound harsh, but I never tested it with WEP as it is less effective than MAC filtering, which is also not very effective - the card supports WPA, having a router that does not is NOT secure at all. For the record, if you are attempting to use WEP, expect failure as I have never bother to test it as there is no reason to. It’s like testing Floppy disks. ;)

2) Make sure you have not tried compiling wireless drivers for this previous - fast track to a train wreck. If you have, you are on your own. I’d start over with a clean install.

3) **No Ethernet should plugged in at all - whatsoever**. It is fine to use Ethernet to run all of your updates initially. But please turn of the notebook, unplug it and then *restart it* with the card inserted and the Ethernet unplugged.

4) Go to your /etc/modprobe.d and verify that rt61PCI is not blacklisted.

5) Make sure your /etc/network/interfaces looks like this:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Remember, your Ethernet needs to be unplugged and you should backup the file before making changes. Edit by running:
gksudo nautilus /etc/network/

Make a copy of the file then double click the original to edit.

6) How old is your router? If it is WEP or nothing, use MAC address filtering as this just as “effective” as WEP in truth. Both are as easy to hack as the other, so you might as well use the one that is not causing problems.

7) Using Super G, don’t,. Use standard 802.11g instead. Also, check to make sure you are using channel auto scan. Because if not, you may need to try changing the router channel. Half of the problems people have with wireless in general is at the router level, despite seeing success on the same box in Windows.

8) How cool is your notebook? Even if you are able to get connected, this card runs very hot. Regardless of which os you run, always run with a cooling pad. I use the one from Targus:
http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=AWE11US

This type of change alone will make a huge difference in notebook performance and does indeed, make a huge impact on this card’s connectivity.

9) It turns out that NM will actually work, with Wicd being a good fall back to save in a .deb package on your notebook. After I implemented a cooling pad, I found that NM actually works very well with this card.

10) Double check that the driver is loaded.
In a terminal, type:
modprobe rt61pci
it should come back as a new line like nothing happened if successful. If you tried to compile something, see step number two.

Raymond: Also, just for kicks, try blacklisting rt2561 as well, even though this will not make sense, try it anyway. ;)

Subscribe to this video series:
http://www.youtube.com/ctsdownloads

Here soon, I will walk though this with an over the shoulder cam and show everyone where most mistakes are made and how to avoid them. The two big ones, WEP and Ethernet.

Oh, and just to make sure that things are coming up right, run:
lshw -C network

in the terminal, you should see something like the following:

WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network:0 DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 9
bus info:  pci at 0000:00:09.0
logical name: eth1
version: 03
serial: 00:90:4b:7b:57:11
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bcm43xx driverversion=2.6.22-14-generic latency=32 module=bcm43xx multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b/g
*-network:1
description: Ethernet interface
product: VT6102 [Rhine-II]
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: 12
bus info:  pci at 0000:00:12.0
logical name: eth0
version: 74
serial: 00:40:45:19:04:34
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=via-rhine driverversion=1.4.3 latency=32 maxlatency=8 mingnt=3 module=via_rhine multicast=yes
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: RT2600 802.11 MIMO
vendor: RaLink
physical id: 0
bus info:  pci at 0000:02:00.0
logical name: wmaster0
version: 00
serial: 00:0e:2e:89:4d:a7
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt61pci ip=192.168.0.108 latency=64 module=rt61pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

So what does all of that mean? The first entry is for my integrated ethernet. The second is as follows:

Product: RT2600 802.11 MIMO
Capabilities: bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt61pci ip=192.168.0.108 latency=64 module=rt61pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

I got a netgear wpn802 v2 an could not get a wireless connection that worked. I tried for hours. Luckily I cam across this site and i was up and running in about two clicks.

Many thanks, I commend you all for this code.

Thank you
David
Gutsy (network-manager KDE does not appear to work well though I was successful in Fiesty with a Linksys that lightning broke)

I finally got the Edimax RT2561-based wireless to work with Ubuntu Gutsy: well sort of.

I have two wireless routers in my house. One is a Thomsom SpeedTouch 580 and the other is an ASUS WL-500gP. I’ve always used the ST580 as my primary access point using WEP as I could never get my RT2500-based Belkin card to do WPA. I left the ST580 on WEP and set up WPA on the ASUS and used that router to experiment with the new Edimax card. I was able to connect occasionally to the ASUS router but with not with any reliability.

Today I thought that I would try connecting with the Edimax card to the ST580 router with the router reconfigured for WPA. Worked first time.

