Re: Debian 5 server - auto-reconnect to wireless networks?
After some time with a newer version of network manager my experience is the same as Klistvud's. Although the automatically reconnecting behaviour seems to be enabled, it doesn't always work. Perhaps bugs in the wireless card driver, or in network manager, or perhaps it's just cause as Mirko says network manager is not meant for running on a server and keeping the internet connection up all the time. So I read this: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch05.en.html which is quite badly written but it did give me the basic idea about ifupdown and /etc/network/interfaces. Then I read the README.modes that Mirko pointed out and that filled in the details. I unchecked Enable wireless in network manager and then added this to /etc/network/interfaces: auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp wpa-ssid My ESSID wpa-psk my_hexadecimal_key I inspected the output of the ifconfig command to figure out that my wireless card is called eth0. I used the wpa_passphrase command to generate the hexadecimal code for the WPA2 shared secret. This works, now sudo ifdown eth0 will disconnect and sudo ifup eth0 will reconnect to the internet, and it connects to the internet when I reboot the laptop also (I think the auto eth0 line does that). There was nothing in any of those docs about reconnecting to the wireless network if the network goes away for a time, or about keeping the connection alive. But testing seems to reveal that it magically takes care of this. I tried turning the modem off and then on again quickly to simulate someone restarting it, this quick on and off seemed to trip up network manager often, but with this setup the laptop reconnects. I also tried turning the modem off for a longer period and when I turned it back on the laptop reconnected again also. This was much simpler than I expected after first looking at the docs for it. If I did want to switch back to network manager temporarily it should be as simple as checking Enable wireless in network manager again, maybe commenting out the lines I added to /etc/network/interfaces first. It's only been one day so far, but looks promising. I'm no expert but I feel like I finally have a foot in the door with debian network configuration. Thanks for the help On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 12:55:24PM +0100, Mirko Parthey wrote: On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 04:46:51PM +, chombee wrote: I'm wondering how to get my Debian server to automatically reconnect to my wireless network. The server is an OLPC XO-1 running Debian 5 Stable via the DebXO distribution. It does not have a wired ethernet port, it connects to the internet through my home wireless network. The wireless router occasionally gets restarted, sometimes when I'm not home, and this requires me to physically go to the laptop to manually reconnect either by operating the network manager applet with the mouse or by running a script that uses ifconfig, iwconfig and dhclient. The network manager package description says it is not intended for usage on servers. If you want an interface to be permanently up, without even logging in, you should set it up in /etc/network/interfaces. Check out /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/README.modes.gz from the wpasupplicant package. Your case should be covered by section 2: Mode #1: Managed Mode. Mirko -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100222115524.ga8...@titus.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 10:36:45AM +0100, Klistvud wrote: Dne, 22. 02. 2010 12:55:24 je Mirko Parthey napisal(a): The network manager package description says it is not intended for usage on servers. If you want an interface to be permanently up, without even logging in, you should set it up in /etc/network/interfaces. I'll second that. I have a similar situation (no wired eth port) and went for the fixed-IP solution, disabling DHCP and network manager for the wireless interface. That said, however, I also have a laptop with network manager and it *does* re-connect to the wireless network every time my router gets reset. I think this may depend on the default wireless network(s) you configure through right-clicking on the network applet and selecting Edit wireless networks. IIRC, network manager is designed to automatically connect (and re-connect) to any network you have configured there. That said, *sometimes* my network manager simply fails to reconnect; I always thought the network driver I'm using (the proprietary Broadcom wl.ko) was the culprit. -- Regards, Klistvud Certifiable Loonix User #481801 http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1267090605.233...@compax -- To UNSUBSCRIBE
Re: Debian 5 server - auto-reconnect to wireless networks?
