wifi needs reboot to connect

[astro_sutradhar]

Hi,
I have atheros wifi on laptop everytime i change my accesspoint, it fails to connect. After reboot it connects. Tried everything found on this forum but all in vain. Help would be appreciated

thanks

[wintpe]

i wonder if you have multiple configs stored in the wifi settings cache for the same SSID

this might give the error you have seen.

try clearing them out and starting a fresh

they are installed in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/wireless.d

regards peter

[oj]

Are you hibernating or putting the computer in sleep mode between these access points? If so, search the forums for "hibernate" or "sleep," this problem has been caused by the system not waking up properly.

[curioususer]

This problem of required re-boot makes it IMPOSSIBLE to connect on unencrypted access points where there are a number such as in business premises or in hospitals.

As a result I CANNOT use Mageia in these situations.

I have been checking various other distros and find that they all work as expected, that is, no reboot is required.

For me this is rather strange as Mandriva 2010.2 works correctly and Mageia is fork of that.
I have checked Mandriva, Kororaa, Debian Mint, Rosa-Marathon (another fork of Mandriva) and Puppy.

[curioususer]

I have been working on this very knotty problem with Mageia and do now have solution.

Problem:-
After entering encryption code a re-boot is required before we can connect.

Firstly this is insane as re-boot should never be required unless we patch the kernel in some way.

I do now have the solution:-
un-install NetworkManager and leave ifplugd running. Ideally we should, perhaps un-install ifplugd, but we cannot do so directly.

Reference:-
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706565
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10727

The point is that we should only use one network module, ifplugd, NetworkManager or wicd.

So after un-installing NM my systems are proving thouroughly reliable and do connect without fuss.

Now I have a thoroughly excellent system and can go forwards. Mageia 3 is now truly an excellent.distro.

(I prefer to enter this as a new post but cannot find out how to)

[doktor5000]

You seem to have posted in the wrong thread before, i've merged this into the thread which is about this topic.

Apart from that, the problem you're describing doesn't exist here, neither with net_applet and ifplugd nor with NM and ifplugd.

[desmondra]

Thanks for getting this into the correct thread, for some reason I seem unable to do so or even to create a new thread.

I am surprised that you have not experienced this problem.

Every machine where I have cleanly installed Mageia 3 exhibits this same problem.
This evening I have cleanly installed yet another machine and again it demonstrates this problem, the solution is to un-install NetworkManager and then all works well.

I am puzzled that, by default we have both ifplugd and NM installed. As is pointed out there should only be one module managing the Wi-Fi

However having solved this rather knotty problem I am now going ahead and installing on many machines.
This distro is excellent and, provided we remove NM is, I would say, a world beating version of Linux. Most of my users are able to accept the change from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 classic, pretty well without any comment.

[doktor5000]

Which media did you use to install Mageia, and which desktop environment are you using? Which steps do you take after installation exactly?

[marja]

You seem to have posted in the wrong thread before, i've merged this into the thread which is about this topic.

Apart from that, the problem you're describing doesn't exist here, neither with net_applet and ifplugd nor with NM and ifplugd.

Tbh, I have seen the same problem (but connecting to unencrypted unhidden networks goes fine now).
I'm sure that ± 2 weeks ago I still needed to reboot to connect to a WLAN with hidden SSID and with (of course) WPA encryption. However, it is possible that that was a multiple DE install (with Gnome, too) and that I had forgotten to uninstall NM. I'll make sure to check when I hit the problem again.

[doktor5000]

Sorry, but so far most of the details are missing.
Which desktop environment was used, was networkmanager or net_applet used, where both running but only one in use,
which tool was used to setup/configure the connection (drakconnect, draknetcenter, ...)

You may also want to have a look at viewtopic.php?f=25&t=5782

[marja]

Sorry, but so far most of the details are missing.

And problems that are no longer present don't count

I'll give an exact report when I hit the problem again.

[curioususer]

For my part I am using the live DVD and installing from there and I use Gnome Classic for my desktop.
As you will see from my references:-

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706565
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10727

I have spent quite a lot of time struggling with this problem. It first showed up when I tried to connect to an un-encrypted Wi-Fi in an office environment.
Of course after re-boot we could not make it connect to the same access point, so we could not connect at all.

However after all this and with NM removed we now have reliable connection without re-booting.

[curioususer]

I have just done another machine and I should add, do all the updates before removing networkmanager.

The first test is to right click the Wi-Fi icon and select Wireless networks - Manage wireless networks.

Now select your existing network and press Connect - network comes down and then reconnects.
Previously it would come down and the only way to connect again was to re-boot.

I have been doing these tests with lots of other distros and only with Mageia was this problem found.

[doktor5000]

Well, i've got a reliable connection with NetworkManager and without rebooting. Also no need to uninstall NetworkManager.

Also, your Mageia bug report says that you now use wicd instead of NetworkManager, here you only tell that you installed it.

[curioususer]

I am not using wicd as ifplugd is working fine, but certainly that was a suggested option.

from the gnome bugzilla I accept that we should only have a single network manager and ifplugd is already there so no need for another.

[doktor5000]

Fixed by using wicd in place of NetworkManager

[curioususer]

My understanding is:-

There should only be only one network manager in place.

The present reported problem arose because both ifplugd and networkmanager were present and this caused a conflict.

My first experiments were to put wicd in as replacement for networkmanager. Certainly we did not have the serious conflict when I did this.

However the proper approach is to remove networkmanager and to rely on ifplugd which then works perfectly well.

Alternatively we should remove ifplugd and then rely on networkmanager OR wicd but as I could not easily remove ifplugd I have not yet done this experiment.

