gmane.org.user-groups.linux.portland

Final Update on Sony Vaio Networking

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-23T23:56:12

   When the system boots wicd calls dhcpcd and it looks for a lease. Not
finding any because the ethernet cable's plugged in, the system continues
booting.

   For a reason yet to be discovered ... Real Soon Now ... while eth0 is UP
and RUNNING with a broadcast route for the LAN, there's no default route
with a gateway IP address. I put that in rc.inet1.conf in the eth[0] section
but without effect. So, ... as a kludge at the end of rc.local I put 'route
add default gw 192.168.55.4' and now eth0 works, too! Hoo-ha! This is a poor
substitute for a real fix, but it lets me turn the laptop over to its
intended user and quit futzing with it.

   Many thanks again to Wes, Mike, and everyone else offering expertise in
networking and the reading of chicken entrails. I really appreciate all of
you.

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update [FIXED]

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-23T21:58:47


   All fixed.

   My business partner (a professional software engineer) came over and
eventually discovered that a) not all pre-requisites for nm-applet were
installed despite my getting all that were offered to me and 2) wicd works
when the configuration for wlan0 is entered in rc.inet1.conf.

   Because no other portable of mine has wanted wlan0 configuration in the
file -- only the static IP info for eth0 -- it never occurred to me to put
in anything for wlan0. He, being naive about my experiences with wireless
connectivity on my laptops, decided that that would be good information to
provide to the system. He was correct.

   Thanks to everyone who helped both directly and via this mail list!

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T22:50:38


Bill,

   I've tried, but the 'enable wireless' is greyed out and won't respond
until the interface is UP and RUNNING.

Thanks,

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Bill Barry — 2012-05-22T22:41:59

So, maybe the wireless does not come on by default. Did you go to Network
Manager and turn on wireless?
I don't know about Xubuntu livecds, but maybe this will help

http://kunaljain.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/enabling-wireless-in-ubuntu-live-cd/


Bill


Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T22:38:54


Mike,

   Tomorrow ... or in a couple of days. I've an auto accident to deal with
now as well as my own work.

   With NM there is no eth0 in the routing table when there's no cable
connected so that should not be an issue.


   That was done within Slackware; it's in nm-applet and does not appear in
the routing table when there's no cable connected.



   Yep. Read Eric's stuff.

More when I have it,

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T22:34:47


Bill,

   I agree that it's not the hardware; the USB radio gets returned tomorrow.

   This is quite frustrating: two distributions, two network managers, the
Intel radio chip driver is loaded in the kernel, but wlan0 will just not
automatically come UP and it does not start RUNNING and establish routes in
the kernel routing table.

Thanks,

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T22:32:15


Bill,

   Yes. The same Xubuntu-11.10 that was originally installed. And, I just
tried it again. The radio light did not come on and 'sudo ifconfig -a'
showed wlan0 down.

Rich

Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Mike C. — 2012-05-22T21:57:39

Re: PLUG Digest, Vol 92, Issue 28

Mike C. — 2012-05-22T21:56:03

When we tested at the coffee shop in Gresham, wlan0 was getting an ip addr.
So the hardware is fine. But there is some sort of software or interplay of
software problem as I suggested. Can you connect to an "open" WAP and get
out to the internet? The reason you couldn't get to the internet from the
coffee shop is because you couldn't connect to the wifi captive portal page
to accept the T&C page because there  was a routing conflict between eth0
and wlan0.

We need to isolate and test basic wifi functionality. Until you do this, we
won't know what truly works and what doesn't.

Step 1. Remove the static ip config for eth0
Step 2: Test wifi connectivity and WLAN access to an WAP w/o a t&c captive
portal toi the internet via command line. This removes any software issues
with network management apps. If fact, you can do wireless config setup and
wired setup in rc.inet1.conf.

http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=slackware:network

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Bill Barry — 2012-05-22T21:35:25

Never the less, the hardware is working. It didn't just guess which access
points were in the neighborhood.
New hardware might work because it bypasses some hidden configuration
snafu, but it's no guarantee.

Bill

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Bill Barry — 2012-05-22T21:27:43

Have you tried booting this thing up with a livecd and connecting to an
access point?

Bill

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T21:27:39


   I just remembered, too, that when I bought the Sony a few months ago I
installed Xubuntu-11.10 on it. When the wireless networking didn't work I
replaced that distribution with Slackware.