On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 10:51:13AM +0100, Klistvud wrote: Dne, 23. 02. 2010 16:57:26 je chombee napisal(a): it has a static IP so I can ssh to it over the internet. I think network manager (when working correctly) is actually perfect for it, it should keep the connection to my home wireless network alive, but it's also very easy and convenient for other situations when I wouldn't want to be messing around with wpasupplicant config files, like if I'm travelling and decide to take the laptop with me, if my girlfriend borrows it, etc. That comes as a surprise. I've never managed to make network manager work with a *static IP* (but then, I'm little more than a beginner in all things GNU/Linux). I've been googling quite a lot and it would seem that such configuration is only possible if your *router* is capable of assigning a static IP based on a client's MAC address (about which I would very much like to be disproved). My Belkin router, alas, has no such capability ... Yeah my router handles that. I think newer versions of network manager may handle static IPs, not sure. Network manager is reconnecting most of the time but sometimes when the router crashes or gets restarted nm doesn't reconnect. Sometimes nm doesn't seem to notice it has lost the connection. Not perfect. I need a better router anyway. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100317023616.ga6...@debxo
Re: Debian 5 server - auto-reconnect to wireless networks?
On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 12:55:24PM +0100, Mirko Parthey wrote: On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 04:46:51PM +, chombee wrote: I'm wondering how to get my Debian server to automatically reconnect to my wireless network. The server is an OLPC XO-1 running Debian 5 Stable via the DebXO distribution. It does not have a wired ethernet port, it connects to the internet through my home wireless network. The wireless router occasionally gets restarted, sometimes when I'm not home, and this requires me to physically go to the laptop to manually reconnect either by operating the network manager applet with the mouse or by running a script that uses ifconfig, iwconfig and dhclient. The network manager package description says it is not intended for usage on servers. If you want an interface to be permanently up, without even logging in, you should set it up in /etc/network/interfaces. Check out /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/README.modes.gz from the wpasupplicant package. Your case should be covered by section 2: Mode #1: Managed Mode. Thanks for the wpasupplicant link. But it looks a little complicated and made me realise that I just want network-manager to work. The machine in question is not really a server, it's a laptop, when I said it was my 'home server' all I meant was I leave my laptop turned on 24/7 sitting on my desk, I ssh to it often, and it has a static IP so I can ssh to it over the internet. I think network manager (when working correctly) is actually perfect for it, it should keep the connection to my home wireless network alive, but it's also very easy and convenient for other situations when I wouldn't want to be messing around with wpasupplicant config files, like if I'm travelling and decide to take the laptop with me, if my girlfriend borrows it, etc. The problem is that network manager is not automatically connecting to the network as it should do. I've installed the newer version of network-manager from backports.org and so far this seems to have fixed the problem, but we'll see. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100223155726.gc7...@kisimul
Debian 5 server - auto-reconnect to wireless networks?
Hi, I'm wondering how to get my Debian server to automatically reconnect to my wireless network. The server is an OLPC XO-1 running Debian 5 Stable via the DebXO distribution. It does not have a wired ethernet port, it connects to the internet through my home wireless network. The wireless router occasionally gets restarted, sometimes when I'm not home, and this requires me to physically go to the laptop to manually reconnect either by operating the network manager applet with the mouse or by running a script that uses ifconfig, iwconfig and dhclient. The way network manager behaves on Ubuntu and (I think) the testing and unstable distributions of debian is to automatically scan for and reconnect to wireless networks that it has connected to before. But in Debian 5 stable it does not do this, and there is not an option to have it do this. I've tried left- and right- clicking on the applet, going into all the menus, opening the various gnome network management dialogs, nothing. I'm quite convinced that the option is not there. Is there a way to enable network manager's automatically connecting behaviour? Getting network manager to work as it does elsewhere would be the best, its behaviour of automatically scanning for and reconnecting to any wireless network that it has connected to in the past is very convenient. But failing that I'd settle for getting it to automatically reconnect to my home wireless network by any means. I may even look into writing a script for cron to run every few minutes. The script would have to do nothing if the laptop is already connected to a wireless network, and try to connect to a network if it's not, I guess some combination of the ifconfig, iwconfig and dhclient commands might achieve this. Any help? Thanks -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100221164651.ga9...@kisimul
Re: How to hibernate from the command line without typing password
