Weird problem with wireless and dcopserver

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:09 am

Ok, this is really strange. Whenever I start my laptop or reboot it and log in, I get a message saying DCOPSERVER needs my password. Normally, it should be Knetworkmanager asking for my password right after I log in. Instead dcopserver is asking for it and not knetworkmanager which is causing knetworkmanager not to start and my wireless won't work. Also I can't start knetworkmanager manually either.

Now this is where it gets weirder. If I end the current session and go back to the log-in screen the colors are all off and strange looking. So I type my password and the screen goes black for a second and then comes back to a normal looking log in screen. Then I type my password again and it logs me back in. Then during that log-in knetworkmanager asks for my password and not dcopserver and my wireless works correctly.

I'm on a Lenovo N100 laptop with gma950 intel graphics chipset using the new intel driver. Bianca KDE edition. This just started happening since I installed Samba and started trying to get that to work. The only other thing I did right before this started was upgrade 6 packages that came up as being upgradeable in Synaptic.

Sorry for the long explanation, but it's a crazy problem. If anybody has any idea whatsoever about what's going on I'd love to atleast hear a theory. It's going to get a little old going through all that everytime I boot up my computer.

Thanks

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:25 am

If the updates were kernel related then that could be your problem, and it would make sense. there have been problems with the kernel updates, again...

so boot back to the original kernel and see if the problem is still there.

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:28 am

Ok, I'll try that, but i don't think the kernel was one of the updates right before this started. I'll give it a shot though.

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:36 am

Tried it and nothing changed. Still getting the weird behavior with wireless not working.

I don't know much about DCOPserver, but should it be asking for my root password? I've never had to provide my pwd for DCOPserver before.

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:57 pm

No it shouldnt be asking for a password itself.

sounds like it is a KDE bug.
DCOPServer is how KDE desktop and apps talk to each other. It is a backend thing.

I cant check at the moment but can you reinstall it?

this also points to the updates being KDE related.

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:34 pm

Well, since I haven't had Mint installed very long, I just went ahead and reinstalled. I didn't lose too many settings since I've only had it on the laptop a couple days and haven't customized everything yet.

I think the problem stems from some packages that I upgraded. It's hard to tell which one/ones though, because I just did the whole upgrade everything routine. That's when I started getting the dcopserver problem, and also Konqueror somehow got removed.

This time around I only installed and upgraded the things I need, and it's working great at the moment. Hopefully, if I upgrade packages in smaller increments, it'll make it easier to pinpoint the problem if it happens again.

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:08 pm

ARGHHEH@!!! I though I had the problem fixed, but it's presented itself again. However, I think I might have found a clue to what the cause is.

It has been working fine for a while now, but this morning I used my laptop however there were no access points nearby so Knetworkmanager didn't connect to anything. Now when I rebooted back at home where I have an access point DCOPServer starts asking for my kdewallet password again.

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:18 pm

is knetworkmanager set to roaming or just has one manual network set?

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:31 am

I believe that it is set to roaming. Could that be causing the problem?

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:12 am

I am thinking roaming is the problem.
I would try setting the wireless to just your home network.

another test before turning off roaming.
turn off your laptop
Turn off your wireless router/AP, turn on your laptop and see what happens. This simulates you away from home (no AP).
turn off your laptop
turn on your wireless router/AP, give it 5min.
turn on your laptop and see if you can connect to your wireless lan. this simulates you coming home again.

This should show if roaming is the problem.
you could also repeat this test once roaming is turned off and only one static wireless network setup.

hope this helps.

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:28 pm

Ok, I'll give that a try when I have time. Thanks. Oh yeah, where do I go to turn off roaming?

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:05 am

turning off roaming is really setting up only the wireless card manually (for one ap).

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:21 pm

I don't have wireless other than in a s l o w laptop, but I remember there was a radio button somewhere for roaming mode at some point....
Not now though I think

flammenwurfer · Post by **flammenwurfer** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:45 pm

Well, the problem seems to be intermittent now. I think it only surfaces when there isn't an access point in range.