Enabling eth1 in Debian Lenny w/ Gnome

[Radissthor]

Hello everybody,

Soooo... I (and those who kindly helped) went through hell building the driver for mi wireless, but apparently that's over now. The reason I know that is that when I go to System-->Administration-->Network, I can see the interfaces that are detected: Wired Connection, which I enabled by setting the automatic dhcp option, and Wireless Connection, which is not activated.
When I double click in Wireless Connection, a window opens with an unchecked box saying "Enable this connection" so I check the box and the previously greyed options become subject for editing. I have two setting I can configure:
Wireless Setting, which have Network Name, password type and Network password
Connection Settings, which has Configuration, IP Adress, Subnet mask and Gateaway Adress.

Since I'm hopping to get wireless working to a point which i can automatically connect to wireless whose passwords I know or that are open (like un public spaces) I think the best option to choose in Connection Settings-->Configuration is Automatic Configuration (DHCP). When I choose that, all other options under Connections Settings become grayed.

In Wireless Settings-->Password type, the default choice was WPA Personal. Network Name and network password are blank.

The problem is that, as it is, the "OK" button of the Network window is grayed out, so the only option is to Cancel, in which case the Wireless Network remains dissabled. I noticed that if I write something (anything) in the field of Network Name (ESSID) the OK button can be selected, but I don't know what should I write in that space. How do I know which name is appropiate? Does it matter? Can I choose whatever name I want?

EDIT: This is hte output for iwconfig. It shows that no ESSID is assigned.

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eth1      IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:24 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Managementmode:All packets received
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

[refracta]

you access point has a identifier....an ssid....it is the name you see when you scan for networks...

[emariz]

Can you see the desired connection with the Network Manager applet in the Notification Area (by default, next to the clock applet in the top panel)?
Post the output of the command cat /etc/network/interfaces

[Radissthor]

you access point has a identifier....an ssid....it is the name you see when you scan for networks...

So would I have to change that everytime I want to connect to a wireless network? Besides, most networks have "unrememberable" names =/

Can you see the desired connection with the Network Manager applet in the Notification Area (by default, next to the clock applet in the top panel)?
Post the output of the command cat /etc/network/interfaces

I know Network Manager because I used it while I had Ubuntu. What stroke me as odd is that I haven't seen Network Manager Since I installed this Debian System. I'm Using Gnome and today I was able to connect to a wired connection at work so I took the chance to update the system a bit. Now I'm thinking that maybe NM is not even installed. I just assumed that it would appear when the wireless started working. But since it shows that the wireless is recognized, I just have to activate it I guess.

The interfaces file has
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

[stevepusser]

A good graphical scanning and connection applet is Wicd, in Lenny-backports and upstream. It remembers passwords and autoconnects when it detects networks that you tell it to do so. It no longer needs network-manager to be uninstalled, but you have to disable network-manager's wireless management if you keep it. Another great easy to use ncurses terminal based manager is Ceni from Sidux...not in any official Debian repo, but it's here in the Mepis community repo: http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testr ... st/c/ceni/
and is Lenny compatible.

Note that this is the test repository, we will move it out of there to main within a week or so.

...or it's in Sidux. Someplace.

[refracta]

So would I have to change that everytime I want to connect to a wireless network? Besides, most networks have "unrememberable" names =/

only if you set it to something else....set it to any or dont set it

Usually I do not use any connection manager I use the interfaces file to activate my wireless interface at boot and to use dhcp. If I am 'visiting' another place with free wireless that is wide open then it usually just works. If I move from one open network to another then I open a terminal and use the command dhclient eth1 to get it to reconfigure the interface.

[Radissthor]

Ok this is weird... I installed the network manager

Code: Select all

apt-get install network-manager-gnome

then rebooted and then when the system started again I had the NM icon next to the battery icon. I clicked and saw that the wireless signals that are around are recognized and I tried to connect to the wireless of my work. It connected!! and it gave the message "you are now connected to XX wireless network". The signal was 100%. But when I open the web browser pages don't load. I went to System-->Administration-->Network Settings and there the Wireless Connection says "Roaming mode enabled", but it does not have the check symbol that the wired connection has. When I go to properties, all options are grated out and only "Enable roaming mode" is selected. This is the same place where before it said "enable this connection", but now only the roaming thing is there...If I unselect the "Enable roaming mode", then all other options loose the grayed out become subject of editing again.

Anyway.... still no Internet, though it seems so close...

Please, any help?.....

