Bought my friend a Sony Vaio VPCEG to replace the failing Toshiba
Satellite. She was working on the Toshiba (connected to the 'Net via the
wireless AP here) while I installed xubuntu-11.10 without networking on the
Sony. Now I want to configure networking and get it working upon boot/login,
but I'm not having any success.

   As you well know, I don't know the Debian-based distributions such as the
ubuntus. I try 'iwconfig wlan0' but that does not bring it up; ifconfig -a
shows no network RUNNING. I've left /etc/networks/interfaces as the
installation default because that's the way it appears in the working
laptop. Same with /etc/host* and /etc/networking. I've also looked at the
ubuntu wiki pages found with Google searches, but haven't seen what I need.
I'm really at a loss on what to do. If it was Slackware I'd be able to fix
everything, but the laptop does not see any wireless networks while the old
one sees ours as well as a half-dozen in the neighborhood.

   I'd appreciate guidance and directions to get this working this week; as a
last resort, I'll bring it to Sunday's clinic for help from all the experts
there.

Rich

Rich>    Bought my friend a Sony Vaio VPCEG to replace the failing
Rich> Toshiba Satellite. She was working on the Toshiba (connected to
Rich> the 'Net via the wireless AP here) while I installed
Rich> xubuntu-11.10 without networking on the Sony. Now I want to
Rich> configure networking and get it working upon boot/login, but I'm
Rich> not having any success.

What radio does it have?  lspci should say?

--
Russell Senior, President
russell*******

If this is a 'buntu disto, you're probably best off using
NetworkManager.  That is, so far as I know, the default for them, same
as it is for Fedora.  I don't know about straight Debian, though.

There should be an icon in the info tray for NetworkManager if it's
running.  If it is, you can set up the networking from there -- right
click on the icon and select "Edit Connections..."  Select your
interface and click "Edit..."  Set it up as you want, and click the
"Available to all users" checkbox.  That may be your whole problem,
right there.  NM always seems to default to that being unchecked.
(*grrr* *snarl* *snap!snap!*)

Anyway, I hope this helps.

--Dale

--
You now have.  Five.  Minutes.  To reach.  Minimum.  Safe.  Distance.

Russell,

   Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000.

Rich

blocked. You just need to install rfkill either through the package manager
or command line with "apt-get install rfkill" then run the "rfkill list"
command.

http://www.computerandyou.net/2011/05/how-to-solve-no-wirele[..]

http://mikebeach.org/2011/07/09/ubuntu-and-the-intel-centrin[..]

If when you run the "frkill list" and no "wireless lan" interface is listed
than you've got an incompatible / non-functional driver problem.

HTH!

Cheers,

Mike

Mike,

   I'll work on this this evening. I can use the ethernet connection, I
hope!, to get the rfkill; since wireless connection isn't working I cannot
use either the package manager or the command line to access it from outside
here.

   Since the Intel Web site says that this radio chip has been in the kernel
since 2.6.24 I would suspect it's a ubuntu glitch. Obviously, the older
Toshiba has a different radio since there was no problem with xubuntu-11.10
on it.

   I have a ton of client work to get out today, and Frontier Comm. changed
my IP address twice last evening (7 and 8 pm) and the cron script changes
only one domain at namecheap.com. This is the 8th IP address since last
Wednesday evening at 9:07pm when they took away my static IP address. Makes
no sense to change it this frequently, but it's out of my control even
though it really ticks me off. So, I won't get back to getting the Sony
working wirelessly until after work.

Thanks,

Rich

I highly doubt it is related to a bug in Ubuntu since I have the same
hardware in my laptop
and have zero issues. If you would like to join us on Freenode #ubuntu-us-or
we have a number of people from Canonical's various teams and
experienced users
who could troubleshoot this for you.

--
Benjamin Kerensa                          "I am what I am because
Team Lead, Ubuntu Oregon                  of who we all are." - Ubuntu
bkerensa*******

Well, I built and installed weechat, but the extensive documents haven't
helped me figure out how to connect to freenode#ubuntu-us-or. I try examples
from the help screen only to see that I'm not permitted to type in that
buffer. Guess one needs experience with irc to use it. Will keep trying.

Rich