On Sun, Dec 06, 2009 at 02:10:38PM -0500, Celejar wrote: On Sun, 6 Dec 2009 14:57:21 + chombee chom...@lavabit.com wrote: ... Gnome desktop. You can send a signal via dbus asking for the computer to be hibernated with the following command: dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.PowerManagement --type=method_call /org/freedesktop/PowerManagement org.freedesktop.PowerM anagement.Hibernate ... I also saved the command as an executable script called 'hibernate' so that I can hibernate from the command line by just typing hibernate. I don't recall the earlier thread, but what's wrong with the 'hibernate' command from the 'acpi-support' package, or 's2disk' from the 'usswsusp' package? I have acpi-support installed but don't seem to have a hibernate command, could take a closer look at the package I guess. I also have usswsusp installed but I think the s2disk command must be run with sudo, so you have to type your password. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
How to hibernate from the command line without typing password
I asked this question on this list a while back and although I did get a helpful response that would have led to a solution, it would not have led to the better solution that I recently discovered so I thought I'd post this in case it might be helpful to anyone else searching the list. I found the solution in this blog post: http://thehacklist.blogspot.com/2009/09/suspendhibernate-from-command-line.html the command in the post itself didn't work for me, but one given in the comments did. This works for me in Debian Lenny running the default Gnome desktop. You can send a signal via dbus asking for the computer to be hibernated with the following command: dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.PowerManagement --type=method_call /org/freedesktop/PowerManagement org.freedesktop.PowerM anagement.Hibernate In the above blog post's comments you'll find a similar command to suspend the computer. I used this command to add a one-click hibernate button to my Gnome panel (as a custom application launcher). Normally you can't hibernate without multiple clicks in Gnome, and it always asks you whether you want to suspend, hibernate, restart or shutdown, of which shutdown seems to always be the default. I just kept choosing shutdown and then cursing because what I always want is to hibernate. If hibernate works for you, why would you ever want to shutdown? Hibernate seems to me to be what computers should always do, as they start up much faster and all your context is preserved. I also saved the command as an executable script called 'hibernate' so that I can hibernate from the command line by just typing hibernate. Works for me! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Network manager doesn't autoconnect to wireless networks in stable?
I don't see any way to set my default networks or autoconnect properties. If I right-click on the network manager applet there is Connection Information which is entirely passive and Edit Wireless Networks which brings up a dialog that contains an entry for my wireless network but there's no apparent way to make that network a default one or to tell it to autoconnect to that network. Maybe this is because you both have a newer version of network manager than I do or maybe I'm missing a package although if I am I can't find it. On Mon, Nov 02, 2009 at 11:07:31AM -0500, Patrick Wiseman wrote: On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 10:44 AM, chombee chom...@lavabit.com wrote: Does no one know the answer to this? Is not reconnecting automatically the default behaviour of network manager in Debian 5 stable or am I the only one who has this behaviour? On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 11:26:14PM +, chombee wrote: Hi, I've noticed that in Debian 5 network manager doesn't automatically reconnect to wireless networks that it has connected to before, e.g. after logging in, you have to use the mouse to tell the applet which wireless network to connect to. I've been googling and looking through the man files but I can't seem to find out why the behaviour is disabled or how to re-enable it. Is there a way to enable network manager's usual automatic reconnecting behaviour in Debian 5? Can't you right-click on the app and choose edit connections, and then select any connection to which you wish to autoconnect? (I'm on testing, not stable, so maybe that's not an option for you.) Patrick -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org On Mon, Nov 02, 2009 at 05:45:12PM +0100, Klistvud wrote: Dne, 02. 11. 2009 16:44:55 je chombee napisal(a): Does no one know the answer to this? Is not reconnecting automatically the default behaviour of network manager in Debian 5 stable or am I the only one who has this behaviour? On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 11:26:14PM +, chombee wrote: Hi, I've noticed that in Debian 5 network manager doesn't automatically reconnect to wireless networks that it has connected to before, e.g. after logging in, you have to use the mouse to tell the applet which wireless network to connect to. I've been googling and looking through the man files but I can't seem to find out why the behaviour is disabled or how to re-enable it. Is there a way to enable network manager's usual automatic reconnecting behaviour in Debian 5? Thanks -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Actually, it does reconnect. Every once in a while, I have to select my network by hand (LEFT-clicking on the little network icon on the panel), but that's it. Maybe editing your Default Networks would help, as suggested by Patrick Wiseman? -- Regards, Klistvud Certifiable Loonix User #481801 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Network manager doesn't autoconnect to wireless networks in stable?