The only problem is this. The 10-character key that I chose for WPA gets converted to a 64-character key, presumably by the WPA protocol. It’s the 64-character key that gets remembered by Network Manager rather than the 10-character key. If I shut down and restart the computer, I have to manually enter the 10-character key to establish a connection to the router.

What’s going on?

It’s nice to know that I’m now secure with WPA but it’s a pain to have to enter the key each time. Any ideas?

BTW, the card does not seem to run hot at all.

Raymond: That is great that it is not running hot for you, may just be some notebooks. As for the weirdness with WPA, I am honestly not sure.

Try this: goto System, Administration, keyring manager. You should see the key there. Look at it with show password enabled, should show gibberish. With passphrase for wireless highlighted, goto keyring, delete key. Goto NM, rightclick on it, uncheck enable wireless. Then enable it and then right click and renable it.

In most cases, it will ask you to enter your WPA password again, this time your keyring should keep it. If not, it will just connect.

Either way, the password showing up in the keyright will show up as gibberish.

I’ve just had a look at keyring manager and it is storing the WPA key correctly.

What if I was to edit the WPA key in /etc/network/interfaces to return it to the correct WPA key? At present it shows as a 60-character string of gibberish.

Thanks.

Thank you for this tip!

I have a Dell 1420 N with Gutsy installed and it always gives me issues such as disconnecting (signal is good) or always asking me for my WPA password. I’m still a Linux newbie so this little tutorial came in handy. One thing that was not the same for me though was the card name. I don’t have a wlan. Just the first three. Wicd still picked up my network name and I set the encryption password in advanced settings. So far so good - it’s still working and I haven’t had the same issues as before.

Does anybody know why I don’t have a Wlan?

Thanks a bunch. I had similar problem with 7.10 running on dell latitude D600. It all worked after using wicd.

I recently added Ubuntu 7.10 as another boot option on my old Dell C610 - also running Solaris 10 and XP. I had to re-install the Solaris version of grub as the Ubuntu version doen’t recognise the Solaris ufs implementation (see Solaris BigAdmin) but everything else was fine.

I was disappointed by the Network Manager though. It found and plumbed in my wireless nic (Atheros CM9) and it could even see all the adjacent routers but it wouldn’t connect. After wasting some time fiddling with things like iwconfig I eventually found this site - excellent !

I simply added “deb apt.wid.net gutsy extras” to my Applications/Preferences, ran the install from the GUI and it did the rest -it removed the old Network Manager, installed and then started itself. From the Applications/Internet menu I now had a wicd option. Opened this and there were all the routers again, this time though I simply clicked Connect on my router, added the WPA-PSK key and also ticked the Automatically Connect box - straight in ! It also survives reboots.

[...] Nothing seemed to work! after around 3 hours I almost gave up, until I stumbled into a lockergnome post by Matt Harley. Now this was not your regular Howto, it was more of a rant (a video one also!), [...]

Thanks Matt, this really solved a problem for me. I almost lost a new Linux convert because of not being able to setup a WEP static IP wireless connection. I even blogged about it :)

Matt,

Followed your tutorial for the Edimax usg card. Download wicd 1.3.4. No wicd icon in tray so ran wicd from menu. iwlist scan shows routers as does wicd. Changed wicd wireless from eth1 (Broadcom 1390 in Dell Inspiron laptop) to wlan0. Get IP address message. But no connection: checked by using Firefox. Interesting thing is that wicd shows strength as one bar filled even though Network Manager showed it as 75%. Any ideas?

Regards,
John

John: A few thoughts.

1) Ethernet must be unplugged
2) iwconfig to verify that you are indeed, using wlan0 and not wlan1
3) You are running the router as the following: WPA2, not in super G mode and not with WEP.
4) Can you ping yahoo.com from a terminal window?
5) Is your iwconfig looking something like:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 IEEE 802.11g Frequency:2.412 GHz
RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

6) You are running Gutsy and did not, attempt to compile any drivers yourself.

Matt,

Thanks for the ideas.
Ethernet unplugged.
Using wlan0.
Micronet router using wpa2 withj AES. I don’t think it’s capable of super G, but I’ll check when I get home from work. I’ll also check iwconfig & ping yahoo.com
Running gutsy. Did compile rt73 driver. However, later did sudo modprobe -r rt73 and also put it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Though when I do modprobe -l it shows but when I do modprobe -l rt* no rt module shows. Is there a better way of showing what kernel modules are loaded?

Matt,

Now it’s working! iwconfig shows:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:”BT Micronet”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:11:3B:06:0A:F2
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Signal level=-76 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Ethernet was unplugged when I tried yesterday.

