[SOLVED] Freaky wifi problems on Acer Aspire One. Jaunty.q

[sotvomike]

The last problem was solved on here so well that I decided to come here first. Hope you guys can help me along again. What I have here is a bit weird.

Ok, so I had Ubuntu Intrepid running on my Acer Aspire One netbook. I used the madwifi solution to get the wifi going. Been using it like that since January. Now, I updated to the Jaunty beta about 2 weeks ago. Everything was running just fine. THEN, I took my laptop some place that there was no network available. Network Manager kept insisting to connecting to my network until I finally cancelled it. When I got home, it was acting weird. It acted like it couldn't connect to my network (kept asking for the WEP). After several minutes of this, I cancelled out and rebooted.

This is where it really freaks out. When I reboot, there is an X over the signal bars on the top. When I click on it, Wired and Wireless options are greyed out. Network Manager does not even pop up to ask for password to unlock the keyring. I do the whole madwifi routine again, to no avail. I try Firestarter and it says "The device wlan0 is not ready". So I reboot to Windows XP. Same thing. The Windows network manager says "there are no networks in range. Make sure your wireless device is turned on." I slide the switch and the WLAN light lights up, like it's sending and receiving. Still no networks. Reboot back to Ubuntu.

Back in Jaunty, having same problem. Do some research and find this article: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/319825
I try the "iwlist wlan0 scan" but it says interface does not support scan. I try the "rmmod acer_wmi" solution in the article but nothing happens. Thinking all hope is lost, the computer connects to my network and sees the other surrounding networks without Network Manager popping up and asking for a password, and the Wireless option in the menu is still greyed out. Appears to me there is some sort of conflict, with Network Manager and Windows thinking the network card is turned off or not working but in reality it is and working without their knowledge, if that makes sense.

So, I know it is probably silly to try to get help fixing something that is working, but it is not working as it should. Would like some help on this. please give me some instructions to run in terminal so I can post the output on here.

Thanks again, my friends!

[sotvomike]

Wow...two days and not one suggestion?

[waterhead]

It does sound like the update broke something, this is usually because of a kernel update. If you still have the old kernel installed, you could try booting into that.

As for Windows also having problems, I guess that I would tackle this first. Uninstall the Windows driver, reboot and install it again. Make sure that the device in on, so that the system can access it. If it then works in Windows, it should work on the old kernel too.

[JK3mp]

I would try takin it back to intrepid and seeing if it works then. If it does'nt then we'll know we've got bigger problems but at least we know it wasnt the update. If it does work, then we know its simply some compatibility issue or a configuration problem. You did say you reinstalled madwifi right? Did you make sure the propreitary drivers for wireless are set on? And is it possible that your wireless router etc. is not working? If you've takin it to a public wifi hot spot i guess the last one's answered. but those are my suggestions. Sorry couldn't be much more help

[sotvomike]

Ok, I went back to XP and it is working just fine. Seems to be an Ubuntu issue. I don't think I can rollback because I did an upgrade so Ibex is not listed on boot. I'm afraid I would loses everything if I just went back clean from Jaunty. Is there a way to go back or should I just wait since the official release is just days away? I mean, it is working (just Network Manager isn't working) in both Linux and XP. I don't want to just stay stuck on Ibex.

[waterhead]

If you are sure that it is just a problem with NetworkManager, then you can disable it, and use a different connection manager. I recommend using Wicd.

wicd - home

[sotvomike]

Ok...dumb question: How do I disable it.

[sotvomike]

Nevermind, installed Wicd and it works just fine now. Thanks!