no network manager or wifi

My first post - hope this is ok.
My daughter's Acer Aspire One doesn't search for the internet - its not in the toolbar. And Preferences - network center doesnt do anything.

I've searched the forum and can't find a fix that works - have tried a few of the suggestions which involved typing things in terminal to get rid of existing network settings. (I've never used Linux but have used pc/mac for many years so can follow instructions.)

We're a mac house so it doesn't sound easy to just make a recovery disk.

Any suggestions on what to do next please?
Thank you

 

1. Verify that wifi switched on
2. Not sure if this is how Linpus works, but it works for Fedora and Ubuntu - <Alt-F2> then type (without quotes) "nm-applet" and hit the enter key. This will start the NetworkManager applet.

 

Thank you - but that didn't work - it makes the toolbar give a little shake but nothing appears - it does the same when the machine powers up.

wifi on? - the light at the front is orange - I can't find anywhere whether that's the right colour? Internet is working fine on my desktop (mac).

 

Wifi's on (or at least the system thinks it is), so that's not the problem. Can you connect to the network via a wired connection?

The standard recommendation around here from those of us who've long-since abandoned Linpus (and forgotten the details of how it's set up, which is not quite like your standard Linux distro) would be to create a live USB stick with either Fedora 11 or Ubuntu 9.04 on it and boot it. Wifi should just work. If it doesn't, its a very likely a hardware problem.

 

Same issue with wired connection - network manager doesn't do anything, browser can't find connection, nothing in the toolbar.

Can you give me a bit more help around the rest of your advice? (I can follow instructions but haven't touched Linux ever - 'distro's a new word for me). Sorry if the rest of this sounds stupid -

Will I be able to get either of those onto a stick via a mac computer?
And what's the difference between them - is either of them more suitable for a complete newbie?

If I get to creating a stick and booting (I assume that means put the USB stick in, switch on and it'll happen?) - will it keep all the acer stuff on there or am I going to have to reinstall all that as well? Sorry - I'm really not confident with any of this - but willing to learn.

(btw - there is no work to worry about on the machine - but we do like the simple acer stuff which has been great for her to just use)

Thank you so much for your advice so far - this forum is the most help I've been able to find out there - so thank you also to everyone on here - much appreciated.

 

I probably know less about using a Mac than you do about Linux. However, booting from a live USB stick will not overwrite anything on the system drive - think of it as try before you buy. Running off a live CD or live USB stick is slower than running off the SSD (since it's a Linpus system, I'm assuming you have the solid state drive rather than a hard drive), but you are getting a full-blown, fully-usable Linux system. If you decide to install from a live CD or live USB stick, then you're writing to the SSD. Doing this (or reinstalling Linpus via the recovery disk) will wi0pe the SSD.

First things first. At this point, since Linpus isn't detecting the network, I'd return the Aspire One and exchange it for a different unit if possible. If that's not possible, or if you feel like doing a bit more detective work first, then read on...

Go to http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/04/4-ways-to-create-bootable-live-usb.html and then scroll down to
#4 Using Diskutil (Mac OS X only) These instructions that should work for you. The only question is what to use as the img file.

For the img file, I recommend
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/11/Live/i686/Fedora-11-i686-Live.iso
The iso file format currently used by Fedora and a number of other Linux distributions ("distros" in the jargon) is designed allow simple creation of both bootable CDs and bootable USB sticks. Just follow the directions, then insert the USB stick with Fedora on it into one of the slots on the Aspire One and turn it on. You may need to immediately press F12 to change the boot order so that the USB stick will be the first to boot.

Assuming you get this far (and I'm sure you will), the desktop should look something like this:https://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/7/74/Tours_Fedora11_010.png. The icon to the left of the speaker in the top panel is the network manager icon. If you're not connected automatically, clicking on it should bring up a list of detected wireless networks from which you can select the proper one.

If you can connect to your network with Fedora, then you'll be able to connect using any popular Linux distribution. As to whether Fedora is the "best" distribution for your daughter's Aspire One, I can't really say. Ubuntu is probably the most popular Linux distribution among Aspire One owners - I didn't suggest it because the above procedure for creating the live USB stick won't work, and I don't know if unetbootin is available for the Mac. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) has an interface (which to me appears) similar to that of Linpus. So many choices, and, if you scan the forum, you'll find advocates for many. Good luck!

 

Thank you for this incredibly clear reply.

I'm going to try and return it as you suggest I think. Though I may well try your other option as well as I'm curious to see if I can do it - I'll need to pop out and get another stick tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thank you.

