[SOLVED] Wireless not detected in M11

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-14 19:26

Hi. I just got a new netbook and I'm totally pumped about putting antix on it. But I'm having the same problem with M11 that I've had on at least 4 other machines I've tried it on....

Ceni does not detect the wireless card. It lists eth0 only in the Hardware Interfaces. rutilt says that it can't find any wireless interfaces either. And wicd says that no wireless networks are found. In the past, I've always had the best results with ceni.

Here is the output of inxi -F

Code: Select all

System:    Host antiX1 Kernel 2.6.36-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M11-686 Jayaben Desai 01 May 2011
CPU:       Dual core Intel Atom N570 (-HT-MCP-) cache 512 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips 6650.76 
           Clock Speeds: (1) 1000.00 MHz (2) 1000.00 MHz (3) 1000.00 MHz (4) 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 X.Org 1.9.5 Res: 1024x600@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel IGD GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 1.4 Mesa 7.10 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio:     Card Intel N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver HDA Intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.23
Network:   Card-1 Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller driver r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port 3000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Card-2 Intel Centrino Wireless-N 100 bus-ID: 02:00.0
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 254.1GB (1.2% used) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD2500BPVT 250.1GB 
           2: USB /dev/sdb DataTraveler_G3 4.0GB 
Partition: ID:/ size: 16M used: 103K (1%) fs: rootfs 
Info:      Processes 98 Uptime 18 min Memory 152.4/997.0MB Runlevel 5 Client Shell inxi 1.4.95

It's right there under Card-2. The card is there, but the network managers can't see it.

I always revert back to M8.5 because I never have any problem with the wireless there, but I'd really like to get M11 going if I can. Thanks for any help.

rokytnji · posted: 2011-12-14 21:00

Just to see if you have the firmware-iwlwifi and wireless-tools packages installed go to

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn"
====================================

and check out the wheezy section.

You need the non free stuff which is contrary to Debian Philosophy.

wiki.debian.org/iwlagn

chrishall57 · posted: 2011-12-14 23:22

On my laptop wicd came up with no wifi networks found.

Went into Wicd - preferences and needed to manually add wlan0, eth0 was already present. After that everything worked.

Maybe something that simple with your issue?

masinick · posted: 2011-12-14 23:50

chrishall57 wrote:On my laptop wicd came up with no wifi networks found.

Went into Wicd - preferences and needed to manually add wlan0, eth0 was already present. After that everything worked.

Maybe something that simple with your issue?

That has been my experience as well. In older releases, I think that MEPIS and antiX used to identify the Ethernet wired connection as eth0 and the wireless connection as eth1, or vice versa. More recently, that has become eth0 and wlan0. I believe that wicd did not have any wireless interface set up, so it was a matter of sniffing around to"see what the system called it", then naming the wireless interface, and it worked fine after that.

The comments about checking the wireless firmware also apply. There have been some changes in the Debian packages that may or may not have been present or available at the time of release, but they most certainly are there now, and antiX works fine with them, once properly installed and configured. Most of the"long timers" already had these things configured; otherwise we may have found a few more of these"minor" - but important - issues prior to the M11.0 release.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-15 01:35

Thanks a bunch for your instructions.
I first tried just adding wlan0 in wicd preferences, but I'm not exactly sure how. I just went Wicd Network Manager > Preferences and added wlan0 in the Wireless Interface field. But still no networks were found (I'm sure it's there though, I'm right next to the router and another machine that is connected wirelessly.

Gonna check firmware next and I'll let you know what happened.

As another off-topic question, what are the main differences between M11 and M8.5?

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-15 02:26

Hmmm. I followed the instructions on the link posted by chrishall57, but no luck. When I do iwconfig I get

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

I also tried in M8.5, and wireless doesn't work there either (strange because I never had a problem with M8.5). Also, I should mention that I'm doing this all from a live usb. Will things be different if I install to the hard drive?

SaminBare · posted: 2011-12-15 04:57

Probably, as stated earlier.

NOTE: uncomment the commands below (remove the #) to make them active in a script;
do not include # in the command line. MC may be replaced with another text editor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# apt-get update
# apt-get install mc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From --
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn#Wheezy"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn#Wheezy"
====================================
--

Add a"non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

# deb
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian"
linktext was:"http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian"
====================================
wheezy main contrib non-free

NOTE: to do this, go to terminal as root and
# apt-get mcedit /etc/apt/sources.list

then add the above line (cut and paste if you like) anywhere, without the #
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# apt-get update
# apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi wireless-tools
# modprobe iwlagn
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verify your device has an available interface:

# iwconfig

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: make certain the wireless switch is on or an error stating"Operation not possible due to RF-kill" will occur, then run

# ceni

on wlan0 and enter SSID if necessary.

Hope this works for you -- I'm very certain it will with M11 installed on hdd

best wishes!

chrishall57 · posted: 2011-12-15 06:20

Pacopag wrote:Thanks a bunch for your instructions.
I first tried just adding wlan0 in wicd preferences, but I'm not exactly sure how. I just went Wicd Network Manager > Preferences and added wlan0 in the Wireless Interface field. But still no networks were found (I'm sure it's there though, I'm right next to the router and another machine that is connected wirelessly.

Gonna check firmware next and I'll let you know what happened.

As another off-topic question, what are the main differences between M11 and M8.5?

After I added wlan0 and clicked 'ok' then make sure to press 'refresh' in the top wicd menu. It didn't do an automatic scan until that step was carried out.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-15 18:59

I've installed M11 to the hard drive, and tried running through the steps to intall non-free firmware. I got no complaints or errors during the install (I think). But still no luck. When I get to the end and run iwconfig I get

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Still no wireless interface in ceni or wicd.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-15 19:30

Suppose I install Debian (or even Ubuntu) and get the wireless working. Would it be possible to copy some files/configurations from there, then re-install AntiX and use whatever files/confic Debian uses to make wireless work. If this is an option, and it's not too hard, can someone tell me what I would need to do.

I did this before for screen resolution problems. I copied the xorg.conf file produced by one distro and pasted in into the right spot for another distro and it fixed the screen problem. Just thought maybe I could do something similar for wireless. I really don't want to have to abandon Antix (it rocks)

rokytnji · posted: 2011-12-15 21:31

Since your land line is working. I would run smxi and upgrade the stock kernel from the mepis one to something like the latest Liqourix one or if not wanting to use smxi at all.

Then I would install Antis latest kernel build in this forum. The reason I say all of this is because since your intel chip is a wireless n chip. A newer kernel install along with using the wlan0 suggestions in this thread for wicd. May just get you going out of the box with AntiX as the newer kernels have better wireless n support in them.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3489

dark-D · posted: 2011-12-15 21:44

according to the this intel site
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/"
linktext was:"http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/"
====================================
you need a kernel after 2.6.37 to get your wireless to work, so rokytnji's advice is the best one for you. also have a read at this
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn#Wheezy"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn#Wheezy"
====================================
if you get in other troubles after the kernel update.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-16 20:30

I just tried running smxi, but I don't really know what I'm doing. The script encountered an error at some point. So I'm trying it again.

I'm not gonna bother you with asking what to put for every single option the script gives, but I've noticed that all questions are of this type:

1. Do more...
2. Do less...
3. Do nothing.

In general, what should I do? I went with the"Do more" route the first time. Now I'm trying the"Do less" route. I really just want to get the wireless working while maintaining all the leanness and meanness of AntiX.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-16 20:43

Ahhhh. There is the wireless. I upgraded to the liquorix kernel, and there it was.

Pacopag · posted: 2011-12-16 20:43

Thank you so much for your help.