[SOLVED] Setting up wireless on a new install on a laptop

[FrankO]

I have an x86_64 laptop currently missing a hard disk (the old one got corrupted beyond repair). I thought I'd like to buy a new hard drive and install a flavor of Unix on it. One of my system admin friends suggested I check out CentOS and Ubuntu.

I burned a CD with CentOS 6.3, which seems to start up fine on the diskless laptop. I'm uncertain what I need to do to get wireless going. I know the hardware works, because when I tried Ubuntu on CD it showed me the networks in my immediate area and I got Firefox going pretty quickly. But I'm not sure what I need to do in CentOS. Do I first have to define the adapter before getting to the stage of finding networks? Is there a step-by-step doc somewhere on how to proceed? Thanks in advance --

[stonehand]

Here is a link to CentOS Wiki on making your wireless work:

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless

[FrankO]

Thanks. Here is an update on my situation.

I installed CentOS 6.3 on the laptop hard disk. If I plug in a hardwire Ethernet connection, I can see the Internet. I know the wireless adapter works because it connects under Ubuntu. If I click on the network icon at the top of the CentOS gui interface, it says Wireless is disabled.

After determining that the laptop has an Atheros AR5B93 wireless adapter, I consulted the Wiki entry at the URL above and executed the following as root:

To load ath5k driver:

modprobe ath5k

To enable NetworkManager:

chkconfig NetworkManager on
service NetworkManager start

At this point, I'm *not* seeing a new icon with available wireless networks on the gui screen, as the Wiki entry for NetworkManager indicated I would.

As suggested by the Wiki entry for NetworkManager, I also disabled the network and wpa_supplicant services at boot time with these commands:

chkconfig network off
chkconfig wpa_supplicant off

Overall, I'm not seeing anything different. The network icon at the top of the gui screen still showed wireless as being disabled.

At this point, I'm not certain what to try next.

[AlanBartlett]

Please post the output produced by executing --

[code]
[b]lspci -nn | grep -i net[/b]
[/code]

[FrankO]

[code]
[b]02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1073] (rev c0)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002a] (rev 01)[/b][/code]

[AlanBartlett]

Thank you for providing the information. With that [i]fingerprint[/i] ([b]168c:002a[/b]) to hand, let's check for the correct driver --

[code]
[ajb@Duo2 ~]$ grep -i 168c /lib/modules/*/modules.alias | grep -i 002a
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.23.1.el6.x86_64/modules.alias:alias pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* ath9k
/lib/modules/2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64/modules.alias:alias pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* ath9k
/lib/modules/3.5.2-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64/modules.alias:alias pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* ath9k
[/code]
Ah, I see. It requires the [b]ath9k[/b] driver and not the [b]ath5k[/b] that you have previously tried to use. ;-)

[FrankO]

Thanks for the suggestion. I see that, although the laptop has a label indicating that its adapter is an Atheros AR5B93, lspci under both CentOS and Ubuntu report it as an AR928X.

As superuser, I executed:

[code]modprobe -r ath5x
modprobe ath9x[/code]

I then tried:

[code]service network status
service wpa_supplicant status
service NetworkManager status[/code]

which indicates that all three are running (the first shows "Configured devices: lo" and "Currently active devices: eth0").

If I then execute:

[code]service network stop
service wpa_supplicant stop[/code]

after the first, it responds "Shutting down loopback interface: [OK]", and after the second, "Stopping wpa_supplicant: [OK]"

If I continue to keep trying to stop these services, it says they are stopping, but they still show up as running.

My wired Ethernet connection continues to work nicely throughout, but I'm still unable to use the wireless.

Any new ideas would be much appreciated!

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
FrankO wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion. I see that, although the laptop has a label indicating that its adapter is an Atheros AR5B93, lspci under both CentOS and Ubuntu report it as an AR928X.

As superuser, I executed:

[code]modprobe -r ath5x
modprobe ath9x[/code]

I then tried:

[code]service network status
service wpa_supplicant status
service NetworkManager status[/code]

which indicates that all three are running (the first shows "Configured devices: lo" and "Currently active devices: eth0").
[/quote]
As you are using a laptop computer, it is best to allow the [b]NetworkManager[/b] to have control and to turn off both the [b]network[/b] and [b]wpa_supplicant[/b] services. So, as [i]root[/i], please perform the following --

[code]
[b]service network stop
service wpa_supplicant stop
chkconfig --level 12345 network off
chkconfig --level 12345 wpa_supplicant off
chkconfig --level 2345 NetworkManager on
service NetworkManager restart[/b]
[/code]
Are you using a [i]Gnome[/i] desktop? If yes, are the following packages installed?

[code]
NetworkManager-0.8.1-33.el6.x86_64
NetworkManager-gnome-0.8.1-33.el6.x86_64
NetworkManager-glib-0.8.1-33.el6.x86_64
[/code]
If no, install which ever package is missing and perform another [b]service NetworkManager restart[/b] command line.

You should see the [i]NetworkManager[/i] icon in the right-hand top corner of the screen. Right-click on it and take the [b]Edit Connections...[/b]. Now configure the wireless device, etc.

[FrankO]

Thanks. I executed the commands that you specified, and since I'm using the Gnome desktop I verified that the packages you mentioned were already installed.

The NetworkManager icon does appear at the upper right of the Gnome desktop. If I left-click on this, I get a menu that states:

[code][b]Wired Network[/b]
Auto eth0
Disconnect

[b]Wireless Networks[/b]
Wireless is disabled

VPN Connections >[/code]

If I right-click on the NetworkManager icon, I see a menu with the following:

[code][ ] Enable Networking [i](this box is checked)[/i]
[ ] Enable Wireless
[ ] Enable Notifications
Connection Information
Edit Connections...
About[/code]

If I attempt to click the check box for "Enable Wireless," the menu window closes and the check box does not show up as being checked if I open the icon again.

I assume that evidently there is information I need to enter in the "Edit Connections" panel. What exactly do I need to fill in in order to enable wireless?

Thanks again,

[FrankO]

An update to that last message:

I tried doing the following. I right-clicked on the NetworkManager applet, chose "Edit Connections," selected the "Wireless" tab; no connections were listed. I clicked on "Add," then entered the following information:

Under "Wireless" tab: Under "SSID," entered the name of our local wireless network.

Under "Wireless Security" tab: Selected "WPA & WPA2 Personal" (our Netgear wireless network uses WPA2 with AES encryption). Under "Password," entered the wireless network's password.

I made no changes under the "IPv4 Settings" or "IPv6 Settings" tabs.

I then clicked "Apply." This connection now appeared in the Network Connections list under the Wireless tab as "Wireless connection 1."

However, if I left-click on the NetworkManager applet's icon, Wireless Networks still shows "Wireless is disabled."

If I right-click on the NetworkManager icon and attempt to check the box for "Enable Wireless," it closes the icon and the box will not stay checked.