EDIT: I checked the network/interfaces again. The file changed, but still no sign of it adding a configuration for eth1

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0

And the output of iwconfig is:

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lo no wireless connection

eth0 no wireless connection

eth1 IEEE 802.22bg ESSID "UC" Nickname ""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.426 GHz Access point: 00.1B.D4.69:F1:61
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power: 24 dBm
Retry min limit: 7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr: off
Encryption Key: off
Power Managementmode:All packages received
Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=-49 dBm Noise level=-91 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:11 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Since in ESSID it says UC, it means that someway or another the wireless is connected, but for some reason the connection has not yet been completed. Any guesses on why?

[emariz]

I went to System-->Administration-->Network Settings and there the Wireless Connection says "Roaming mode enabled", but it does not have the check symbol that the wired connection has. When I go to properties, all options are grated out and only "Enable roaming mode" is selected. This is the same place where before it said "enable this connection", but now only the roaming thing is there...If I unselect the "Enable roaming mode", then all other options loose the grayed out become subject of editing again.

The application in System > Administration > Network Administration (network-admin, part of gnome-system-tools) is different from Network Manager. Try setting the network within Network Manager by right-clicking on the applet icon and select 'Edit connections'.
Note that the version in Backports.org has many improvements over the one in Lenny.

EDIT: I checked the network/interfaces again. The file changed, but still no sign of it adding a configuration for eth1

Code: Select all

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0

Unrelated to wireless but you'll need to comment the eth0 lines if you want Network Manager to handle the wired connection.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40781

[Radissthor]

The application in System > Administration > Network Administration (network-admin, part of gnome-system-tools) is different from Network Manager. Try setting the network within Network Manager by right-clicking on the applet icon and select 'Edit connections'.

NM has a Edit Wireless Networks option. When clicking it, it opens a window which has networks at the left and Properties of the Network at the right. (Name, bssids, Last Used and Security. In the Networks space, the wireless network to which, according to NM, I'm currently connected, is there. When choosing it, the Properties are:
Name: UC
bssids: 00:1B:D4:69:F1:61, 00:3A:98:0A:01:B1
Last used: 04/27/2010
Security: None

Note that the version in Backports.org has many improvements over the one in Lenny.

Do you recommend removing the NM I downloaded and installing the one from backports? What command should I use to remove the one I have and which to get the one from backports?

Unrelated to wireless but you'll need to comment the eth0 lines if you want Network Manager to handle the wired connection.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40781

By commenting you mean leaving them like they are? As I understood, commenting is leaving them as they are, while uncommenting is adding the # symbol before the lines. Am I right?

Thanks for the tips

[fsmithred]

By commenting you mean leaving them like they are? As I understood, commenting is leaving them as they are, while uncommenting is adding the # symbol before the lines. Am I right?

Nope. You've got it backward. The # at the beginning of the line means that the line will be ignored by whatever program is using the information in the file. Those line usually tell you what the following section of the file is about and/or how to edit it.

[Radissthor]

By commenting you mean leaving them like they are? As I understood, commenting is leaving them as they are, while uncommenting is adding the # symbol before the lines. Am I right?

Nope. You've got it backward. The # at the beginning of the line means that the line will be ignored by whatever program is using the information in the file. Those line usually tell you what the following section of the file is about and/or how to edit it.

That I know. So if the lines in network/interfaces are all without the # sign, it means that they are activated and so the eth0 interfaces should be handled by NM, right?

[fsmithred]

No, it means that NM will fight with the interfaces file. I'm not sure which will win. Remove or comment those lines so NM can do its thing.

[Radissthor]

No, it means that NM will fight with the interfaces file. I'm not sure which will win. Remove or comment those lines so NM can do its thing.

Ok so let me get this straight. If my network/interfaces looks like this:

Code: Select all

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0

Should I make it look like this?

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

#iface eth0 inet dhcp
#auto eth0

[fsmithred]

No, it means that NM will fight with the interfaces file. I'm not sure which will win. Remove or comment those lines so NM can do its thing.

Ok so let me get this straight. If my network/interfaces looks like this:

Code: Select all

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0

Should I make it look like this?

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

#iface eth0 inet dhcp
#auto eth0

Correct. Commenting out the lines rather than removing them makes it easier if you decide to use them later, or if you want to leave a record of things you tried or alternate configurations.

[Radissthor]

Thanks. I did comment the lines (adding the # symbol in front of them). Then I tried to connect to the wired network again using NM and now even the wired connection stopped working! It says it is connected, but it shows an exclamation symbol in the NM icon. The strange things is that when I did that I checked the network/interfaces file and the lines I had commented appeared again, this time without the # sign, si I'm guessing NM must have put them there, right? because I only used NM to connect to the wired.