Does no one know the answer to this? Is not reconnecting automatically the default behaviour of network manager in Debian 5 stable or am I the only one who has this behaviour? On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 11:26:14PM +, chombee wrote: Hi, I've noticed that in Debian 5 network manager doesn't automatically reconnect to wireless networks that it has connected to before, e.g. after logging in, you have to use the mouse to tell the applet which wireless network to connect to. I've been googling and looking through the man files but I can't seem to find out why the behaviour is disabled or how to re-enable it. Is there a way to enable network manager's usual automatic reconnecting behaviour in Debian 5? Thanks -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Network manager doesn't autoconnect to wireless networks in stable?
For me it happens every time I boot up the laptop -- it does not automatically connect to my wireless network. Apart from not automatically connecting network manager works perfectly, detects all the wireless networks, connects to my network when I click on it, so it feels more like a configuration issue than a driver one. I'm running Debian stable, when I was running testing recently on the same laptop it _was_ automatically re-connecting. The laptop in question is an OLPC XO-1 running DebXO, a build of debian for the XO-1 with a custom kernel. I tried the ifconfig and iwconfig commands but I don't seem to have them installed. Not sure about installing wireless tools and whether they might mess with network manager. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Network manager doesn't autoconnect to wireless networks in stable?
Hi, I've noticed that in Debian 5 network manager doesn't automatically reconnect to wireless networks that it has connected to before, e.g. after logging in, you have to use the mouse to tell the applet which wireless network to connect to. I've been googling and looking through the man files but I can't seem to find out why the behaviour is disabled or how to re-enable it. Is there a way to enable network manager's usual automatic reconnecting behaviour in Debian 5? Thanks -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
I guess there's no software way around my problem (my built-in keyboard has a stuck Alt key so I had to disable it with Xmodmap, but that also disabled the Alt key on the external keyboard because it has the same key code). I tried remapping various keys on the external keyboard to Alt: Caps Lock, Alt Gr, Left Control, but none of them quite worked. The old-school keyboard doesn't have a handy key for this situaion, like Fn or Win key or the built-in keyboard's 'grab' keys. I think its due to the old IBM keyboard hardware, but it seems that certain keys such as Caps Lock cannot be held down and used as a modifier in quite the way that Alt is used, and certain keys cannot be pressed at the same time as others. In short, it looks like the only way you'll be able to do things like Alt+Tab,Tab,Tab (pressing tab multiple times without releasing alt) or Ctrl+Alt+Tab is by using the actual Alt key. So I fixed it by disassembling the OLPC XO-1 laptop and fixing the stuck Alt key with a bit of electrical tape, following the instructions on the OLPC wiki, so that I no longer need to disable Alt in Xmodmap. It worked almost perfectly, could do with a slightly thicker piece of tape I think. So now I can use my external keyboard happily, although the broken pipe + backslash key still doesn't work, and I haven't gotten round to sorting out the process of switching between the two different keyboard layouts at software level when I switch keyboards. Unfortunately when I put the laptop back together the touchpad had stopped working! This is hopefully just a loose connection that I can fix by disassembling and reassembling it again. My cheap screwdrivers are starting to strip some of the screws, so I decided to deal with this another day. On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 07:36:03PM +0100, chombee wrote: Ok, sticking to fixing my Alt keys for now. First I was wrong, Alt Gr is working as it should, it allows me to type that | character that is the third character on its key, and various other characters that are not labelled on the keys. It does not function as an Alt modifier however (of the kind that would let me Alt-Tab for example). Keycodes from xev: Left Alt: 64 Alt Gr: 108. They are the same keycodes for the built-in and the external keyboard. So that's my first problem. The built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key so I have to disable keycode 64. I have to do this even when I'm using my external keyboard, because the built-in keyboard is still there pressing Alt by itself. Is there a way to disable keycode 64 or the built-in keyboard only, or to disable the built-in keyboard entirely when I'm using the external keyboard? If there isn't then I think I'll have to lose my Alt key on the external keyboard as well and remap something else (Caps Lock seems like the best candidate on the external keyboard) to act as the Alt key should. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
My Alt keys don't work!
