What process did you use to add security?

I set up my Netgear router to use wpa-tsk security with a password. When I
couldn't get it to work in Kubuntu I reverted to the previous, unsecured,
settings. That still works just fine with the Windows XP that my MSI Wind
came with. However, in my fumbling around in Kubuntu I must have messed up
the drivers for the wireless net card and now it isn't even showing up in
the list of network adapters.

I'm sure there is a "best practices" way to restore them and I'm just about
to remove and re-install everything that looks like wireless support.
Fortunately the wired internet connection still works...

Any works of comfort or advice?

What do you get when you type:

$sudo lspci

The $ is the prompt of course.

Do you see your wireless card listed?

Are you using madwifi (ath_pci) and can you confirm that it is enabled in
restricted drivers (not sure what it is called in Kubuntu)?

Yes, both the wired (RTL8101E) and wireless (AR242x 802.11abg) are listed by
lspci. Typing sudo modprobe doesn't give an error message. (What is that
command supposed to do anyway?)

Much to my surprise the atheros card now shows up! Can't ping anything and
no internet connectivity but I'm just rebooting to see if that will make it
work. It does not work yet - can't see my network and can't see the internet
yet, however I'm making some progress. It seems that the routing isn't
working right - and I find that it keeps snapping back to "eth0" even though
I've set it to "ath0" many times.

Thanks for your encouragement. I'm really learning something from this but I
need to learn a lot more. It took me years to get inside all the quirks of
Windows, from 3.0 onwards, so I shouldn't be too surprised that Linux takes
just as long.

Any further thoughts would be valued...

With my eeePC, I need to delete the wireless connection every once in awhile and
set it up again. I am not sure why. The network manager asks for my WPA key, but
entering it does no good. So I delete and add a new wireless connection with the
same key and it works. Being new to wireless, I can't tell you why it is
happening, but it is predictable and the fix works consistently. It is a minor
annoyance.It happens only in Ubuntu (not Xandros).

It was happening to me as well, I changed a setting and entered my user name and
the connection works perfectly.

I seem to have solved the problem, in a couple of unusual ways. What a
reflief to finally have solid, unbroken connectivity with my NetGear router!


First, I found my Firestarter firewall automatically turned itself on every
time I rebooted and blocked net and internet access. I tried uninstalling it
and also KMy Firewall but it must have left behind iptables settings which
still blocked connectivity. So Firestarter is back and if I have to manually
rejig it every time I boot up it won't be the end of the world. I'm rather
glad to keep it as I'd like to have a bit of protection when I travel. I'll
investigate further when I have a few other things sorted out.

Second, I had used wicd before and found it provided an easier to use
interface than anything that came with K/Ubuntu or from the official
repositories. This time I decided to stick with the official programme, so I
hadn't installed it. When I did try it gave me an error message that it
couldn't be installed because of a conflict with WiFi Manager. So I removed
that item with Synaptic and now find all is working as it should. Others may
find it useful too.You can find it athttp://wicd.sourceforge.net.

Now I have another problem on another machine! I've installed Hardy Kubuntu
on my main desktop machine and run into the low-resolution issue with my
Nvidia card - I think it's an FX5500. It was a fresh install because every
time I tried to upgrade from Gutsy it gave me an error message. So I copied
my home folder to another drive and started afresh. Alas the desktop
resolution is unacceptably low.

Any advice on the best way to bump the resolution up to at least 1024 x
768? I had it there with Gutsy on the same hardware, but now it maxes out at
640 x 480. It's so big and blocky I feels like I'm using a kids toy! I've
tried sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg but it doesn't seem to do anything
with the display or monitor. Hardware Drivers says NVIDIA accelerated
graphics driver (latest cards) is enabled and in use. I've installed the
nvidia-glx drivers from the respositories, but the detected graphics card is
stuck at NVIDIA GeForce4 (generic) which is wrong and I can't change it.
Driver remains stuck at "Standard" and the "Proprietary" option is greyed
out.

I've done some research on the K/Ubuntu websites and find conflicting
stores, none of which have worked for me so far. I have a feeling I need to
do some editing of a configuration file as root... but what and where.

So, if you have any wisdom it would be deeply appreciated. My only options
now are to re-install or try another distro, but I like Kubuntu so I'm loath
to stray...

Before I send this I'm going to reboot once more, just to be sure I really
have a reliable working connection... It works.

First, I found my Firestarter firewall automatically turned itself on every
time I rebooted and blocked net and internet access. I tried uninstalling it
and also KMy Firewall but it must have left behind iptables settings which
still blocked connectivity. So Firestarter is back and if I have to manually
rejig it every time I boot up it won't be the end of the world. I'm rather
glad to keep it as I'd like to have a bit of protection when I travel. I'll
investigate further when I have a few other things sorted out.

I did my homework on Firestarter and was aware that it is the gui for the
cli application. I actually was interested in using it to do internet
sharing - when on holidays with a friend we've found that only one
connection was allowed in most hotels so I hope to find a way to receive on
my WiFi interface and share via the ethernet cable. Haven't quite figured
that out yet, but will post if and when I do.

I completely uninstalled Firestarter using Synaptic; found I couldn't
connect; reinstalled with Synaptic (I used the cable connection) and found
it worked with pretty much the default settings. I quickly found that
"Locked" means nothing gets through, not that the settings are made
permanent!

I did this because I remembered that all Linux firewalls use the security
built into the kernel and all they do is set it up using the iptables
utility. Uninstalling the gui doesn't remove these settings, which is why I
had to reinstall and change them to make things work. At least that's how
this beginner understand the inner workings of Linux security... subject to
anyone's correction or amplification.

Since then I've enabled WPA-PSK security on my NetGear Router and had no
problem setting up the security on Wicd. Now I want to get both Wicd and
Firestarter to start with the login.

Which setting did you change?...............

I just enabled WPA-PSK security on my NetGear Router. I believe it's the
more secure of the two possibilities (WEB and WPA). Now that I'm using Wicd
I feel a lot more comfortable with the whole wireless setup. It centralizes
all the settings and feels more logical to me.

I will check to see if I have a firewall installed in my Ubuntu installation on
the eeePC. I did not install one, but it may be lurking in the background
without my knowledge.

As for your problem, I have found that lower resolution means one of two things,
either you are using the wrong video driver or you monitor is setup as a generic
low res one. I am using an Nvidia card (6600) and when I first install a distro
I need to install the restricted driver for that card to get all of its
features. Occasionally I find a similar problem when I install a new distro that
does not support my card (rare these days, but more common a year ago). When I
checked the settings they were vga and all I could get was 800 x 600 with only
basic vga colors. When I installed the right driver I got proper resolution and
millions of colors. I sometimes found that Compiz would not work until I set the
monitor to my proper monitor type (LCD) with the right size (17 inch) and
refresh rate. I used the repositories to find the right graphics card driver
(restricted) and changed the monitor settings manually to the closest match.

Just to get back to you (has it really been 5 days?)... I had neglected to
check to see if the monitor had been detected correctly, and found to my
chagrin that it was just "generic". On choosing the right model (AL1916) the
expanded resolution was available.