Hello, I'm new to the forum.
I'm running Mint 14 on an ancient 32bit desktop I have kludged together.
I have a USB dongle installed and it could not find my WiFi.
Wired interface on eth0 works fine.

>lsusb yields
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter

>iwconfig yields
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thrff
Power Managementff

I have a Netgear router with Wireless Settings:
2.4 GHz SSID G-Marx and
5 GHz SSID N-Marx
Security WPA2-PSK

I installed the Wicd Network Manager which is telling me: No wireless networks found.
If I click on the Network tab, and try Find a hidden network, it asks for a Hidden Network ESSID.
I try G-Marx or N-Marx and try to connect, it scans and says No wireless networks found.
Also, plenty of neighbors have WiFi, I'm connected both G & N on my cell phone right now and can see some of my neighbor's as well.

When I look at the preferences set in the Wicd Network Manager, my Network Interfaces are:
Wireless Interface: wlan0
Wired Interface: eth0 ;which is working

In advanced settings, my WPA supplicant is: wext. I tried: nl80211 as well, still nothing.

The chump is stumped. Any ideas?

What is the chipset in the USB interface? The most likely cause is that the correct drivers for that chipset is not installed. In the Mint control center, there is an item called "Additional Drivers." It's worth a shot to run that; it may help.

The command lsusb in a terminal may tell you this; if not, the command dmesg will almost certainly do so, but it produces a lot more output to wade through. Post what you find out back here, being sure to surround it with "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the "Quick Reply" window. (Please do not post the complete output of dmesg--just the relevant part.)

frankbell,

Sorry, I could not find a "Quick Reply" window.

marx@marx-MS-6712 ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n

It's a RNX-MiniN1

OK, here it is now

That appears to be precisely the information needed. Realtek and Broadcom and sometimes be problematic on Linux.

This thread from the PC Linux OS forums should help. (I'm too lazy to copy and paste.)

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index...opic=102220.15