NetworkManager and Wi-Fi

[phelum]

Hi,
Yesterday I installed LMDE debbie on an x64 PC with a Wi-Fi dongle (no Ethernet). I have no entries in my /etc/network/interfaces file and as expected NetworkManager lists the unplugged LAN port and my Wi-Fi dongle. But whenever I try to connect to my server (using Network Connections) it tries for about 20 seconds and then reports an authentication failure. The Wi-Fi details (e.g. SSID and password) are correct.

This a multi-boot PC and other operating systems (Debian and Ubuntu) can connect. The difference with these other systems is that I have details in my network interfaces file and also the wpa_supplicant files. I haven't tried NetworkManager on these older systems.

Now I have disabled NetworkManager in LMDE and added the network interfaces and wpa_supplicant details and the Wi-Fi connection now works. However this is not an ideal solution because I can not enable/disable connections or select a Wi-Fi network in LMDE. I can't enable NetworkManager because it starts wpa_supplicant before the "raise network interfaces" is done and the ifup for the Wi-Fi fails because it can't start wpa_supplicant.

Does anybody have any clues about getting NetworkManager to work ? My LMDE installation was just how I expect a dumb consumer would do it.

Thanks,
Steven

[phelum]

Hi,

Updating my own thread here:

The NetworkManager problem occurred because the Wi-Fi dongle firmware (rt2870.bin) was missing. I don't remember any option to install firmware during the installation process but perhaps I missed it.

Cheers,
Steven