I previously compiled rt73 but I blacklisted it, bcm43xx (so as to use ndiswrapper for the Broadcom 1390, but it’s not good enough at home so I have the Edimax with an external antenna booster), rt2500usb and ipv6. Only things I can imagine are that the shutdown & boot did the trick or that I finally got rid of rt2500usb from the kernel. cat /proc/modules shows rt73usb & rt2×00usb (but not rt2570 or rt2500usb). I’m still baffled by the workings of modprobe. For instance, modprobe -l rt* shows nothing but mdoprobe -l shows all rt*.ko modules? To get rid of the rt73.ko module, is it simply enough to delete it from /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/extra/rt73.ko (BTW that seems an odd directory for the compile to put it in) and remove the blacklist entry in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist?

John

John: Awesome, I realize how frustrating this can be. So hearing that you had success is fantastic. :)

Yeah, the comical thing is that most people that compile drivers actually are not needing to in Gutsy. Watch this and read the article, you will find out something shocking regarding rt73USB. Check this out:

#! /bin/sh -f
echo ‘blacklist rt2500usb’ | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
sleep 2
gksudo modprobe rt73usb
sleep 3
iwconfig
sleep 7
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
sleep 3

This solves your discovery from your cat /proc/modules . That little script solved so many issues with existing drivers, assuming nothing was compiled for the two devices listed in this article:
http://www.lockergnome.com/linux/2007/11/04/ubuntu-gutsy-with-expresscard-working-options/

Cool, huh? Anyway, I am really happy to hear the good news, it makes all of this worthwhile for me. :)

John: Missed one. Not sure about deleting the extra module. If it was me, personally, if I had things working now…I would not touch a thing…

John: I am also thinking it may be needed for some folks to blacklist rt2×00usb along with the 2500 in my script…I will have to check into that later. Thanks for that reminder. ;)

Matt,

I suggest also blacklisting rt2570 & rt2×00lib: when people in Ubuntu forums blacklisted modules (prior to compiling legacy drivers), these were amongst them. I’ve blacklisted them & my Edimax still works fine.

I’ve also followed your recommendation on using Gmail as default mail client in Firefox.

Only problem I have is that Evolution does not now enable the Send/Receive button (as it used to). I’ve pinged pop3.btconnect.com & smtp.btconnect.com and they’re fine. Any ideas?

I’ve also backed up /etc/fstab & xorg.conf as recommended in your ‘Top 5 ways to prevent a damaged ubuntu installation’. There it mentioned proprietary drivers. I’m using the fglrx ATI accelerated graphics driver installed under Envy, not for Compiz but so as to see the display on a 1280×1024 lcd panel (connected by vga to the laptop) as well as the laptop’s screen (1280×800). I used aticonfig with –dtop clone and –mode2=1280×1024, which it put in the device section of xorg.conf (I haven’t included due to size). However, it didn’t setup another Monitor/Screen section. The display comes out as 1280×800 on both screens. Any ideas? I thought of using the Screens & Graphics in Admin but I don’t think that mirror is the same as clone.

Regards,
John

Matt,

In previous post what I said about rt2×00usb & rt2×00lib was incorrect. When I rebooted, wireless didn’t work. So I removed them from the blacklist and rebooted. This is confirmed by sudo modprobe -r gives ‘module in use’ error on each of them.

Sorry for misleading you & possibly others.

Regards,
John

John: Based on that, I guess if it was me, I would start over with a clean installation at this point.

Matt,

I would like to know how to solve the issues below before doing a clean installation. I’ve already done 3 clean installations (1 Feisty & 2 Gutsy).

1. Why Evolution started to not enable the Send/Receive button. Only reason I can think of is that when I changed Launch Panel item for Evolution to have alltray at start of command it didn’t work so I changed evolution command back to be without alltray.

1. How to see the display on a 1280×1024 lcd panel in that resolution (connected by vga cable to the laptop) as well as the laptop’s screen (1280×800).

Regards,
John

John:

1) Depends on which version of Ubuntu - Feisty works great with alltray, I use it myself.

Gutsy however, has a nasty Evolution bug, which has fallen onto GNOME’s development team to fix. Only seems to be an issue on Gutsy during the initial start up of the mail client. Otherwise, it appears to run fine, although not using Gutsy with alltray, just Feisty.

2) I detest ATI cards in Linux for this reason. What takes NVIDIA 3 minutes with the NVIDIA UI leaves ATI users frustrated.

My best guess:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver#head-7e2283943de094f4c373154f2e8178bfa9374050

“…list your favorite resolution first, and the other resolutions available after.”

Because you are connected by vga to the laptop, I doubt you are going to find an easy fix here, at least not until Hardy Heron, anyway, where they include a huge Xserver upgrade.

