I am a Newbie running Fedora 8 with Gnome.

I have installed some updates including one for NetworkManager - now NetworkManager does not load on startup and when I try to run as su from command line nothing happens. How do I get it back? Can I connect to a wireless network without it?

Meanwhile, previously when it was working, NetworkManager wouldn't connect to our encrypted (WEP) wireless network despite having previously worked. I am blessed that there is an unencrypted network in our neighbourhood.

I would greatly appreciate some help as I'm a real Linux Newbie.

Cheers,
Berwhale

The output from iwlist scan is:

lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:17:3F:C8:41:5B
ESSID:"WLAN"
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Signal level=20/65 Encryption keyff
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s
6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=00000000cd66826d
Cell 02 - Address: 00:0C:E3:62:1F1
ESSID:"The Park"
Mode:Master
Channel:11
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Signal level=17/65 Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=000000a1c9a04351
Cell 03 - Address: 00:01:38:94:CB:27
ESSID:"wireless"
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Signal level=21/65 Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s
6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=0000023da9c74191

since noone else has answered and I do not use fedora or gnome try this
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...ess_Networking

2) you may also want to check if you have disabled accidently your required services

I am not sure if you understand run levels...but I assume you are running graphical so look at /etc/inittab and see what this line says
id:5:initdefault: could be a different number.

then go to /etc/rc(number eg 5).d to see if the relevant services are disabled.

there are 2 ways of enabling them...but for a newbie...open a terminal su to root then issue the command for your file manager (maybe nautilus) and then right hand click for a right handed person the relevant file = application and change its properties to rwx for an executable file that you need on boot up

Thanks for that - I'll give it all a shot. If I have problems no doubt I'll be back here.

Cheers,
Berhwale

Hi peoples,

I've managed some of what was mentioned above. I got results from iwlist scan and used iwconfig to specify the ESSID of our network. Now when I check what services are running NetworkManager is "dead but pid file exists". When I try to restart it, it comes up with the same error message.
I have tried disabling it entirely and tried to connect to our network via "System>Administration>Network>Activate "wlan0" but it fails to determine IP address. I had configured wlan0 as Mangaged with the ESSID of our network and entered in the encryption key. There was not an option to select WEP or WPA type encryption.

Can anyone help?

Cheers,
Berwhale

Hi Berwhale,

I was monitoring this thread to see what I could learn. I don't yet have enough knowledge to help you with authentication other than with network-manager/nm-applet. But since this thread seems to be moving a little slow I thought, if you would like, I might try to help you with that approach.

The "dead but pid file exists" sounds like the network-manager started up but crashed for some reason. If you haven't already, you might look through your system logs for clues. For Fedora, my first guess would be to look in /var/log/messages.

If the error message is a complaint about the pid file existing, take a look in /var/run for the file that corresponds to network-manager and delete it. Then try starting the service again.

If you want to try running it (as root) from the command line, try:

I don't know if it will help you, but my successful connection via nm-applet using using 128 bit WEP is documented here. My description of connection with 64 bit WEP is described two posts earlier. These were with Ubuntu 6.10. The OP on that other thread was running Fedora, so it is possible that there is a problem that is specific to Fedora. Sadly, the OP on that thread never reported back whether he ever got it to work.

Please be aware that from a security perspective WEP is defective. WPA or WPA2 is to be preferred, and then you should make sure you use a long and complex or (better) random passphrase.