Could someone help me sort out my keyboard configuration, or send me on the right track? I've investigated a little but I really don't know what to do. It's a somewhat tricky configuration. 1. I have two keyboards. The built-in one (it's a laptop), and an external one that I use. Since the keyboards are different no one configuration will work for both. Is it possible to have different configs for different keyboards? 2. Since the built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key (it presses itself all the time) I had to disable left alt using an Xmodmap file. But this also disables left alt on the external keyboard. Is there a way to disable the key on the built-in only? 3. Currently I've tried to get my single keyboard config working for the external keyboard, but there are problems. Details follow. I apologise for the length of this but, well, it's complicated and I wanted to give as many relevant details as I could. I'm running Debian testing on an OLPC XO-1 via DebXO, a build of Debian for the XO-1. The XO-1 has a slightly unusual keyboard ofcourse, but the DebXO image comes with a usable configuration for it. My keyboard has the 'stuck alt key' problem where the left alt presses itself all the time making the XO unusable, so I used an Xmodmap file to disable left alt and turn the XO's left 'grab' key into an alt instead: remove mod1 = Alt_L keycode 64 = keycode 115 = Alt_L Meta_L add mod1 = Alt_L This worked. Now I actually use the laptop with an external keyboard, currently a UK-layout IBM Model M. I just plugged this keyboard in (using a USB-PS2 adapter) and it worked, aside from various details of course. The layout was wrong, so I had to press to get an @ and so on, and of course the Xmodmap unnecessarily disabled the left alt on the external keyboard as well, although Alt Gr seemed to function as an alt key. When I upgraded from debian stable to testing it asked me various questions about my keyboard configuration and the end result was the Alt Gr on the external keyboard stopped functioning as well, and now I have no alt keys! I went into the Gnome keyboard prefs and set the keyboard to 'Generic 102 key (Intl) PC', I could not find IBM Model M in the list of keyboards so I chose this generic one after counting the number of keys (102). I set the layout to UK. Now all the keys seem to work, they do what is shown on the keys themselves, except: * Neither Alt key functions. I used the program xev to find that Alt on the external keyboard is keycode 64 and Alt Gr is 108. Obviously my Xmodmap file is still disabling keycode 64. In the Gnome keyboard shortcuts config tool Alt is recognised as 0x40 and not seen as a modifier key, Alt Gr is not recognised at all. I tried to use Xmodmap to remap Alt Gr to an alt instead of remapping the XO's 'grab' key as before: `keycode 108 = Alt_L Meta_L` but this doesn't work (Alt Gr still does nothing), so I changed my Xmodmap back to as before. * There is a key in the top-left under Esc which has three labelled functions and I can't use the third one (the pipe character). Maybe cause you have to press Alt to get the third one? * There is a key near the bottom-left which is broken pipe and backslash, this key doesn't function at all. So all in all I can't use Alt, pipe or backslash, which makes things fairly difficult, and I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance for any pointers. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
Apologies for sending this twice. I sent this one 'from' the wrong address, I assumed it wouldn't go through so I sent it again from the right address. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: My Alt keys don't work!
Ok, sticking to fixing my Alt keys for now. First I was wrong, Alt Gr is working as it should, it allows me to type that | character that is the third character on its key, and various other characters that are not labelled on the keys. It does not function as an Alt modifier however (of the kind that would let me Alt-Tab for example). Keycodes from xev: Left Alt: 64 Alt Gr: 108. They are the same keycodes for the built-in and the external keyboard. So that's my first problem. The built-in keyboard has a stuck left alt key so I have to disable keycode 64. I have to do this even when I'm using my external keyboard, because the built-in keyboard is still there pressing Alt by itself. Is there a way to disable keycode 64 or the built-in keyboard only, or to disable the built-in keyboard entirely when I'm using the external keyboard? If there isn't then I think I'll have to lose my Alt key on the external keyboard as well and remap something else (Caps Lock seems like the best candidate on the external keyboard) to act as the Alt key should. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