Matt,

Thanks for the info. I played around with xorg.conf to try & get external monitor (vga connected) displaying at correct resolution. However, it was a failure, so will wait till Hardy.

Now, I’ve done clean install. I’ll not use evolution icon in alltray until Hardy, because of danger that it might stop Evolution displaying Send/Receive button.

Sometimes, I get no response on web site loading using Edimax USB wireless. It’s not due to the Edimax & driver as same issue occurs on wire connection to a desktop. Possibilities are the router (same one for both connections) or BT. Interestingly enough, when I use TalkTalk broadband connection (same house but different phone number i.e. different ADSL connection) when issue occurs using laptop, same issue occurs. Often, it’s fixable by switching off & on the router, but that could be coincidental. Given that BT & TalkTalk likely use the same street box and connections from there to the local exchange, this could be due to the line or the router ot the DNS servers (I use the OpenDNS ones 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220). Is there a piece of software which can analyse this situation?

Another interesting thing I’ve found is that often printing fails on my new networked printer, linked by cat5 cable to router with static ip address. This is usually on pdf files & web pages. This happens on both feisty & gutsy. Solution I’ve found is to setup printer as Unix lpr/lpd printer rather than CUPS. On Feisty, you have to amend /etc/printcap after setting up printer as CUPS; whereas on Gutsy, it’s done automatically though the printer is not found automatically and you have to type its URL in yourself.

Regards,
John

Hi,

when the network hangs with the Ralink wireless like that, try reconnecting via Network mananger. This does happen and can be helped by reconnecting. Two worst instances is where there are multiple networks available or if there is no cooling pad being used. If reconnecting to NM is not working, even for a short time, you may need to look into a cooling pad, due to the Ralink device itself.

Matt,

I have a cooling pad under the laptop:rather useful as it gives 4 extra connections.

I think that either I was ambiguous or that you might have misunderstood me slightly. The wireless device is fine, since desktop (using Network Manager) linked by wired connection to router has same problem. Implies that it’s the router, BT line connection to exchange or the Open DNS servers. I wondered if there was any software available for determining where the fault lies.

PS I use a different router for connecting to TalkTalk. Though TalkTalk uses a different dsl/phone line to BT, it must have some parts of the route to the exchange in common with the BT line (as the TalkTalk line used to be a BT phone line). If you don’t live in Great Britain, then it’s silly me for assuming that you do and would therefore know about BT & TalkTalk!

Regards,
John

Matt, I am new to Ubuntu. Was trying to get wireless to work.
I ordered the Edi max Card that you recommended, by clicking on the link.I received the card but it doesn’t fit my
laptop, Dell Inspiron E1505. What happened?

Matt,

Well, apparently the e1505 was not built with a slot for a wireless
card. I recently dumbed Vista for Ubuntu Linux, and man how I love
everything about Linux. I’m even doing some programming using python and vim. If only I could get the wireless to work!!!!!
Please help.

Regards,

John

John: Yeah, I should have made the last few sentences a little easier to find regarding ExpressCard slots and newer notebooks.

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/linux/2007/11/04/ubuntu-gutsy-with-expresscard-working-options/

Either USB dongle linked in the article above will work, but be sure to read the update on that page first. :)

As for the other card, I would try Craigslist and sell it as an Ubuntu ready card for older notebooks. You should find a buyer easier enough.

Thanks for putting out this howto. For whatever reason I’ve found that the standard ubuntu tools for gutsy haven’t been working consistently. Wicd seems to be working much more reliably.

This worked for my D-Link DWL-G122 Rev: B1

Used Wicd Stable 1.4.2

Thanks for the tutorial.

My real complaint with network manager is twofold: 1. It either doesn’t play nice with ifconfig or that interaction is poorly documented.
2. I use qemu/vde to run various OS so that I can click through things with customers who cannot or will not provide me with remote control option. To get networking for these VMs working requires VDE, NM does not seem to play well with VDE, either. This is the problem with a tool that “just works,” when it fails to do so, getting it to work is a real pain in the…..

Anyway, wicd also just works, but if it doesn’t? voila, I can edit files, use iwconfig and other tools to troubleshoot very easily without having to add and remove things from /etc/network/interfaces every time I need to troubleshoot something. Additionally, when I click on the wicd tray icon, it opens up the config dialog. NM does not allow me to play with the settings of the connection as easily.

Truthfully, I like all the plugins available for NM, and I like the concept of “just works,” but they still have a long way to go _and_ they need to rethink interaction with ifconfig and VDE. Computers should just work, but they need a well documented manual overide.