poshpix wrote: the connection had been dropped and I felt I was back to square one. I did go to Network Configuration and tried to reconnect but when I try to make the wlan0 active I get the message:
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8806): SET failed on device wlan0; Operation not supported.
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8804): SET failed on device wlan0; Operation not supported.
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8820): SET failed on devive wlan0; Operation not supported.
Determining IP information for wlan0... failed
It's not the first time I've seen this!!!!
So - this is more like theory on my part, but let me explain.
I normally use a D-Link Wireless access point. It works great. I also have a wireless access point built into my ActionTec DSL. It doesn't work great - specifically I have to manually set my IP Address, Gateway Address, subnet mask and DNS servers.
Lately, due to frequency overcrowding, I installed a new Airlink access point. Guess what - I started getting the same problem you're describing. I'd mess around with it a bit, and it would work, but when I'd reboot - nothing.
Eventually, I figured out that it's having the same issues as the ActionTec with the Airlink's built-in DHCP server.
So - here's what I'd do. I'd go ahead and set your IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway IP address, and DNS server(s) manually. Don't let Linux obtain the information from DHCP. You can use the same information that the PS3 uses in the GameOS.
Also - yes - if you're using Wicd on 6.1 and you update, you might have to re-apply the patch. It can't hurt to do that anyway.
Finally - 6.2 would make it so you don't have to apply the patch - but it may or may not solve this issue.
Cheers,
Paul
P.S. See all those errors you're getting? Specifically these?
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8806): SET failed on device wlan0; Operation not supported.
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8804): SET failed on device wlan0; Operation not supported.
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8820): SET failed on devive wlan0; Operation not supported.
Don't worry - those are actually normal. When YDL incorporated wicd support in 6.1, they disabled some of the old wireless networking "hooks" - that's what causes those messages. I see those too, in other words. The key error we're looking at is this:
Determining IP information for wlan0... failed
Assuming you've got correct authentication - encryption type, key length, password, etc. - then this means that Linux isn't talking to the DHCP server correctly.