No Connection, wireless icon-gone, cannot op"network center"

Discussion in 'Networking' started by jolly, Sep 2, 2008.

  1. jolly

    rachelreveley

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    I am having the same problem straight after my first update, i only got the machine yesterday. I can't believe Acer haven't fixed this fter three months.
     
    rachelreveley, Jan 6, 2009
  2. jolly

    homer timpson

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    I had the same problem on Boxing Day after I installed the 19 updates on my nieces' brand new machine :cry:

    Tried several suggestions on the threads to no avail - I eventually burnt the supplied Recovery CD to a USB 2GB memory stick via
    the PC I am on now and reinstalled everything from scratch. Took about 25 minutes to do the whole thing.

    I then redownloaded all the Updates again - with heart in mouth :lol:

    Set up the wireless networks for my house and theirs - that was 12 days ago - and there have been no problems since.

    May be worth considering since you won't have too much data on your new system.

    Homer
     
    homer timpson, Jan 6, 2009
  3. jolly

    cowan283

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    i had exactly the same problem, ran the live updater, rebooted the machine and the network center was gone. my first AAO had a faulty hard drive so i swapped it for a new one, which i had to format so there was no way in hell i was going to format it again for this. i tried a few of the suggestions and eventually turned off the auto hide which got the internet working again. network center no longer ells me my signal strength but at least it works.

    it's simply outrageous that acer would release a patch which breaks people's internet if they have the xfce panel on autohide, do they not test these things? whats the point of buying the 120gig hard drive if you have to format it every month becasue the operating sysytem breaks when ever you do anything

    i bought this a month ago to replace a 7 year old mac desktop i was using, thank god i didn't throw the old machine away as i've had to rely on it 3 times so far when this thing has broken. you have to be a masochist to use this machine
     
    cowan283, Jan 22, 2009
  4. jolly

    sotskalle

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    This fixed my problem with the disappearing icon after sleep:

    -press Alt+F2
    -enter "terminal"
    -enter "sudo mousepad /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/10NetworkManager"
    -uncomment the lines
    "killall -SIGPWR nm-applet"
    and
    "killall -SIGUR2 nm-applet"
    -Ctrl+s to save


    I had upgraded the network manager to allow me to connect to WPA2 Enterprise networks. My guess is that Acer used some custom nm-applet and the new one I installed did not have a signal-handler to handle the -SIGPWR and -SIGUR2 signals and therefor it died.
    Also I flashed to the newest BIOS to get rid of the occasional disappearance of the network card while in use.
     
    sotskalle, Feb 3, 2009
  5. jolly

    emsquared

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    A quick thank you for muuuuuu's solution with quickly reinstated things for us thus avoiding yet another system reinstall.
     
    emsquared, Feb 12, 2009
  6. jolly

    jjj

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    They do this because they can get away with it. I wonder how many people take the damn things back? It's not like you will get your money back without a major battle.

    After encountering the unreliable wifi on my Acer netbook, I did make sure my new desktop was not an Acer or Packard Bell.

    Keep spreading the word, then eventually they might have to put out some decent fixes, rather than denying problems.
     
    jjj, Feb 12, 2009
  7. jolly

    art67

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    I've also had the same problem - ran Live Update, had to pause and shut down, and when I switched the netbook on again, there was no way to connect to the internet, either via WiFi or via ethernet - the app and icon had simply vanished.

    Acer UK technical support have been almost provocatively unhelpful: they did not address the issue of Live Update, just copy-pasted the guide to full recovery. Even worse: I e-mailed again to ask how I could install Windows XP and dump Linux, as the latter is eminently unstable. Believe it or not, I got the same copy-pasted guide to recovery back - they hardly bother reading users' questions.

    I've browsed this forum for step-by-step guides to installing Windows XP over Linux, but have not found one that seems 100% reliable, some users who have tried the ones posted here report problems, files missing etc. If anyone can recommend a guide proved to be good, please post.

    My guess is that Windows is simply a more robust OS than Linux. It also happens to be more intuitive, which helps. But to be honest, I've only had to reinstall Windows once in the entire 15 or so years that I've been using it, whereas I've only had the Linpus Acer for just over two months. Ridiculous.
     
    art67, Feb 13, 2009
  8. jolly

    burpitt

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    Location:
    Essex, England
    hey.. interesting topic... thanks for the info from everyone.. i shall add my 2 penneth... i've noticed on mine.. the wireless can come and go as and when it pleases from various situations... i spend a good 2 hours or so last night messing about with settings suggested on here.. i started of reading it for personal interest then ended up trying some of the suggestions towards the end of the night when my wireless stopped for no reason and the light was no on either!

    sat there for hours trying reboots and file edits and terminal commands.. in the end i switched it off for half hour - hour to let her cool down, when i turned it back on the wireless was back flawless!! so one thing I'd say is heat CAN effect your wireless after prolonged use (and i had it on my quilt on my bed so no good for heat disapation)... the cable still worked fine. i've also read elsewhere that the power adapter and shutting/opening the screen can help although both of these didn't seem to help me (unless when I shut it and turned it off that did it?? who knows)...

    on the auto hide issue, i still run mine with auto-hide taskbar enabled, my 'get-around' if you want to call it that is just to be sure the mouse cursor is over the taskbar whilst linux boots, until the network connection manager appears... after that I seem to be safe other than the usual random messups with it but hey, thats the same with most wireless in my experience, it aint great!! so don't expect a lot.. it should work on a basic level tho. my advice would be to always have a cabled line handy if necessary, so if you do desperately need the net and the aspire one is not having it, then you've got a backup from your router/modem...!! anyway hope some of this may be of some benefit to some, as i say, these are just things I've noted with my lil net.B over the last few days of ownership..!
     
    burpitt, Feb 22, 2009
  9. jolly

    MrKev

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    after being frustrated for a while about the network centre not working, and I've searched and tried nearly everything, I've found that this is a positive cure for mine.

