Total freeze after installing wicd using slackpkg

adhill · 11-23-2010, 04:54 PM

Hi there

I am a total beginner and wonder if anyone can offer me some advice.

I have installed Slackware 13.1 without a problem and have a working wired ethernet connection. However I need to set up wireless but each time I try to do this using wicd I have a total system crash during the start up screens at the very last line before the welcome line appears.

Nothing works to resolve it, and I need to press and hold the start button and restart. I have checked the md5sum, installed the software again several times but the same happens each time which results in me having to reinstall.

I have installed wicd using slackpkg update, then slackpkg install wicd.

I have also tried downloading wicd from the slackware /extras folder and installing it on its own. Either way the same happens.

I have tried various manual approaches to setting up wireless following various links but again without success.

I now have a clean install again but am not wanting the same to happen.

Can anyone suggest what I might need to do?

I am using an intel Pentium 4, 2.53 ghz, 512Mb ram, GeForce4 MX 440.

Also - could any suggest a good website or book for beginners in using Linux.

Many thanks

Andy

bgeddy · 11-23-2010, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Also - could any suggest a good website or book for beginners in using Linux.

Whilst I cannot help with Wicd as I don't use it I can recomend the Rute book as well as the Slackware Book. The Slackware book is obviously Slackware specific but the Rute book is general and very good. Both are very much worth looking at.

Oh and welcome to the forum.

damgar · 11-23-2010, 06:00 PM

I'm not an expert in wicd either, and have only used it for a day. On your second question though, I recommend http://www.linux.org/lessons/ I know that it helped me quite a bit.

markush · 11-23-2010, 06:06 PM

Hello adhill and welcome to LQ,

you'll normally don't need wicd. I'd suggest to uninstall wicd, then edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and configure to use wpa_supplicant for the wireless connection. Edit /etc/wpa_supplciant.conf and make the apropriate changes for your network (you'll find an examplefile in /usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant...). Then your wireless network should work when starting the computer. You may as well execute wpa_supplicant from the commandline, I'd recommend to read the manpage of wpa_supplicant

Code:

man wpa_supplicant

Markus

DonnieP · 11-24-2010, 03:16 PM

Personally, I've encountered unreliability from supplicant, while wicd has been rock solid, both in X and without X. What error messages did you see before the startup crashes? Be aware that wicd takes over complete control of both wired and wireless. After you install it you use it to select and configure both wired and wireless, not the /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf file. When you installed wicd did you configure it immediately (without rebooting) and did it work before rebooting?

adhill · 11-25-2010, 03:52 PM

Thank you very much for the suggestions on the linux introductions, I will take a good look at these.

The error dialogue box I saw was something to do with dbus but I didn't write it down. No I couldn't configure it before rebooting, there seemed to be no options.

Before I have another go at using the wpa supplicant etc, I have tried to install wicd again.

When I typed 'wicd-cleint', I recieve the following error message:

/usr/bin/python No such file or directory exists.

Could you tell me which python files I might need to install? (When I did a fresh install I didn't install KDE I just went for xfce because my pc is quite old.

Thank you for help.

Andy

markush · 11-25-2010, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adhill

.../usr/bin/python No such file or directory exists...

/usr/bin/python should be a symbolic link to /usr/lib/python2.6, please check this.

Markus

adhill · 11-26-2010, 12:43 PM

Thank you very much Markus.

I have installed python, dbus-python, pygtk, pycario, pyobject and could now see wicd icon in the tray in right hand bottom corner of the screen. However there does not seem to be an otpion to change settings or a dialogue box call up. The good thing is I can see my network has been picked up but whenever I click on it, the whole system freezes and I have to press and hold the start button. I think there must be a conflict somewhere between the wired connect setting and introducing wicd, but I have no idea what that is. I have uninstalled wicd whilst I find out some more.

I did notice on the read file for wicd it suggests that if you do not have kde installed that you install ktsuss from SlackBuilds, do you think that is something I should try?

Thank you again

Andy

markush · 11-26-2010, 02:58 PM

Quote:

I did notice on the read file for wicd it suggests that if you do not have kde installed that you install ktsuss from SlackBuilds, do you think that is something I should try?

No, I don't think so.

So you've uninstalled wicd we'll look to get your wireless connection working without wicd.
Could you please post the output of (as root)

Code:

iwconfig

and execute the command

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_start

please post any errormessages.
Be aware that you'll have to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and configure both files for the settings of your network.

Markus

adhill · 11-28-2010, 04:44 PM

Hello again Markus

Thank you very much for bearing with me.
I followed your suggestion and edited the /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1/conf and /etc/wpc_supplicant.cont and ran /etc/rc.d/intet1 wlan0_start and the system immediately froze.

Now I can't even get passed the start up screen to log in. It gets as far as 'dhcpcd: timed out' and freezes and there is nothing I can do except press and hold the start button.

Does this mean I need to reinstall again?

I am using a Belkin Wirless G card version 7000uk, I think I'd do some searching on that.

Any ideas are welcome. (Am currently having to resort to XP).

I really wish I would sort this.

Thank you to anyone for any help.

Andy

markush · 11-28-2010, 04:55 PM

Well, this means you can't even log in as root?
I think you'll have to check out which programm actually kills your system...
You may boot with your installation-CD, log in, mount the / device

Code:

mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/sdax /mnt/tmp

where /dev/sdax is your root device.
Then you may look into the file "/var/log/messages",

Code:

vi /var/log/messages

should work for you. Maybe

Code:

tail /var/log/messages

will work as well. In this file the syslog-ng daemon logs the complete startup process, maybe we'll get a hint from there.

Markus

adhill · 11-28-2010, 05:37 PM

Thank you very much Markus,
I followed your instructions. The results using tail /var/log/messages is as follows. (All prefixed with the date then 'user.info kernel:'

uddev: starting version 153
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.28
8139too 0000:00:10.0 PCI INTA ->GSI 17 (level, low) ->IRQ17
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xd800, 00:20:ed:b3:b5:c4, RRQ17
sis96x_smbus 0000:00:02.1 SiS96x SMBus base address: 0x1000
parport_pc 00:0b: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
partport0:PC-style at Ox378(0x778), irq7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
eth0: link down
Ext4-fs(sda7): recovery complete
Ext4-fs (sda7): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode

Does that give any clues?

Thank you again

Andy

markush · 11-28-2010, 06:02 PM

mh, when booting with an installation-CD and mounting / to /mnt/tmp, youd have to

Code:

tail /mnt/tmp/var/log/messages

I hope you did that.

On my system the next steps while starting are

Code:

Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): orphan cleanup on readonly fs
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): 2 orphan inodes deleted
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): recovery complete
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: devtmpfs: mounted
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 764k freed
Nov 29 00:34:43 srv-zuhause kernel: Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 16384k
N

seems your system hangs when trying to mount tmpfs.

But I don't know if this freezing has really something to do with the network. I'm at a loss. Maybe someone looks at this thread and has an idea.

I'm going to bed now, it's about 1 o'clock in the morning

Markus

adhill · 12-08-2010, 01:53 PM

Just in case anyone was to read this I am fairly confident my problem is with my Belkin PCI G wireless network card. I have tried to load various distros without success, many of which crash during install and found Slackware to be the only one that didn't. However when I remove the Belkin I can install any of them without a hitch. I have purchased a different network card and will try this instead. So the problem is very unlikely to be related to wicd afterall. Apologies for the wild goose chase.
Andy