This forum is... ...interesting.
Lot's of folks not reading my initial post and more interested in telling me I'm thinking about or presenting the problem incorrectly than simply answering the question.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:06 pm
The first and easiest thing to try is an external USB - WIFI adapter.
I don't think so.
Once again, wireless 100% works, and always works, when this happens, after a single re-boot. It's not the adapter OR Linux's configuration of it. It's just getting the OS to actually use it.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:03 am
You think it was designed that way? Why is it only happening to the OP and not to the rest of us?
So, you're suggesting that
I am the one that designed a user interface, which shows the user a wireless connection as available and configured (and last used not more than a day ago), and then provided no way to actually access or re-establish that connection?
Sorry but, I didn't design this user interface.
You would do well to stop conflating the related, yet still separate, issues of: 1) the hardware issue, of the OS not utilizing an existing, working wireless connection for whatever reason, and 2) the user interface issue, where the OS a) shows the user the presence of that wireless connection in it's own "Network Connections" dialogue box, while that OS simultaneously b) provides the user no way to choose or re-establish that connection.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:03 amIt seems to me that, as has been proposed, the problem is not with the OS selecting Ethernet but rather that the WIFI does not work correctly.
It's pretty obvious - yet not at all relevant - that could very well be the reason. To be clear: short of the reason being that my wireless adapter and/or network is entirely broken (thereby making a wireless connection impossible until THAT condition would be remedied) - which IS NOT THE CASE - the reason the OS is only trying to establish a non-existent wired connection doesn't matter.
I'm just looking for a way - short of a full re-start - to be able to have the OS stop trying to connect to that non-existent wired connection, and instead move on to trying the wireless - which again, folks, DOES WORK! immediately upon re-boot.
Clearly, there is something about re-starting the OS that allows it to move past trying to establish a wired connection and move on to cleanly establishing the wireless connection. I'm just asking if there's an easy, direct way to do that -
a-la "ipconfig /release" in Windows - in Linux Mint.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:03 am
It half-loads but it is not completely loaded and usable. If you want to call every malfunction a "design oversight" because a way to remedy it was not provided then I guess we have different definitions of the word.
No, we have different understandings of the SEPARATE issues of: 1) the connection problem, and 2) the design of the user interface that affords the user absolutely no explanation of the problem and no way for the user to move past it.
Again the wireless driver, configuration or whatever only half-loading, or not loading, or being entirely overlooked by the OS, may be some type of coding oversight (or maybe it's intentional, I don't know). The DESIGN however, of the USER INTERFACE which shows a wireless connection as i) available; ii) configured, iii) having been recently functioning and used, and v) with no indicator that it is malfunctioning, and which vi) doesn't then allow the user to select or re-establish that wireless connection is - categorically - a DESIGN ISSUE.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:03 am
Again, in my Cinnamon that problem does not occur. The WIFi is either present and usable or absent and not usable. There is no "you can see me but you cannot use me" state.
Well, bully for you!
As I've already demonstrated in here - that's NOT the case with my installation. In my "Network Connections" dialogue box, as the user interface IS DESIGNED, it shows me a wireless connection that is configured, saved and has worked no less recently than one day ago. That DESIGN shows me no alarm or problem with that connection. No "X" next to it, no exclamation point next to it, no "Currently Not Available" note was DESIGNED into it. There is nothing that would let me know I can't use it. What is more, in the DESIGN of that user interface, I can click on that connection and highlight it, but can do nothing else with it (other than see it's configuration details or delete it). That's what the user interface WAS DESIGNED to show me and allow/not allow me to do.
GS3 wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:03 amI wonder if it is a laptop with a HW switch and when this switch is turned to off the OS shows the WIFI adapter as existing but not usable. It could be the switch is wonky. I cannot do the test as I am not on such a machine.
*sigh*
No, it's not a laptop. No, there is no switch to turn the wireless on or off. It's a desktop with an XT MoBo that has both the ethernet and wireless adapters built-in (and both enabled, in the BIOS). I've already explained all this, at the start of the thread.
cliffcoggin wrote: ⤴Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:30 am
You are misunderstanding the problem by transposing cause and effect. The attempt by your computer to establish a wired connection is not the
cause of losing the wifi connection; rather it is a
result of the loss of wifi. Therefore your attempts to eliminate any possibility of a wired connection will not force the computer to revert to a wifi connection. Wifi is the real problem here that you need to concentrate on.
Thanks, but no. This isn't about transposing cause and effect.
I understand the problem. The cause isn't really relevant. I never asked for an explanation of - or remedy for - whatever the cause might be. I don't really care.
Sure, it would be great to eventually solve the underlying problem but, that's not what what I ever asked.
As the very title of this thread indicates, all I ever asked was "Is There an Easy Way to Select Which Network Connection is Used?"
To re-cap:**
1) I have determined that my WiFi network is up, running and stable.
2) I have determined that my hardware WiFi adapter on my MoBo is up, running and stable.
3) I have determined that Linux MINT 20.1 is configured to use this hardware and establish a robust wireless connection, SOMETIMES.
4) I have determined that Linux MINT 20.1 - SOMETIMES - fails to employ its configuration to use this hardware and establish a robust wireless connection.
**4.5 for the folks that struggle with the difference between an obvious network fault, and the design of the OS user interface: I have determined that
Linux MINT 20.1 has a user interface design that: a) gives the user no indication of the network fault, and b) gives the user no option to simply select, or
attempt to re-establish, a network connection that the OS is designed to be showing the user as available, with no issues.
5) I have determined that when Linux MINT 20.1 DOES SOMETIMES fail to employ its configuration to use this hardware and establish a robust wireless connection, then Linux MINT 20.1 will thereafter successfully use this configuration and hardware and establish a robust wireless connection, immediately after a single re-boot.
From that, I conclude:
1) Obviously, MINT isn't establishing a wireless connection at each boot up. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
2) If a simple re-boot ALWAYS solves the problem, there is a chance that all I need to do is kill and then re-start the network connections configuration routine, while the OS is up.
Perhaps not. Perhaps a full re-boot is the only way to have the OS eventually recognize and utilize the wireless interface. All I was asking however, was if there's a way to - inside the running instance of MINT 20.1 - to re-establish a known, working wireless network connection.
That's all.
My responding to a bunch of ancillary inquiries and hypotheses has not changed that simple request.
I have tried:
sudo dhclient -r
sudo dhclient
sudo dhclient -r eth0 (which I think in my case is "eno1" for the ethernet and 'wlo1" for the wireless)
sudo dhclient eth0
systemctl restart network.service and
systemctl restart networking.service
All, to no avail.
I am going to try "sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart" and also "nmcli con" followed by "nmcli con down id 'my wired and/or wireless adapter'" and then
nmcli con up id 'my wired and/or wireless adapter'" but I am not very hopeful.