    AUTOHIDE ON THE TASKBAR (panel) BREAKS THE NETWORK CENTRE.

    If ever there should be a sticky thread at the top of the networking section, something to that effect should be the first post in the thread....

    Any forum mods out there agree?
     
    MrKev, Feb 25, 2009
  10. jolly

    jjj

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    What do you mean by uncomment? I followed this procedure, but there are already no comments around the lines you refer to, as shown below. Do I add comments?:



    #!/bin/bash


    . /usr/lib/pm-utils/functions


    suspend_nm() {

    # Tell NetworkManager to shut down networking

    dbus-send --system \

    --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \

    /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \

    org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.sleep

    killall -SIGPWR nm-applet

    }


    resume_nm() {

    # Wake up NetworkManager and make it do a new connection

    dbus-send --system \

    --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager \

    /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager \

    org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.wake

    killall -SIGUSR2 nm-applet

    }


    case "$1" in

    hibernate|suspend)

    suspend_nm

    ;;

    thaw|resume)

    resume_nm

    ;;

    *)

    ;;

    esac


    exit $?
     
    jjj, Feb 28, 2009
  11. jolly

    Jason G

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    I too have had this annoying thing! I was online then the battery went down to 5%. I shut the lid and t went to sleep. I plugged it in about two hours later and turned it on. The network button in the tool tray by the clock never appeared. I did multiple restarts and switched the wireless slider across a few times then came on here and followed the advice given.

    The only one that worked for me was typing nm-applet in Terminal. This meant keeping it open and minimised or else you lose the connection if you close it.

    Experimentally today I tried typing in nm-applet into the Run Program screen accessible via the Start menu if you replaced the Linpus-style Acer desktop. This has now meant not having to keep a Terminal screen on all the time, and it automatically reloads the network-password screen each time you open the laptop after hutting the lid temporarily!

    This said, does anyone know how to make the lappie remember the Network password so you don't have to keep on typing it in each time you power-up, open-up or restart?

    Thanks for reading! :cool:
     
    Jason G, Mar 8, 2009
  12. jolly

    kluaspind

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    What do you mean by uncomment? I followed this procedure, but there are already no comments around the lines you refer to, as shown below. Do I add comments?:


    It means that you put # in front of the line, if im not mistaken.

    like this

    #killall -SIGUR2 nm-applet
     
    kluaspind, Mar 10, 2009
  13. jolly

    pauls68uk

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    I can't believe this problem has been going on for so long...it has just happened to me but luckily the above fixed it for me. Thanks kapinouwi!
     
    pauls68uk, Mar 14, 2009
  14. jolly

    theepot

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    And after the update and restart, NO WIRELESS NETWORK ICON and WIRELESS CONNECTION!!!

    sx! bigtime :twisted:

    What is meant by terminal, and where should I put in these codewords?
    Im hopeless.....
     
    theepot, Mar 20, 2009
  15. jolly

    jjj

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    Hit Alt +F2
    Type: terminal
    Click run
     
    jjj, Mar 24, 2009
  16. jolly

    ultrak3wl

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    I can't believe this is so awful. I bought this machine two days ago and have been struggling with "lost network center" for most of that time.

    I actually like the laptop but I don't think I can manage with rebooting it all the time to get wireless back. I've tried many of the fixes people have suggested (deleting gconf, updating network manager package etc.) but none of them work. There must be some in this 12-page thread I've overlooked and it's annoying me to think the answer is in here somewhere but I've missed it.

    I don't want to return it for refund - can anyone who has been in the thread from the start point to anything which might be my last chance to get this fixed?

    Thanks
     
    ultrak3wl, Mar 28, 2009
  17. jolly

    jjj

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    I would take the thing back whilst you still can get a full refund. Read all of the threads & you will find reports of problems with both the wifi software & hardware, so you might as well get a fully developed machine from some other manufacturer.

    However, if you want to persist, try updating the network manager -look up the post from IMSancho on this.
    Then try the "killall -SIGPWR nm-applet" post, which you will see in this thread (P12).


    The wifi seems to work quite consistently with this configuration, but I still cannot get it to remember the wifi password.


    As a Linux novice, I'm grateful for the advice received on this forum.
     
    jjj, Mar 28, 2009
  18. jolly

    colinives

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    rm -rf ~/.gconf/system/networking

    Worked for me!

    Thanks
     
    colinives, Apr 1, 2009
  19. jolly

    jjj

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    Didn't do anything for me, but I've probably made some hideous mistake by typing in the squiggle?

    [user@localhost ~]$ rm -rf~/gconf/system/networking
    rm: invalid option -- ~
    Try `rm --help' for more information.
    [user@localhost ~]$
     
    jjj, Apr 2, 2009
  20. jolly

    kapinouwi

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    Location:
    france
    rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

    attention to the spaces in the command ;)
     
    kapinouwi, Apr 3, 2009
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