It is important that when we have Mageia 4 that this issue of conflicting network managers is resolved and more particularly that only one is installed as default.

[doktor5000]

Well, ifplugd and networkmanager work fine together here. You need to provide a reproducable use case, so the developers get a real chance to fix this.
Can you also please update the bug you reported about this with your most recent findings? Last state there is that you workarounded the issue by using wicd instead of networkmanager.

And please pay attention to Marjas comment: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10727#c17

[curioususer]

Originally it was suggested to use wicd and to un-install networkmanager. Well this worked.

However in working through with https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706565 we find that we should only have ONE networkmanager. As we already have ifplugd just why do we need another?

So, just why do you have both ifplugd and networkmanager installed?

I have found that as we have ifplugd then simply un-installing networkmanager solves the problem.

I have done quite a number of clean installations on a variety of computers and I test them and always I get the insane requirement to re-boot.

So I seriously question that you are quite happy having TWO networkmanagers installed. I am not, so on each installation I now remove networkmanager and just leave ifplugd installed and my problems are solved

[doktor5000]

So if you only use ifplugd, how do you configure new networks? How do you switch between existing ones during runtime?

Also, just having multiple network managers installed is no problem. I've even had 3 installed in parallel, and no issues.
For me ifplugd isn't even running after switching to networkmanager:

Code: Select all

[doktor5000@Mageia3 ~]$ sudo journalctl -b -a | grep ifplugd
[doktor5000@Mageia3 ~]$

If your problem is solved, please mark the thread accordingly as [SOLVED] or [DONE] by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [SOLVED] or [DONE], thanks

[curioususer]

I am sorry, I find this hard to believe.

The test I have worked out is:-
1/ right click on the Wi-Fi icon.
2/ Select Wireless networks - Manage wireless networks
3/ then simply click on the connect button
4/ network comes down
5/ network reconnects

What I found was that the network does not reconnect and the insane re-boot is then required.
In situations where there are a number of identically named access points, such as here in the the Royal Marsden Hospital where I am now connection is impossible and one has to resort to using an alternative distro (Puppy is useful as it can exist on an SD card).

Now what I found was that we have by default iplugd and networkmanager apparently doing this task. from bugzilla.gnome I learned that there only needs to be one networkmanager. ifplugd 0.28 is very capable so I ask again why do we have any other network manager installed?

I am satisfied from the installations that I have done on a variety of computers that the problem always exists until I have removed networkmanager.

So please verify the above test and see if your machine needs re-boot to connect.

And please verify why there should be more that one network manager installed. From my knowledge we have choice of wicd, NetworkManager OR ifplug. But that we should only choose one.

I further add that I have spent considerable time over a 2 month period, and have had to install other systems, but once we found the solution then I am now very happy with Mageia 3.

Obviously if the problem exists with Mageia 4 then I will again be flagging that.

So either confirm that I am right or tell me what I am doing wrong with the Mageia 3 installation, standard live Gnome disk, or confirm that I am indeed right or provide your argument that bugzilla.gnome is wrong in their assertion that you should only have ONE network manager installed.

Meanwhile I now know that Mageia is an excellent distro but I fear for those who install it and are not aware about this problem.

Once I have sensible response then I am happy to mark this thread as having solution.

[doktor5000]

Sorry, too tired to do a screencast now, but you can check the screenshots:

Disconnect:

Bildschirmfoto2_29.png (42.87 KiB) Viewed 17825 times

No connection:

Bildschirmfoto2_30.png (14.91 KiB) Viewed 17825 times

2 seconds after clicking on connect again (you can still see the progress bar below the icon)

Bildschirmfoto2_31.png (10.58 KiB) Viewed 17825 times

[zeebra]

Hi,
I have atheros wifi on laptop everytime i change my accesspoint, it fails to connect. After reboot it connects. Tried everything found on this forum but all in vain. Help would be appreciated

thanks

I have had this problem before actually. Instead of rebooting you can use rfkill switch or Fn button and Fx to turn off the wireless card and then turn it back on the same way and it will work/connect again as expected.

I don't have this problem anymore, and I don't remember why I had it, but I think it appeared when I installed the Gnome 3 desktop environment which has its own network manager that conflicted with the standard one.

I know for sure I had some issues when I installed Gnome and its network manager, but I dont know if it was related to that specific issue, but removing the networkmanager package resolved the problem.

Try to check in your installed package if you have networkmanager installed and try to remove it and see if that helps on the problem.

[curioususer]

At last somebody confirms this issue!

I admit it has taken me two months of work on many machines and many installations from scratch to get to the root of the problem.

I established with bugzilla.gnome.org that there should only be ONE network manager installed at any time.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706565

Mageia has ifplugd AND networkmanager installed by default.

So, I install the system and fully update, then I un-install 'networkmanager'

Now I no longer have to re-boot after entering the encryption key AND
I can now connect to unencrypted networks, where there are many identically named access points, without any hassle, previously impossible (because of that requirement to re-boot).

For network managers we have choice ifplugd, NetworkManager and 'wicd' but, only choose one. When I find out how to uninstall ifplugd then I shall reinstate NetworkManager and see how we get on. But the message is clear - only ONE network manager at a time.

Nobody has yet told me why there are two network managers installed.

[zeebra]

Great! O happy days

Perhaps you can fill in a bug report or add to the one mentioned above. I don't have the proper description and steps to reproduce, it was quite some time ago that I had this issue. It's very easy!

https://bugs.mageia.org/
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/How_to_report_a_bug_properly

If you don't do it, then I will, but the description will not be as precise.