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Just installed Ubuntu on an old netbook to use for web surfing, as it was struggling like mad under Win 7 (IT guy at work suggested this).
All seems to working OK, and much quicker, however I can't get the wifi to connect. It recognises the available networks, but when I try to connect it doesn't seem to like the password. I'm sure its the right password!
Any ideas?
Works fine with a wired connection to the router.
Hmm...use it here, shouldn't be an issue, its pretty plug and play
Tick the box to show the password...you SURE its correct? Check on another machine...just incase.
After that, the obvious - is your router on....
It might be a problem with the network chipset... there are some weird and wonderful ones which aren't well supported.
If you type 'lspci' on the command line, then look through the list which comes up for something called the network controller... then do a search on that and see if there are any issues with Ubuntu.
This might seem really basic/obvious but is it using the correct encryption method?
Is it your wifi? Certain combinations of Linux wireless driver + router security don't play well together, rare nowadays but you might be unlucky. I've got a wireless USB stick with this problem.
Try (temporarily) an open wifi network to see if it works, and if it does then try some different encryption settings until you get one that works.
If it's not your wifi, then try another distribution (Fedora, OpenSUSE...) on a live CD to see if you get any luck that way.
EDIT: Crossposted with funkynick
If it's all fine when plugged in with the cable then you have already narrowed things down a lot.
Do you have other wireless devices connecting to the router without a problem? I know that doesn't rule out Ubuntu being a pain with a particular device (I have a Kcorp USB dongle that it doesn't get on well with), but it's ruling out one more thing! 🙂
I'd type the password into a text box, make sure your keyboard settings are good.
After that, hardware issue. Some wireless cards don't work so good with Linux, some fine tuning may be necessary.
Bopb_summers has it right though. Try making it open temporarily, see if that works and move on from there.,
Check for drivers, I had a problem that my Netgear (or similar) wireless usb dongle wouldn't run and after a few hours trying/research they're not supported. I've got it hard wired but it may be worth contacting the manufacturer, obviously as it sees the network it should be ok and may just be an issue of downloading the drivers.
Hi 40mpg,
I had the same problem with a router at work. I solved the issue by using a different flavour of WPA. I will check the router at work tomorrow and will drop you an email.
James
Right, this might sound stupid but...
Is your laptop wifi actually turned on?
I put a new distro on my NetBook a couple of months ago and couldn't get the wifi to work at all through the software settings. It was only pressing the function & wifi keys on the keyboard which actually turned it on, otherwise it says it is but isn't for some reason. It finds networks but won't connect until you've physically pressed the buttons on the keyboard.
Now I know this it isn't a drama but there's no way of getting it to work straight from the menus even with the correct passwords etc.
Have a look a the blog posts of [url= http://www.zdnet.co.uk/member-profile/2000498448/ ]J A Watson [/url] His hobby is checking out Linux distros on netbooks - he's come across just about every wifi problem there is. ( I think nowadays there's only about two combinations of driver/chipset that don't work).
Very possibly the WPA supplicant bit, not the Wifi drivers. Not sure what happens but somehow Ubuntu keeps ending up with old drivers (again) even after being fixed previously.
My realtek card works perfectly fine with WPA2 under Arch (even on my parents' BT homehub2, which are utter pants), but Ubuntu just won't have it. Put the AP on WPA and everything works. Don't recommend Arch for a relative beginner though.
Had the same problem on Linux Mint (Ubuntu variant) and managed to solve that by changing the wireless channel on the router itself.
I had a problem with the wireless nic on a compaq. not sure of the exact model of the nic, but the solution was to download a third party driver and follow the very well written step by step instructions. You could try checking the chipset of the wi-fi nic, then googling it and "ubuntu" to see if that comes up with anything.
fwiw, although this dd fix my problem, the wi-fi has an on-off switch which always shows as off (red led=off, blue=on)