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Connections tab missing from network manager in Debian 6

I just installed Debian 6 on my new Thinkpad edge 14" a few hours ago. However, I have a problem with setting up my wlan connection. The network manager is missing the connections tab completely. I installed a few packages that I think I needed ("firmware-linux-nonfree" and "firmware-ipw2X00") but that didn't help. The wlan worked fine on windows.

Is there an alternate method of configuring the WLAN? Has anybody else encountered this problem and solved it?

Thanks in advance,
Omnilogist

Lots of people find using Network Manager to be difficult. Sooner or later someone on this forum is going to suggest you try wicd. I guess I'm the first. 'aptitude install wicd' . Generally it's a good program. As to what programs you should have installed, 'wpasupplicant' is one that I think you need but that you didn't mention. Other than that maybe someone else can chime in with more advice. You might post your output from 'lspci'. That might list exactly which wifi hardware you have, so that it can be determined what firmware you need.

EDIT: obviously if you cannot connect via wifi then you cannot run aptitude without hardwired ethernet or modem connection. Helpfully wicd, though contained in several debian packages, is not that big.

Thanks a lot for the answer -- I was starting to fear that no-one would answer.

Here is the output for lspci:

Code:

valtteri@valtteri:~$ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 02)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)

00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 06)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)

03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)

09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)

ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)

ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)

ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)

ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

Is it possible to download the packages you suggested from windows -- I'm dual-booting -- and install them locally in Debian? I did that for the firmware packages.

Thanks again; I can't wait to start configuring&using Debian properly :)

So to start with, I think you're looking for a package called 'firmware-realtek' -- Look at this link:

http://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x

What kernel do you have installed? you can find it using 'uname -a'. Apparently you need a 2.6.38-2 or later.

Install 'wireless-tools' as suggested. This package may have dependencies. I only mention it since you say you want to download stuff on windows and install on debian after.

You can follow the instructions in the wiki easily enough, write if there's a point you don't get.

write when you've finished to close the thread. :)

NOTE: I hope this works for you, but this is not my hardware and I cannot ensure....

edit: you need the backported version of 'firmware-realtek' . This is a link:

http://packages.debian.org/squeeze-b...rmware-realtek

Hi again,

I followed your advice and installed "firmware-realtek" (from the site you suggested and using the dpkg -i command) and network-tools (from http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_...nux/Tools.html and using the make and make install commands).

I got network tools up and running, but stilled failed to get internet access. These are the interfaces I could see:
loopback interface (lo), which was the only one to have an IP address and it even told me it had transferred some data. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this is.
ethernet interface (eth0) I have not had the chance to test ethernet yet and want to use wireless anyway
unknown interfoce (pan0) missing IP address and even the computer apparently has no idea what it is.

I'm quite lost right now; I have little knowledge of setting up internet outside the Windows next-next-next wizard. I'm relaying on you people to get this done, but am grateful for all the help I've gotten this far.

Did you try Radiodee1's suggestion? That has instructions for exactly your chip set (RTL8111). Try it one step at a time and post any questions or problem you encounter along the way.
BTW the pan0 interface is for bluetooth connections.
ciao,
jdk

http://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x

this is the stuff to try. If you already installed the realtek firmware from the site that was linked to, then you don't need to do that part in the debian wiki. 'network-tools' from source might not actually be helping you out. I was saying that you want the debian package 'wireless-tools'. You can google for the web site for that one,

http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/wireless-tools

Or you may already have it installed. Type 'aptitude search wireless-tools' to find out. If the listing has a 'i' next to it, then it's installed.

Sorry guys; I'm afraid I just don't have the time for this right now. Thanks a lot for the support, but I got fed up when I tried to reinstall Debian and it decided not to install a desktop environment at all. I believe the guide you gave to me would have worked, but things got too complicated when I had to install each package separately (you need to remember that I couldn't get any internet access at all in Debian).

Anyway, I installed OpenSUSE and got ethernet to work immediately. I'm still working on the wireless part, but that is a subject for another thread.

Thanks again for the support. I hope someone else will benefit from it as well.