Network manager problem

[Peter Garrett]

On Thu, 4 Oct 2007 02:28:03 +0000 (UTC)
"Kenneth P. Turvey" <kt-usenet at squeakydolphin.com> wrote:

> I was quite thrilled with how well the gnome network manager applet worked
> with my wireless card after getting my new Dell with Feisty Fawn
> installed.  But then it quit.  It used to list the nearby wireless
> networks and allow me to connect to them.  It would even automatically
> connect if I had connected to them before.  Now it doesn't do any of that.
> There is no indication that it is doing anything.  When I click on it
> there is a grayed out menu item with "wired network" in it and an enabled
> menu item that says "manual configuration".  There isn't anything else. 
> 
> Does anyone know what would cause this or how to fix it?  I really liked
> the way it worked before.  

I suggest that you check whether you have any manual configurations set up.
n-m on Feisty doesn't like manual configs :)

If you open /etc/network/interfaces with an editor ( say gedit as below),
you can remove any lines that do not refer to the loopback interface.
The only stanza really required is

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

(Other dhcp entries should do no harm normally, but as I said, the above
is all you actually need)

So follow this sequence in your terminal:
( Applications-Accessories-Terminal)

# Back up the existing file just in case ( you can reverse the command to replace it)

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces  /etc/network/interfaces.bak

# Open the file to edit it

gksudo gedit "/etc/network/interfaces"

# Remove all but the loopback interface so that the file only contains

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Save the file as /etc/network/interfaces, of course

# Either reboot (easier but slower, and not the best way), or run

sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart

# If the nm-applet fails to reappear, run

nm-applet & disown %1

Most, or all, of this can probably be done using the graphical tools, but I
don't know how, since I have the habit of trying the terminal first on
every occasion  :-)

 -- 
Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au>