Since the introduction of NetworkManager, connections can be enabled and disabled from the NetworkManager icon in the System Notification Area.
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Before attempting any troubleshooting, ensure that the connection is enabled:
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If you have a network connection which is not working properly, you can use a few tools to help diagnose what the problem is.
Most of the tools in this section require use of the Terminal, which you can open by pressing
→ → .ifconfig is intended to allow you to change the settings of your network connections, but it can also be used to list information about the current connection.
Press
→ → to open a TerminalType ifconfig eth1
in the Terminal and press Enter, replacing eth1 with the name of your network interface if it is different.
inet addr gives the current IP address of the connection
HWaddr gives the MAC address of your network device
A good way of checking if a connection is working properly is to ping another computer on the network or the Internet.
To check if you are connected to the Internet:
Press
→ →Select the Ping tab
Type ubuntu.com
into the Network address box and then press
After a while, a graph should appear. Look at the number for Successful packets under Transmission Statistics
100% successful packets - Your computer should have a good connection to the Internet
Less than 100% successful - Your computer probably has a poor connection to the Internet or a poor wireless signal
0% successful packets - Your computer has a very bad connection, or is connected to an access point or router which is not connected to the Internet
If you get an error message which says The address 'ubuntu.com' cannot be found, then your computer is probably not connected to the Internet or cannot reach a DNS server.
While not exhaustive, this section covers some common problems faced with wireless support.
There is much more information available from the Community Documentation.
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This troubleshooting guide is designed to be carried out in order. If you reach the end of a section and are not directed to another - then try the section called “Wireless” and should it fail begin at the start again. |
Many wireless network devices can be turned on or off. Check to see if there is a hardware switch, some devices can be switched off from Windows and may need to be turned back on from Windows.
If it is turned on then see the section called “Check for device recognition”.
Open a Terminal ( → → ) and type the command: sudo lshw -C network
You should see an output, along with the words "CLAIMED, UNCLAIMED, ENABLED or DISABLED"
Claimed - this indicates a driver is loaded but not functioning, see the section called “Using Windows Wireless Drivers”
Unclaimed - there is no driver loaded, see the section called “Using Windows Wireless Drivers”.
Enabled - move on to If there is a driver listed then see the section called “Check for a connection to the router”.
Disabled - see the section called “Check that the device is on”.
Xubuntu supports a system known as NDISWrapper. This allows you to use a Windows wireless device driver under Xubuntu.
Obtain the Windows Driver for your system and locate the file that ends with .inf
.
Open ndisgtk ( → → ).
Select Install new driver.
Choose the location of your Windows .inf file and click
.Click
.Open a Terminal ( → → ) and type the command: iwconfig
.
If the ESSID for our router is shown there may be a problem with ACPI support. Boot the kernel with the pci=noacpi
option.
Open a Terminal ( → → ) and type the command: ifconfig
.
If there is an IP address shown see the section called “Check DNS”.
From the Terminal enter the command: sudo dhclient if_name
where if_name is the connection listed earlier.
If you receive a message that says bound to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
then see the section called “Check DNS”
If not then reboot the system.
Open a Terminal ( → → ) and type the command: ping -c3 85.190.27.2
.
Now type the command: ping www.ubuntu.com
. If you get a response from the both then see the section called “IPv6 Not Supported”.
Type the command: cat /etc/resolv.conf
. If there is no nameserver listed then contact your ISP and find out your primary and secondary domain name servers. Once you have this information see the section called “Wireless”.