Re: Switching wireless adapters loses all rules

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005, Derek Frye wrote:
> I recently switched network cards from a prism54 chipset card to a 
> rt2500 chipset. Originally, NetworkManager didn't show my network in the 
> list (though the network still shows in kismet). So I chose "connect to 
> other wireless network", typed in the details (essid and hex key) and it 
> connected fine. The network strength is very good.
> 
> After every reboot NetworkManager doesn't show the network in the list, 
> so I manually add the network and it connects. How can NM "forget" the 
> details and I have to add them back? Is there a file somewhere storing 
> the Networks I've associated with, or those available? Nothing in 
> /etc/NetworkManager except an empty dispatcher.d.

NetworkManager finds networks through a scan, which is basically the result of 
'/sbin/iwlist ethX scanning'.  If you execute that command, do you see your 
access point in any of the entries?  Note that you might need to scan a few 
times since wireless is a somewhat unpredicatble beast.

Next, in that scan list, you should see BSSIDs (they look like MAC addresses).  
For example:

          Cell 03 - Address: 00:0F:66:F9:79:CB
                    ESSID:"banana"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
                    Quality:30/100  Signal level=-80 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s

Do you have an Address: field?  Next, can you run 'gconf-editor' and drill down 
to the /system/networking/wireless/networks/ level, find your network in the 
list there, and tell me if you have anything in the "addresses" key in the 
right-hand pane of the window?

If any of these things are missing, it probably will not find your network 
automatically.  Cisco cards, for example, filter out non-ESSID-broadcasting 
access points from their scan lists, which means we can't automatically match up 
the BSSID and the scanned access point and connect automatically.  You problem 
might also be a case of a bad network driver that needs to get fixed.

Dan