LMDE wireless WPA connection fail

[fritzk3]

Hi all,

I booted up the LMDE live DVD last night to test it out prior to installing, but ran into an issue I could not resolve. My wireless card could easily pick up all of the broadcast SSIDs around me, but when I tried to connect to my own wireless router (which uses WPA-TKIP encryption), it would not connect - the system just kept popping up the dialog box asking me to enter the encryption password.

This is strange to me because I rebooted, and experienced the same behavior (could not connect). Then I booted using a Linux Mint 10 (Gnome) CD, and was able to connect without a problem. I also booted an Ubuntu 10.10 CD and was able to connect with that one, too... so the problem appears to be with the LMDE OS.

I'm disappointed - I was looking forward to being able to install LMDE and have the rolling release aspect of the distro. Without a solution, I will have to revert to Linux Mint 10, with the potential of converting to LMDE at some point in the future.

Any ideas on what would/could cause the behavior I experienced above?

[germanix]

I have just installed LMDE and have the same problem. Here is hoping someone can help. Please!

[fritzk3]

It's hard to believe that there are only two of us having this problem...

However, that being said, it appears that there is no solution at this time - other than to install Linux Mint 10 Gnome.

[amina]

I only have experience with my own laptop which has a Ralink card, and needs the rt2860sta driver.

I used to encounter the same problem on ubuntu 10.04 and also on LMDE, because it still uses the 2.6.32 kernel that does not support this card out-of-the-box.
Wifi works perfectly on ubuntu 10.10, (therefore probably also mint10), opensuse 11.3 ... etc; all distros using a newer kernel version.
For me, the solution was to compile the driver (or could have installed the liquerix kernel).

I think it would be useful if you'd post information about the wireless card so that maybe someone having the same could advise (if you'd happen to have the same as mine, I can probably help you).

Maybe you should try ubuntu 10.04 live CD or any other distro with the 2.6.32 kernel and check if you have the same problem, or try to install the liquerix kernel.

[TBABill]

I only have experience with my own laptop which has a Ralink card, and needs the rt2860sta driver.

I used to encounter the same problem on ubuntu 10.04 and also on LMDE, because it still uses the 2.6.32 kernel that does not support this card out-of-the-box.
Wifi works perfectly on ubuntu 10.10, (therefore probably also mint10), opensuse 11.3 ... etc; all distros using a newer kernel version.
For me, the solution was to compile the driver (or could have installed the liquerix kernel).

I think it would be useful if you'd post information about the wireless card so that maybe someone having the same could advise (if you'd happen to have the same as mine, I can probably help you).

Maybe you should try ubuntu 10.04 live CD or any other distro with the 2.6.32 kernel and check if you have the same problem, or try to install the liquerix kernel.

Actually the RT2860STA is supported with 10.04 out of the box, but the issue for most people is how it sets up the driver/module. It conflicts by wanting the 2860 driver, but also setting up the 2800 or 2x00. Just needs some blacklisting/tweaking to get it going. Not difficult. Post back if you need help with it.

For the others, without knowing what card you are dealing with it is difficult to tell what the problem is. Can you provide some info on your specs, particularly the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -F

so we can see your hardware and what drivers are being used?

[amina]

Well when I say out of the box, I mean without tweaking. I may be wrong but I'm almost sure it has to do something with the kernel version as well because I tested about 6-7 live CDs of different distros and those using higher than 2.6.32 worked, while others did not (surprisingly and fortunately except for ubuntu 9.10 that made me switch to Linux for this reason). Sorry for being a bit off as I do not use 10.04 anymore (not because of this ) and LMDE is fine with the compiled driver. Thank you anyway, and I hope the OP's problem can be solved as well

[gbm31]

no, you're not alone.

i have the same problems with my belkin usb (rtl 818x) and had with another wlan stick (rt3070sta).

i found a workaround, using ndiswrapper instead of self compiled drivers, and de- and reactivating the network via nm when this problem applies (mainly after resuming out of hibernation/suspend).

i already deactivated mixed wpa1/2 mode in my acces point, to prevent errors like this, but it didn't help.

all my other mobiles (eee901 with ubuntu 10.04 / 2870sta, compaq n410c with ubuntu 10.04 / don't know works ootb, fujitsu t4010d with xp / i2200) never showed such problems.

[fritzk3]

I will try to boot back into LMDE later and see if I can get the output of the 'inxi' command.

In the meanwhile, I may just go with LM10 for now, since the wireless works right away, and re-install LMDE at a later time.