Anyway... This was about wireless. I it still sees all the networks and it says that it connects but in reality there is still NO connection. Please, what could I do to enable it?

EDIT:

I tried adding a eth1 line to the interface file, making it look like this:

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopack

auto eth1
iface lo inet loopback

#iface eth0 inet dhcp
#auto eth0

Then I restarted the laptop and when the system was loading I got this message:

Configuring network interfaces.../etc/network/interfaces:10 duplicate interface
ifup: couldn't read the interface file: "etc/network/interfaces" warning

Now, the wireless networks are shown by NM, but I cannot connect to them. So I erased the lines I added and rebooted.
The message did not appear again. When Gnome started, NM tried to connect to the wireless automatically and connection was established. But, again... NO INTERNET.
Please, can anyone think what could be the problem? I seem to be very close but for some reason Internet just won't work

[Radissthor]

Nothing? No replies? I cannot figure out what's the issue. I really need Internet really bad and just cannot get it to work. This is becoming increasingly frustrating

I removed NM because since I installed it, the roaming mode appeared intead of simply enabling networks and since the roaming thing appears on Network Administrator, not even the wired connection, which used to work, worked. So I removed NM with
apt-get remove network-manager-gnome
Then rebooted and NM icon is no longer there, but when I go to the Network Administrator, the roaming things is still there and I still cannot connect to neither eth0 nor eth1!!!! This is getting worse and worse... I wanted to try and install fwcutter because it was recommended here: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 82#p295082

But now I don't seem to stand a chance to get Internet connection. Please, can anyone who knows better provide some help... anything would be appreciated. A laptop without Internet is no use for me, so I'm willing to try everything.

[fsmithred]

It's been awhile since I've used network manager, so I'm a little lost on what's happening to you. I didn't think that NM did anything with /etc/network/interfaces, but I could be wrong. I know for sure that NM messes with /etc/resolv.conf, and that might prevent you from accessing the internet. See what's in that file. Also, take a look in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net-rules (or something like that) to see which interfaces are present and what they're called.

I've used wicd with good results setting up wireless. As someone before mentioned, it's available from debian backports.
http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php

Try pinging your router, and try pinging some sites by number or name, and see which ones work. If you can successfully ping numbers but not names, then you might need to edit /etc/resolv.conf.
e.g.
ping 192.1691.1.1 (assuming that's your router's IP number)
ping google.com
ping 8.8.8.8

[Radissthor]

It's been awhile since I've used network manager, so I'm a little lost on what's happening to you. I didn't think that NM did anything with /etc/network/interfaces, but I could be wrong. I know for sure that NM messes with /etc/resolv.conf, and that might prevent you from accessing the internet. See what's in that file. Also, take a look in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net-rules (or something like that) to see which interfaces are present and what they're called.

I've used wicd with good results setting up wireless. As someone before mentioned, it's available from debian backports.
http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php

Try pinging your router, and try pinging some sites by number or name, and see which ones work. If you can successfully ping numbers but not names, then you might need to edit /etc/resolv.conf.
e.g.
ping 192.1691.1.1 (assuming that's your router's IP number)
ping google.com
ping 8.8.8.8

Thanks for replying

resolv.conf looks like this:
nameserver 127.0.0.1

There's no file called /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net-rules so I'm at a loss there...

I don't know how to ping the router because I'm inside a University with multiple access points distributed throughout campus. I don't really know how to use the ping command, but I tried
ping http://www.google.com
and
ping google
but all I got was "unkwnown host"

I would be willing to try other applets besides NM, but first I have to at least get wired connection working... and not even that is on.

[fsmithred]

Get the wired connection working first, then figure out the wireless. Since you removed network manager, you could uncomment the lines for eth0 in interfaces, and it should connect when you boot up.

Edit resolv.conf so it says:
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Try these commands exactly (two by number, two by name, in case one is down when you try):

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ping google.com
ping yahoo.com
ping 4.2.2.2
ping 8.8.8.8

You can use ctrl-c to stop it.

Since you're on someone else's network, you might ask the administrator if there are special settings you need to connect to the internet.

And maybe someone who really knows networking will see what's wrong and have the answer for you. I'm just an amateur.

[stevepusser]

Well, you said you built your own driver for the wireless...and I have seen the behavior you report when there are multiple drivers for the device fighting over the device. (such as an Win driver in ndiswrapper and the native kernel rtl8187 for my alfa external usb wifi adapter) One may "win" and be able to scan, but not connect. What exactly is your device? Some kind of Broadcom chipset? A sure sign of trouble is to run "lsmod" in the terminal and find both wl and b43 listed in the output.