Problem with Network Manager

[Peter Garrett]

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 14:07:22 +0200
"Ben Edwards (lists)" <lists at videonetwork.org> wrote:

> Been trying to get network manager working.  I have the applet but when
> I click on it it only shows wired network, and this is only if I start
> eth0 manually.  Currently I have eth0 and ra0 in my interfaces file
> (neither with auto).  I have also started er0 and it does not show up.

Network Manager doesn't play nice with /etc/network/interfaces :)
You need to comment out all interfaces in that file except for the "lo"
stanza which normally looks like

#loopback
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback


> 
> Also looking a http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/ half way
> down the page there is a  screenshot showing a applet with a drop down
> panel showing a list of wireless networks and there signal strength.
> The applet I have had do drop down;(

Probably because your interfaces file is confusing Network Manager,
although I might be wrong...
> 
> I then installed Wireless Assistant and this shows 4 wireless networks
> in range.

Well, you can either use the "traditional" /etc/network/interfaces
approach, or the Network Manager approach - but not both at once. Most of
the other tools, as far as I know, use the older method.

Things I discovered the hard way:

1) Make sure that your card supports/ will work with wpasupplicant if you
are using the latest Network Manager and nm-applet packages

2) You can sometimes persuade N-M to behave by running 

sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart

then starting nm-applet

(Provided that you've removed or commented out the entries
in /etc/network/interfaces as above)

3) Check that the "wireless enabled" is ticked when you right click on
nm-applet

4) If N-M has one of its periodic attacks of amnesia, sometimes clicking
the drop down ( left click on applet) and selecting the alternative
interface  will convince it to remember that wireless is present ( or
wired, if that is connected)

If it simply can't remember ( it happens periodically that it has these
little tantrums ), you can try "Connect to other wireless network" and
re-enter your essid and pass etc. - this sometimes helps to wake it up,
I've found, after which it asks for the keyring password again, and decides
with some reluctance that a nearby access point exists after all ...

5) There's a fair bit of useful stuff on 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/NetworkManager

6) Try to keep a sense of humour. Network Manager seems to be very much a
work in progress ;-)

When it works, it's very nice. It's a bit temperamental at times, it
seems...

Peter