Latest LMDE updates seems to have erased wireless?

[este.el.paz]

Folks:

Ran sudo apt update/upgrade and then dist-upgrade for a large update including the newer kernel, 3.2??? And seems like wireless network is gone from the toolbar network manager?? Can't connect . . . when I right-click on the Network icon I can see that my network is listed there, but it won't show up to click on "wireless" in the GUI. I'm having problems getting wireless going in in my older PPC laptop running Wheezy, and so I was trying to look at what I have setup in LMDE partition on MBPro and "sudo iwconfig" showed "lo no wireless extensions eth1 no wireless extensions" . . . . which led me to try and see if that was because I was using wired . . . . No such luck, it seems to be gone. Any thoughts about how to get wireless back?

Thanks,

e.e.p.

[xircon]

Don't now anything about Macbooks, but perhaps:
http://wiki.debian.org/MacBook/Wireless
Might help, as you have a new kernel, you may have to reinstall the drivers with module assistant, I did on my Dell until fairly recently.

[este.el.paz]

Don't now anything about Macbooks, but perhaps:
http://wiki.debian.org/MacBook/Wireless
Might help, as you have a new kernel, you may have to reinstall the drivers with module assistant, I did on my Dell until fairly recently.

@xircon: Thanks for the reply and insight into the update process . . . and thanks for the link to the wiki, I'll have to go through it several times to figure out which would be the easiest way to get wireless again. I have to say the wiki still seems a tad obtuse to the uninitiated . . . I literally searched Debian and the wiki with "wireless" and got zero results only last week or so, so just like our dear ex-prez who was "amazed" by the grocery store scanner technology . . . I'm amazed when people post links to the wiki with appropriate data . . . . : - 0 But, thanks; I went through this process when I first installed LMDE and I have a thread here on it, that might give me the process that I used previously.

But, another question, is Network Manager an app that should show up in the left side drop-down menu or only in the right side toolbar? Question being do I need to re-install Network Manager at this point? I think in some of my past distros of Debian NM was launch-able from Menu . . . and now it is gone--I just have "Network tools" and "Network" . . . although it looks like from right click I can get NM to open . . . . But, I'm getting too old to remember how things were, even a few days ago . . . the past is gone . . . . : - ) Interesting avatar by the way . . . what does it mean? Is that the result of a system short circuit or what happens after doing an update and wireless is gone?? Anyway, thanks for the directional assist, the answer likely is there upon trying a few things--much appreciated.

e.e.p.

[xircon]

I know the feeling, getting on in years myself. The avatar is a skeleton DJ. Do you have network-manager-gnome installed? Think everything is in there.

Steve

[este.el.paz]

@xircon/St:

Thanks for the reply and thanks for the explanation of the DJ . . . I got the movement factor, which is rare in skeletons . . . without some kind of energy input, in this case music??? Anyway, thanks for the "network-manager-gnome" question . . . I'll check synaptic to see if it's loaded when I switch back over to the LMDE partition . . . w/o wireless capability I can't spend too much time there . . . .

I'll post back with the details when I get it done, or if I don't get it done . . . I'll post back with that as well . . . . Carry on with the beats . . . .

e.e.p.

[este.el.paz]

@xircon and/or interested parties:

Went back to my other thread from when I first installed LMDE and found the link to the "wl" wiki that I was given by "dagon," used the Wheezy directions and I've got the wireless back . . . trying to follow the info as the Terminal was doing its thing, indeed, it looked like moving to the new kernel invalidated the old "wl" . . . it might have been amusing if I had known that to try booting up in the old kernel from GRUB and check the wireless . . . . I'm assuming now that I've switched over that would not work. Anyway, back in a wireless connection, although "Network Manager" doesn't show up in the drop-down main menu, only the right side toolbar menu; all the key code info was retained, which was nice. Thanks to xircon for being there, letting me know that all I'd have to do is re-install the driver . . . .

e.e.p.

http://wiki.debian.org/wl#Wheezy

Code: Select all

# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"I0TC0"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:26:62:09:1D:DE   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:24 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Managementmode:All packets received
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=-15 dBm  Noise level=-91 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0