In Ubuntu 9.10 (fresh install, not an upgrade from 9.04) on an ASUS EeePC 900, I was using wireless networking at home, which worked well. I took the netbook to work a few times and did not using it at home all that period of time. I connected it as a wired network (DHCP) at work, and it "just worked" fine (no configuration was needed). Now I tried to use it at home and wireless no longer works for all users. In System > Preferences > Network connections I can access the wireless configuration and it is still there, still with all the correct settings as worked before. However, in the network manager I access from the upper panel via the antenna icon, it now only lists a Wired network. The wireless network isn't in the list at all. No upgrades were done. I do those from home and tried to do one this morning but since wireless did not work I could not accomplish it.

I could hook it to a wired network, so if fixing this needs to upgrade something, that's doable (but I'd think it should not be needed since wireless did work before). I was going to try things like delete all networks and start again, but since that might lose information about a possible bug, I'm holding off.

Any idea what's goofed up? Anything I should look at to see what is going on?

I had similar problems with the wireless settings in Kubuntu 9.10 running on a Dell Latitude D600 (also fresh install). At some point (after having been on a different net) I could see the old wireless network with good signal strength but it wouldn't connect to it automatically anymore (which it used to and was set to), and I couldn't click on it in the antenna icon anymore either to connect to it - even more manual approaches wouldn't let me connect either. Deleting this one connection and re-creating it fixed the problem. I wasn't be as patient as Skaperen is, but I'd be more than glad to post whatever log (or whatever else) that would be helpful if it should happen again.

Good to know that deleting the wireless config and entering it back will fix it. I might do that in a couple days. I'm not in an urgent need because I can plug in an ethernet connection to my home LAN if I need to. I'd like to leave open any opportunity to debug what is happening with this network manager and why it is confused (why it lost something it should not really keep a separate list for anyway).

FYI, I frequently see problems with GUI system configuration management apps getting things wrong and losing data. That's why, on production servers, especially critical ones, I won't use such apps. I use my favorite text file editor and configure things by hand, or write my own (non-GUI) scripts, as needed.

Perhaps part of the problem is related to the fact that the network management scheme used makes wireless connectivity specific to the logged in user with no option for the system administrator to designate a default wireless connection to be active when a CONSOLE logged in user has not chosen another?

I finally tried deleting the wireless network config in the network configuration manager. Then I added it back. It still does not work. But there appears to be a regression to an old issue I encountered in 9.04. Note this this today is on an install of 9.10, not an upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10. The regression issue is where the network manager fails to keep the shared key for the wireless network security configuration. It tries to make the connection, so unlike why I posted this thread, it is now finding a configuration to try to start up. However, there is no shared key. Every time I edit the configuration and add the key, then close and restart the network manager and edit the same config, the key is gone. It's not saving it just the same as the 9.04 bug.

I wiped the hard drive and re-installed 9.10 from scratch, again, and updated all the packages. The network is fine now. So it does not appear to be a regression in a package update. It just might be a bug triggered by something in the system. No idea what could be doing that. I'll test attaching a wired network later to see if that still causes the wireless config to permanently break.

"Network Mangler" continues to drive me insane. It is uninstalled.

wicd was good, but gets better and better

*Adjust hardy to match your current distro

But I agree that nothing beats editing the relevant configuration files yourself (and keeping backups of working configurations for when the GUI "helpers" mess it all up big time).

I had a DEVIL of a time getting the built-in wireless to work with my Dell d600. I tried different distros (Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Fedora, etc...), but none gave me any love.

On each distro, I installed bcm43xx-fwcutter and used ndiswrapper to install the WLAN 1450 driver from Dell's website. No luck.

I tried using different network managers. WICD. WPA-GUI. Etc... Nothing helped.

This had gone on for weeks (ok, maybe months). I was SURE I had everything configured properly, but still no wireless. It was very frustrating.

Then just yesterday, while looking around using gnome-device-manager, I noticed that a "WLAN button" was listed. I looked at the laptop, and could not find an on/off button for the wireless.

Then, I noticed a little blue symbol on the F2 key that looked like an antenna. So I hit FN-F2, and bingo! The wireless kicked in.

All that time fighting with software, and the problem ended up being that I just had to press the proverbial power button. Man, did I feel like a noob!

Now, I can't say that this is the same problem you're having. However, I've been in quite a few message boards where people cannot figure out why they can't get the wireless to work on the d600, even though they're CERTAIN they've installed all the software correctly.

So why not give it a try?

(FYI: I'm using Debian Squeeze with LXDE as my desktop. I'm now using WICD as my network manager.)