Network Manager does not show available wireless networks

[wolfcastle]

I have a new install of SL 6.1 on a HP Elitebook. I have been unable to get the wireless functioning.

When I click on the Network Manager icon in the statusbar, under wireless networks, it says 'device not ready'.

If I run iwlist wlan0 scan, it finds my wireless network, so at some level it appears the card is working. Here is the output of lspci:

CODE

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 05) 44:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35) iwconfig wlan0 wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any            Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=15 dBm            Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off          Encryption key:off          Power Management:off

This is the first time I've run linux on a laptop with wireless, so the wireless config is new to me.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[swirlythingy]

QUOTE (wolfcastle @ Feb 19 2012, 03:35 PM)

When I click on the Network Manager icon in the statusbar, under wireless networks, it says 'device not ready'.

Ah, yes, I've had this one.

Can you post the output of /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log? (On my system, you need to be root to read it - try

CODE

sudo cat /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log

.)

This may not be your problem, but it solved mine: open /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and insert the line:

wifi-wext-only=true

(Type

CODE

man NetworkManager.conf

for more details.)

I also had to change two lines in /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant to:

INTERFACES="-iwlan0"

and

DRIVERS="-Dwext"

if that's not what they are already.

Let us know what you find.

[wolfcastle]

Excellent, changing the NetworkManager.conf and wpa_supplicant file like you said seemed to do the trick!

For the record, the wpa_supplicant.log file was full of the same output:

CODE

Unsupported driver 'nl80211,wext'. Unsupported driver 'nl80211,wext'. Unsupported driver 'nl80211,wext'.

Do you have some explanation of what these changes did?

[swirlythingy]

QUOTE (wolfcastle @ Feb 19 2012, 04:27 PM)

CODE Unsupported driver 'nl80211,wext'. Do you have some explanation of what these changes did?

That's exactly the output I used to have. I searched all the man pages for the text "nl80211", which led me to NetworkManager.conf, where it explained that the "wifi-wext-only" switch was a workaround for a Linux bug which meant that "nl80211" was known not to work in some circumstances - apparently including both of ours.

I'm not sure about wpa_supplicant, because those changes weren't done by me and I don't have a record of what the file used to contain. If those two lines were already present but different, it might be useful for future reference if you still have the old file...

[wolfcastle]

QUOTE (swirlythingy @ Feb 19 2012, 10:42 AM)

I'm not sure about wpa_supplicant, because those changes weren't done by me and I don't have a record of what the file used to contain.  If those two lines were already present but different, it might be useful for future reference if you still have the old file...

Before my changes, the file had empty strings for those options:

CODE

INTERFACES="" DRIVERS=""

[foursamurais]

QUOTE (wolfcastle @ Feb 19 2012, 08:48 PM)

QUOTE (swirlythingy @ Feb 19 2012, 10:42 AM) I'm not sure about wpa_supplicant, because those changes weren't done by me and I don't have a record of what the file used to contain.  If those two lines were already present but different, it might be useful for future reference if you still have the old file... Before my changes, the file had empty strings for those options: CODE INTERFACES="" DRIVERS=""

Hi, I'm relatively new to Linux, so a bit dumb at the moment.
I've just put SL 6.2 on my Dell XPS laptop but am having the same problem as above. My wireless networks are not showing in Network Manager. Tried the above but didn't work. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
yum list | grep -i wireless gives
wireless-tools.x86_64
wireless-tools.i686
wireless-tools-devel.i686
wireless-tools-devel.x86_64

all 1:29-5.1.1.el6

lspci has amoung others:
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (rev 34)

I have a wired connection and successfully connected on it.
Thanks.