 

This is a timing/deadlock issue by the looks of it with network resources becoming available - I've had the same problem too.

When it fails:

Press alt-f2
Type sudo nm-applet
Click run

About 80% of the time the network icon will appear after this, if not reboot, or if you want to try and work out what it's doing open up a command prompt and type dmesg

 

I assume the applet for NM is shown in a notification portion of the bar so make sure that this is not been removed. there is a good 3rd party called wicd that many use instead of the stock NM. This was the workaround I have had to use on Ubuntu jaunty and Koala to get a steady working wireless setup on two different laptops. I am not familiar with the Linpus release looks nice but I have never used it so things are for sure a little different even though it is a Linux distro.

 

1. I have the exact same proble with my daughters Aspire one with Linpus Linux. She used it successfully overseas and now it will not connect to them internet via wi-fi or through our DSL. Did you ever get yours to work???

2. I am not very computer literate and have no experience with Linux. Is there any way to switch the operating system from Linux to Windows?

 

Whenever I click the Browser it responds that there is a "problem loading page - Mozilla Firefox" ther connection that it is trying to make is
http://en.us.acer.yahoo.com --what is this?

 

Well I didn't manage to take it back and I've at last found time to try again....


I've managed to do the USB stick thing - I found this helped me to work out how to get it via Mac if anyone needs it -
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-cre ... n-the-mac/

But when I boot the machine, pressing F12, it just goes straight back to the aspire one screen with the connect-work-fun-files menu on it.

Anyone any idea what I'm missing out?

thanks

 

You might try pressing and releasing it continuously - sometimes that works better than press and hold

 

Sorry I missed a step out there in my description -
I press F12 and it brings up the screen with the boot option menu - so I select 2- USB HDD.
I go to it using the arrows to highlight it - and press enter to select it.

The light on my USB flashes a few times (takes a while and looks like its doing something though the screen is blank)
and then sometimes it brings up the aspire one - connect-work-fun-files screen
or it just stays dark for over 5 minutes (by which time I give up, press a key, and it goes to the aspire screen as above).
I've tried all that several times - both with shutdown and with restart. I've tried with the battery and with the power supply.

OK I'm timing it now - the orange light on my usb is still glowing on and off - and we're 8 minutes in - surely something should have happenned?

Any thoughts?

 

OK I gave up - 30 minutes and nothing had happenned.
Pressed the down arrow - it went quickly to that aspire one screen again.

The USB is called Fedora-11-i686-Live and has three folders (EFI, isolinux, LiveOS) and GPL and readme files.
Its 688 MB

Any thoughts on what I've done wrong? Or what I should try next?
Thank you

 

Replacing distros is not going to help if you have a hardware issue, So why don't you start your Linpus up and then post your results from

lspci | grep Ethernet

and

iwconfig

and

dmesg | tail

as root.

 

Ok fair enough - not sure what all this means - or if its useful - I wasn't sure what you meant by 'as root' - and because it sounded scary/risky I ignored that bit and tried it anyway (it says user@localhost ~ sorry if that means that none of this is of use).

the lspci one gave this -
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek RTL8102E PCI Express fast ethernet controller rev02
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter rev 01

iwconfig - gave -
lo no wireless extensions
eth0 no wireless extensions
wifi0 no wireless extensions
ath0 IEEE 802.11 g ESSID:"" Nickname: ""
Mode: managed Frequency: 2.457 GHz Access Point: Not associated
bit rate 0kb/s TX Power: 18 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry: off RTS thr: off fragment thr: off
power management off
Link Quality =0/94 signal level = 161/162 noise level = 161/161
Rx invalid nwid:4 Rx invalid crypt: 0 Rx invalid frag: 0
Tx excessive retries: 0 Invalid misc: 0 Missed beacon:0

and dmesg tail gave -
usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
r8101: eth0 link up
2 del_timer sc_rfkilltimer
ath_stop_locked: LED OFF 2
del_timer sc_rfkilltimer
usb1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
uvc video: Found UVS 1.00 device acer crystal eye webcam (064e:d101)
input: acer crystal eye webcam as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb/1-5/1-5:1.0/input/input10
usb4-1: USB disconnect, address 3
r8101:eth0: link down

hopefully that makes sense to someone?
thank you so much for all your help

 

Can anyone tell from those last details whether this is a hardware or software problem? Sorry I've no idea myself. Can anyone tell me what it means?

thanks

 

hey .. dont mean to hijack ..but when i type lspci or iwconfig it says command not found..