   So, two distributions, two wireless network managers, ... no wlan0
working.

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Bill Barry — 2012-05-22T21:14:14

How could this be  a hardware problem? You did a scan and saw access
points. The hardware is working.

Bill

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T20:16:27


Mike,

   In NM via the nm-applet. That works.


   Your gut may be correct. I suspect the hardware because I've used WICD on
a different Sony Vaio and two different Toshiba models. Also with different
Slackware versions.

   I'll go to ENU and buy a USB radio and see what that does; they might even
let me try it out there first.

Rich

Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Mike C. — 2012-05-22T20:11:19


=> WICD is akin to NM. It provides a GUI interface for the management of
network interfaces. Be they wired or wireless.



=> I don't think it's safe to make that assumption at this point honestly
because I think you're too far past a default/vanilla install. Too many
variables to isolate the issue to NM, in my mind.

=> Rich, where is the static ip configuration on the Sony? Is it in a
networking file such as rc.inet? The reason I ask is because there's a WICD
wired network settings config file in which the static ip config can be
set. http://www.linuxcertif.com/man/5/wicd-wired-settings.conf/. This way
WICD has full control and awareness of all the network settings and can
manage them accordingly.

My gut tells me the problem is the interaction between the slackware
network config/init scripts and the network management application. Be it
WICD or NM.

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T19:44:31


Russell,

   They're all encrypted. I'll take the Sony to a local coffee shop later
this afternoon and see what it does.

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Russell Johnson — 2012-05-22T19:13:48

On May 22, 2012, at 12:06 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:


Ok. Now the next step is to connect to one of those nearby WAPs, and see if negotiation happens. 

Russell Johnson
russ< at >dimstar.net

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T19:06:58


Mike,

   It's still a vanilla installation; wicd is an optional package that comes
in the /extra filesystem.


   That does not seem to be the case with NM. There's no ethernet cable
attached and both eth0 and wlan0 are UP, but neither is RUNNING. 'iwlist
scan' shows the closeby WAPs.


   Well, 'route -n' (and plain 'route') show only 127.0.0.1 (localhost) in
the kernel routing table.

   Ergo, there is no default route for wlan0 and no gateway specified.
HOWEVER, ... when I plug in the Ethernet cable, route shows a default to
router1.appl-ecosys.com and a broadcast to 192.168.55.0; the default flag is
'UG'. I can ping another LAN host and the 'Net. Radio light's still on.

   So, it seems to be an issue of no route being set for the wlan0 interface
with either WICD or NM. What does this suggest as the cause? Again, it seems
to me to be something about the Sony Vaio since the Dell is running the same
distribution and version (with WICD) and works flawlessly.

Sigh,

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T18:56:50


wes,

   OK, here're the results: 'ifconfig wlan0' shows it's neither UP nor
RUNNING.

   'ifconfig wlan0 up' brings it UP: the radio light on the front edge turns
on. Still not RUNNING.

   'iwconfig wlan0' shows how the interface is configured.

   'iwlist scan' produces a list of neighborhood WAPs. 'ifconfig wlan0' shows
it's still not RUNNING, but it's UP.

   This was the same situation with wicd running instead of NM. WICD has
nothing to do with eth0, only wireless interfaces. It works on my Dell
running Slackware-13.37/x86_64, on the Toshiba running Xubuntu-11.10 (which
won't work on eth0, strangely enough), and on previous portables I've had.

   So, since wlan0 can be brought UP manually, can we assume it's a NM issue
and not a hardware issue?

Thanks,

Rich

Re: Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Rich Shepard — 2012-05-22T18:50:26


   Just did. Makes no difference in the wlan0 interface.

Thanks,

Rich

Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

Mike C. — 2012-05-22T18:25:56

Rich, at this point I would highly recommend you go back to the default
vanilla Slackware install with WICD. The remove the static ip conifg on
eth0 and see if WICD manages the interface and routes packets correctly to
the WAP. I suspect it will. I can't recall if we did this test.

Based on my experience with this issue, my definition of the problem is
this:

When there is a static ip config for eth0 and no cable is plugged into
eth0, the default gateway entry for eth0 is not removed and causes problems
routing packets over the WLAN.

 However, this should work. On the Dell, there are two default routes in
the routing table. 1 for eth0 and 1 for wlan0. I believe on the Dell there
were different metrics when the "route -n" command was run. Which I would
expect there to be if on default gwy interface has an active connection and
the other doesn't.