The next chapter in wireless problems: difference between Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.10?

[jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org (Jarod Wilson)]

On Mon, 2008-11-03 at 15:33 -0500, Don Levey wrote:
> I'm starting to have time to try to tackle this problem again.  For
> those who don't really remember, I added a wireless router to my home
> network; this seems to be functioning properly.  I've confirmed using
> two separate laptops, our babysitter's and my wife's (dual-boot), both
> using Windows.
> 
> Linux, though, is a separate story.  My laptop uses Fedora 9 (and my
> wife's is now a doorstop).  When I had wireless working previously, I
> was able to get it working in one of two ways: setting up the interface
> (wlan0) using the network settings (system-config-network), and by
> connecting via wlassistant.  The latter was preferable, as it would not
> only permit me to connect automatically but also not hard-code me into
> only one wireless network so I could bring the laptop somewhere else.

What is wlassistant? And why are you using it instead of NetworkManager?

> Unfortunately, this seems to no longer work.  I can't get a handle on
> the problem, but from watching the process it *seems* to be crapping out
> when negotiating the WPA exchange.
> 
> Last night I downloaded and burned the new Ubuntu 8.10 CD, and booted up
> under the LiveCD facility.  After entering the same information (essid,
> WPA password) it connected without a problem.  I've not yet brought it
> anywhere to see if I can have multiple setups simultaneously.
> 
> So what is Ubuntu doing right that I'm missing with Fedora?  Part of the
> problem is that I don't quite know where to look to find the info that
> will help me ask more intelligent questions.  I would also prefer not to
>  have to change distributions because of this problem.  I'll try to use
> the Fedora 9 LiveCD tonight just to confirm that this isn't a problem
> with my particular configuration/installation.

NetworkManager in F9 and later has always Just Worked for me to connect
to damn near every base station I've come across. There *might* be
something amiss with the initial F9 version, not sure. Current rawhide
definitely works flawlessly though, on multiple systems here, with
multiple base stations, with different ranges of speeds, encryption
methods, etc.

Also, the wifi card in use here could be relevant...

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org