[PLUG] Sony Vaio Wireless Issue: Update

[wes]

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:18 AM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>wrote:

> On Tue, 22 May 2012, wes wrote:
>
> > note that running the scan command from the command line did show
> wireless
> > networks available. this indicates the issue is specific to
> > network-manager... we just have to figure out how to tell it that "yes,
> > there really is a wireless network there for you to manage."
>
> Wes,
>
>   OK. I think of the rfkill list results as wireless connections and you
> refer to them as networks. Now I'm with you. I was hoping there'd be a hard
> lock that could then be removed to fix the problem.
>
>
rfkill list is not the scanning command I was referring to. I forget what
it was.. I discovered it while working on this issue on your laptop on
sunday. you might be able to find it by opening a terminal and pressing
ctrl+r, then something like scan or list. ctrl+r more times to go farther
back.


> > more specifically, we have to figure out the Slackware way of giving
> > Network Manager this novel bit of information.
>
>    Regardless of distribution, what is the novel bit of information that
> needs to be given to NM?


the novel info is "there is a wireless interface for you to manage." in
other distros, this is done with something like a sysconfig or
system-config-network style of tool. I found this while googling related to
this issue.

I did not see anything in the message log that
> looked like a blockage or failure, but I'm not a professional, full-time,
> experienced linux admin.
>

I am, and it is for this reason that I have developed a fervent hatred of
anything I can't peek inside. wireless ethernet is the worst. maybe
bluetooth could be worse.


>   Are there other logs to be examined (dmesg had nothing interesting)? What
> about other diagnostics similar to 'rfkill list?'
>
>
I looked all the places I can think of. this issue appears to be specific
to the way Network Manager interacts with Slackware... I can only imagine
that enabling some sort of debug output or logging system within NM could
yield a clue. this is the path I would have gone next if we had more time.

-wes